Tired of running to the post office and the bank to get your customers payments

Transcription

1 Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments APPENDIX E Tired of running to the post office and the bank to get your customers payments into your bank account? Fortunately, Intuit s electronic payment subscription service, QuickBooks Payments, offers an easier way. Unlike with earlier Intuit payment services, a single QuickBooks Payments account can handle payments via bank transfer, e-check, credit card info you or your customers type in, and credit cards you swipe with a card reader. You can also set up recurring payments, take payments using the GoPayment app on a mobile device, and record payments by scanning checks you receive from within QuickBooks. When you subscribe to this service and then create invoices in QuickBooks, the einvoicing feature adds a Pay Now button to the s you send to your customers, which they can click to pay you by credit card or bank transfer. You can then download payments you receive as you would other bank transactions. After you match these downloaded transactions to the ones you ve recorded in QuickBooks, the program marks the corresponding invoices as paid. This appendix guides you through setting up a QuickBooks Payments account, choosing the types of payment you accept, getting paid with online payments, and managing your QuickBooks Payments account. E-1

2 AN INTRO TO QUICKBOOKS An Intro to QuickBooks Payments In the past, Intuit s myriad payment services (Intuit PaymentNetwork, Intuit Merchant Services, and Intuit GoPayments) left people wondering which one to subscribe to and which ones to use in different situations. Intuit has eliminated that confusion by replacing all those services with a single service that does it all: QuickBooks Payments. With one subscription, you can create invoices in QuickBooks that let your customers pay online, and then receive those payments via credit card (whether swiped or typed), bank transfer, or e-check. In addition, you can manage all your electronic payments on a single website. NOTE QuickBooks Payments works with all supported QuickBooks versions. To use the einvoicing feature that comes with QuickBooks Payments, you have to run QuickBooks 2015 R5 (which was released in December 2014) or later. If you re running QuickBooks 2012 through 2014, you can still receive electronic payments using Intuit PaymentNetwork. QuickBooks Payments has two rate plans: Standard Rates and Reduced Rates. With both plans, you pay only 50 cents when you receive a payment via bank transfer. The difference in the plans arises when you receive payments via credit card: the Standard Rates plan doesn t charge a monthly fee, but its rates for credit card transactions are higher than the Reduced Rates plan (perfect if you only receive small dollar amounts via credit card). Conversely, the Reduced Rate plan charges a monthly fee but offers lower credit card rates. If your credit card payments really add up, go with the Reduced Rates plan. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION Standard Rate Plan vs. Reduced Rate Plan How can I tell whether the Reduced Rates plan s lower credit card rates are right for me? It depends on whether you usually swipe credit cards or type in customers credit card numbers. To figure out whether the Reduced Rates plan s $19.95 fee is worthwhile, calculate how much you ll save each month with its lower rates. Say you almost always swipe credit cards in your store. When this appendix was published in October 2015, the Standard and Reduced rates for swiped payments were 2.40% and 1.75%, respectively. The difference between these two rates is.65%. The trick is to calculate the monthly amount of swiped credit card transactions that saves $19.95 in fees. Here s the formula: Total swiped transactions = $19.95 /.65% Remember,.65% is the percentage you save using the Reduced Rate plan. That means you re better off using the Reduced Rates plan if your monthly swiped credit card transactions add up to more than $3, The difference between the Standard and Reduced rates is smaller for typed credit card numbers (.25% when this appendix was published). If you usually type in credit card numbers, your monthly credit card transactions would need to be more than $7,980 ($19.95 /.25%) to make the Reduced Rates plan worthwhile. You can get even lower rates if you sign up for QuickBooks Payments through your accountant. Because plans and rates may change, head to com/payments to review the plans before you sign up. E-2 QUICKBOOKS 2016: THE MISSING MANUAL

3 Setting Up Your QuickBooks Payments Account If you already have an Intuit PaymentNetwork, Merchant Services, or GoPayments account that you ve used with your QuickBooks company file, you don t have to sign up for a QuickBooks Payments account. Your existing account should automatically convert to a QuickBooks Payments account when you upgrade to QuickBooks 2015 R4 or later. (If your account doesn t convert for some reason, call Intuit support at ) If you don t already have one of those accounts, then here s how to sign up for QuickBooks Payments for the first time: 1. In QuickBooks, choose Customers Add Credit Card Processing. The program opens a browser window to the QuickBooks Payments page (the label at the page s top right reads Step 1 of 3 ), which includes a brief description of the subscription service and radio buttons so you can choose between the two rate plans. Select the Low monthly rates option to sign up for the Reduced Rates plan (page E-2), or select the Pay as you go option to sign up for the Standard Rates plan. SETTING UP YOUR QUICKBOOKS ACCOUNT NOTE Although the item in QuickBooks Customers menu is labeled Add Credit Card Processing, you don t have to accept credit cards you can choose to accept only bank transfers or e-checks. As you ll learn on page E-5, after you subscribe to QuickBooks Payments and link your account to your company file, you can choose which payment types to accept and specify payment types for each customer. 2. Select the option for the rate plan you want, and then click the Get Started button. The Tell us more about your business page appears in the browser window. You ll see the text Step 2 of 3 at the window s top right. 3. Fill in the fields with your company and bank account information, and then click Continue. When you click Continue, the You re almost finished page appears in the browser window. (You ll see the text Step 3 of 3 at the window s top right.) This page asks for information about the business owner, such as address, Social Security number, and birthday. Intuit uses this info to check the owner s credit history before approving a credit card merchant account for the company. 4. Fill in the business owner s info, and then click Finish. When you click Finish, you ll likely see a confirmation screen that says your payment account is approved. However, if the You re almost there screen appears instead and displays your account application ID and additional instructions, you can call the folks at Intuit at (866) or wait for them to send you an with instructions on what you need to do next. Appendix E: Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments E-3

4 SETTING UP YOUR QUICKBOOKS ACCOUNT 5. When you receive the that tells you your QuickBooks Payments account is approved, in the message body, click the Create User ID button. The Intuit Payment Solutions Create or confirm User ID and Password page opens in a browser window. If Intuit finds an existing User ID for you (if you already have an account with an earlier Intuit payment service, for example), it fills in the address box with that ID. In that case, all you have to do is type your existing password, and then click Save. To create a new account, in the address box, type your address; in the Password box, type the password you want to use. Then, click Save. 6. Click Done, and then close the browser window. Your QuickBooks Payments account is ready to go, but you have to perform a few more steps to handle electronic payments in QuickBooks. 7. To link your payments account to your QuickBooks company file, open your company file in QuickBooks, and then choose Customers Link Payment Service to Company File. A browser window opens to the Payments Login page (Figure E-1). FIGURE E-1 Fill in your QuickBooks Payments account User ID (or address) and password. When you click Link service, as a security precaution, Intuit sends you an in order to verify that you can access your address. E-4 QUICKBOOKS 2016: THE MISSING MANUAL

5 8. In the User ID/ Address box, type your QuickBooks Payments User ID or your address. In the Password box, type your password. Then click Link service. The Account activation: Verify address page appears and displays the address you used to sign up for your payments account. 9. To confirm that you have access to your address, click Send. When you receive the verification from Intuit, in the message body, click the Log in button. A browser window opens to the Payments Login page. 10. Once again, fill in your User ID (or address) and your password, and then click Save. If you logged in successfully, you ll see the User ID and password saved page. To learn more about working with Intuit Payment Solutions, click the View demo links. When you re done exploring, close the browser window. In QuickBooks, you can tell that your company file is linked successfully when you see Credit Card Processing Activities and Check Processing Activities entries in the Customers menu. SETTING THE PAYMENT TYPES YOU ACCEPT Setting the Payment Types You Accept With einvoicing, your customers can pay you online via credit card or bank transfer, but you don t have to allow them to use every method. QuickBooks preferences let you specify which payment types you want to offer to all your customers. After you select the payment types you accept, you can specify particular payment types for individual customers. And when you create a customer invoice, you have a chance to change the payment types you accept. This section explains how to specify payment types in all these situations. Setting Payment-Type Preferences QuickBooks online payment preferences determine which payment types the program initially turns on for new customers you create. When you set payment-type preferences, you can tell QuickBooks to apply those settings to all existing customers. Here s how to set QuickBooks payment-type preferences: 1. Choose Edit Preferences Payments, and then click the Company Preferences tab. When your company file is linked to a QuickBooks Payments account, you ll see the Online Payments section, shown in Figure E-2. Appendix E: Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments E-5

6 SETTING THE PAYMENT TYPES YOU ACCEPT FIGURE E-2 When your company file is linked to a QuickBooks Payments account, the Online Payments section appears on the Payments category s Company Preferences tab. Turn on the checkboxes for the payment types you want turned on for new customers you create. (You can change payment types for individual customers, as described below.) 2. To turn on credit card payments for new customers, turn on the Credit Card checkbox. To turn on payments via bank transfer for new customers, turn on the Bank Transfer (ACH) checkbox. When you create new customers, the payment types that you turn on here will be turned on in the new customers records. 3. Click OK to save your preferences and close the Preferences dialog box. The Apply Changes dialog box that opens tells you that the payment types you turned on will apply to any new customers you create. 4. In the Apply Changes dialog box, click the Apply to existing customers button if you want to apply those payment types to all existing customers. If you instead want to choose payment types for existing customers, click No and read the next section. QuickBooks saves your settings and closes the Preferences dialog box. Now you re ready to use QuickBooks Payments to get paid, as described in the rest of this appendix. Setting Payment Types for Individual Customers You can change the payment types to accept for individual customers any time you want. Here s what you do: 1. Open the Customer Center (on the Home Page, click Customers) and, in the Customers & Jobs list, right-click the customer or job you want to edit, and then chose Edit Customer:Job from the shortcut menu. E-6 QUICKBOOKS 2016: THE MISSING MANUAL

7 The Edit Customer window opens. 2. In the Edit Customer window, click the Payment Settings tab. SETTING THE PAYMENT TYPES YOU ACCEPT The Online Payments section appears on the window s right side (see Figure E-3). 3. Turn on the appropriate payment-type checkbox(es) Credit Card and/or Bank Transfer (ACH) to accept the corresponding payment type(s). Remember, you can change the customer s payment type(s) any time you want. FIGURE E-3 Turn the payment-type checkboxes (circled) on or off to tell QuickBooks whether a customer can pay using those methods. 4. Click OK to save the customer record. Page E-10 describes how customers choose how to pay. Changing Payment Types Before Sending an Invoice When you create a customer invoice, you can change the payment types the customer can use on that invoice. Here s how: 1. Open the Create Invoices window (Ctrl+I), choose the customer you want to invoice, and fill in the fields as you would normally (page 223). The History pane on the window s right side identifies the payment types the customer can use to pay the invoice. 2. To choose different payment methods, click the Change link (circled in Figure E-4, background). The Change Invoice Options dialog box opens (Figure E-4, foreground). Appendix E: Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments E-7

8 SETTING THE PAYMENT TYPES YOU ACCEPT 3. Turn on the checkboxes for the payment type(s) you want to offer for this invoice, and then click Save. FIGURE E-4 As you can see here, the History pane s Customer Payment section (labeled) specifies the payment methods the customer can use for this invoice. To choose different methods, click the Change link (circled). Just remember: Turning on checkboxes in the Change Invoice Options dialog box offers the corresponding payment types only for this invoice. 4. To the invoice, on the Create Invoices window s Main tab, click Invoice. With QuickBooks Payments, you have to invoices if you want customers to be able to pay online. That s because the invoices themselves don t include links for paying online. Instead, the online payment links appear in the s you send to customers. QuickBooks creates an message with the invoice attached to it and opens it in your program. The message includes the View & Pay Invoice button, which your customer clicks to pay online. Figure E-5 shows the message when you send s via Outlook. Send the as you normally would. 5. Back in QuickBooks Create Invoices window, click Save & Close. The next section describes what happens when the customer pays the invoice E-8 QUICKBOOKS 2016: THE MISSING MANUAL

9 RECEIVING FIGURE E-5 QuickBooks attaches the invoice to an message addressed to your customer. The message includes the View & Pay Invoice button, which lets the customer pay online. QuickBooks includes the invoice s due date next to the Invoice heading at the message s top left. Receiving Payments When you invoices to customers, they can click the buttons in those s to pay their invoices online. But what if a customer calls to give you her credit card number? No problem. This section explains how customers can make online payments and how you receive a customer s payment in QuickBooks when, for example, a customer gives you his credit card number over the phone. Appendix E: Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments E-9

10 RECEIVING How Customers Pay Online As you learned in the previous section, the with an attached invoice that you send to a customer includes a View & Pay Invoice button they can click to pay online. This section describes how online payments work from your customers perspective. Here s what customers do to pay online: 1. Your customer clicks the View & Pay Invoice button in the they received from you. A browser window opens to the Intuit payment site and displays the invoice you sent, as shown in Figure E-6. At the top of the page, the customer sees your company s name along with the invoice number, due date, and amount owed. Below that, the full invoice appears. Below the Pay now button, the customer can click Print or Save PDF to print a hard copy or save the invoice to their computer, respectively. FIGURE E-6 A customer doesn t have to create an Intuit ID or sign in using one. She can simply click Pay now to jump to the Payment information page. However, if she has an Intuit ID, she can click Sign in and the page fills in her payment info automatically. E-10 QUICKBOOKS 2016: THE MISSING MANUAL

11 TIP If the customer already has an Intuit ID or wants to create one, he can click the Sign in link at the page s top right (labeled in Figure E-6). He then needs to provide his credit card and/or bank account information. That way, when he signs in, he doesn t have to retype his payment info each time he pays an invoice. RECEIVING 2. To pay the invoice, your customer clicks the Pay now button. The Payment information screen appears. The payment options that appear here depend on the payment types you chose to accept (see page E-5). In Figure E-7, the Credit card option is selected, so credit card fields appear. If the customer selects the Bank option, bank account fields appear instead. FIGURE E-7 This screen shows the amount due and the due date, but not your company s name. When the customer selects the Credit card or Bank option, fields for the corresponding payment info appear. If the customer signed in with her Intuit ID, the payment fields are filled in automatically with the information she provided when she set up her ID. 3. If necessary, the customer selects the payment method they want to use. In the payment fields, they fill in their payment info (if they haven t signed in). For credit card payments, they enter the cardholder s name, Zip code, credit card number, expiration date, and card verification code. For bank transfers, the customer has to provide the bank account type (checking or savings, for example), bank name, routing number, account number, and the account holder s first and last name. NOTE When customers pay online, they must pay the entire invoice amount. QuickBooks Payments doesn t provide an option to make a partial payment. Appendix E: Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments E-11

12 RECEIVING 4. After the payment fields are filled in, the customer clicks Next at the screen s bottom right. The Review and Pay screen appears showing the payment amount, due date, and payment info the customer provided. If the payment info isn t correct, the customer can click (Edit) to the right of the Payment information label to make the necessary changes. 5. When everything looks good, the customer clicks Send payment at the screen s bottom right. The Payment sent pop-up dialog box appears. A large white checkmark in a green circle is the customer s visual cue that the payment was sent. The customer can click Print receipt to print a payment receipt. Intuit also s the customer a copy of the receipt. 6. The customer closes the browser window that opened when she clicked the View & Pay button in step 1. After the customer has submitted her payment, you ll receive an from Quick- Books Payments telling you that you received a payment from the customer, the invoice number, the amount, and the due date. Processing a Credit Card Payment in QuickBooks Suppose a customer calls to read his card number to you over the phone. Or perhaps you record a sales receipt in QuickBooks and want to type in the customer s credit card number to process a payment. Here s how to process a credit card payment using an invoice as an example: 1. Open the invoice in the Create Invoices window. Press Ctrl+I or choose Customers Create Invoices. In the Create Invoices window, click the Previous button until the correct invoice appears in the window. NOTE To process a credit card payment for a sales receipt, perform the following steps in the Enter Sales Receipts window (see Figure on page 245) instead of the Receive Payments window. 2. On the Create Invoices window s Main tab, click Receive Payments. The Receive Payments window opens with the Process payment checkbox turned on, as shown in Figure E-8, and then click the Credit Debit button to process a credit card payment. When you click the Credit Debit icon, the QuickBooks Payments: Process Credit Card dialog box opens. 3. If you have a card reader you received from Intuit, click the Swipe Card button, and then swipe the card. Otherwise, fill in the credit card information, and then click Process Payment. A confirmation window appears, showing the processed payment info. E-12 QUICKBOOKS 2016: THE MISSING MANUAL

13 RECEIVING FIGURE E-8 In the Receive Payments window, turn on the Process payment checkbox (if it isn t already on) to process an online payment. Then, click the Credit Debit button to open a dialog box for recording a credit card payment. Similarly, if you create a sales receipt and want to record an online payment for it, you turn on its Process payment checkbox and then click the Credit Debit button. 4. Close the confirmation window by clicking the X at the window s top right. NOTE You can also accept payments via a mobile device, such as an iphone, ipad, or Android phone or tablet. To do so, you need to download Intuit s GoPayment app to your mobile device, create a login, and set up your card reader. (To learn how to perform all these steps, head to Once your card reader is ready to go, you can swipe customers credit cards wherever you are. To download those payments into QuickBooks, choose Customers Credit Card Processing Activities Get Online Payments. Processing e-check Payments in QuickBooks An e-check is the electronic equivalent of a paper check. For example, you can process an e-check payment by entering your customer s bank account info or scanning a customers paper check from within QuickBooks. This section describes how to record e-check payments using either method. NOTE When you process e-checks in QuickBooks, the program electronically transfers the check information via the Federal Reserve Bank s ACH Network, which, in turn, transfers the funds from your customer s bank account to your bank account. Here s how to record an e-check payment by typing in bank information using a sales receipt as an example (you can perform similar steps to record an e-check payment in the Receive Payments window): Appendix E: Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments E-13

14 RECEIVING 1. On the Home Page, click the Sales Receipts icon (or choose Customers Enter Sales Receipts). The Enter Sales Receipt window opens. 2. Fill in the Sales Receipt as you normally would (page 364). Choose the customer or job from the Customer:Job menu, and then fill in the tables with items, quantities, rates, and amounts, as necessary. 3. Click the E-Check button. The QuickBooks Payments: E-Check Processing dialog box opens. 4. Fill in the customer s name, bank routing number, bank account number, and phone number. In the Account Type drop-down list, choose the customer s account type, such as Consumer Checking, as shown in Figure E-9. FIGURE E-9 When you click the e-check icon, the QuickBooks Payments: E-Check Processing dialog box pops up. Fill in the customer s name, phone number, and bank info. You also have to specify whether the customer authorized the payment over the phone or in writing. E-14 QUICKBOOKS 2016: THE MISSING MANUAL

15 5. To choose the customer verification method you re using, select either the I have signed authorization or Customer is on the phone radio button. RECEIVING If you select Customer is on the phone, the dialog box displays a script that you must read to your customer. 6. Once you have signed authorization from your customer or you ve read them the verification script and they ve agreed to it, turn on the checkbox with the label that begins with I confirm. Then click Process Payment. QuickBooks uses the customer s bank account information to set up a funds transfer from their account to yours. If you receive a paper check from a customer, you can scan it to process it in Quick- Books. TIP Before you try to scan checks, make sure your scanner works with QuickBooks check-scanning software. To download Intuit s Scanner Compatibility Test, head to You also have to install Intuit s e-check software. To do that, in QuickBooks, choose Customers Check Processing Activities Scan Checks, and then click the Open Installation Page button. On the Install echeck Software page that appears, simply follow the instructions. Here s how to scan checks to receive payments in QuickBooks: 1. Endorse the checks by stamping or signing them with black or blue ink. Stamp or write For deposit only on the back of each paper check. If the checks include check stubs, detach them from the checks. If you don t endorse your checks or you sign them with an unreadable ink color, your bank will reject them. 2. Choose Customers Check Processing Activities Scan Checks. (Alternatively, you can click the Scan Checks icon in the Enter Sales Receipts window or the Receive Payments window.) On the Welcome page that appears, click the Scan Checks button. 3. Place the checks in your scanner, and then press its Scan button. While your scanner is scanning the checks, the ScanSnap window opens in QuickBooks. It displays the check number, name, and amount of each check that it has scanned successfully. 4. After all the checks have been scanned, in QuickBooks, click Next. If a browser security message appears, click Yes to continue processing the scanned checks. (If you click No instead, you have to jump back to step 2 to restart the check-scanning process.) A browser opens and displays the Intuit Check Solution for QuickBooks window s Scan Your Checks page. Appendix E: Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments E-15

16 RECONCILING YOUR ONLINE 5. To verify a scanned check s information, click its row (which contains the customer s name, check number, and check amount retrieved from the scanned check). An image of the scanned check appears. Text balloons over the image display the customer name, check number, and amount that the program extracted from the scanned check. If any of the values are incorrect, edit them in the corresponding text balloons. 6. When all the information is correct, click Next. The scanned check image is replaced by the Record Payment screen. 7. To record the payment, click the Use Receive Payment button. (To record the payment later, click the Skip for Now button, and then skip to step 9.) If you click the Use Receive Payment button, QuickBooks Receive Payments window opens. 8. In the Receive Payments window, record the check as you would for a paper check payment (page 348), and then click Save & Close. The Receive Payments window closes. 9. In the Intuit Check Solution for QuickBooks window, repeat steps 5 through 8 for each scanned check. 10. To process the scanned check payments, click the Send Checks for Processing button, and then click the Close button. 11. To record the deposit, click Make Deposits. To record the deposit later, click I ll do this later. You record the scanned check payment deposit the way you would any other deposit (page 371). By recording e-check payments in QuickBooks, you can get your money into your bank account without setting foot outside your office. Reconciling Your Online Payments If your customers use bank transfers to pay you, then when you download transactions from your bank (see Chapter 24), those payments automatically show up as deposits in your company file. However, if you receive payments via credit card, you have to reconcile the transactions in your QuickBooks Payments merchant account with the transactions in your company file. E-16 QUICKBOOKS 2016: THE MISSING MANUAL

17 Here s a quick overview of how to reconcile your merchant account: 1. Choose Banking Make Merchant Service Deposits. MANAGING YOUR QUICKBOOKS ACCOUNT A browser window opens, connects to your QuickBooks Payments account, and displays the Record Merchant Service Deposits screen. 2. On the Record Merchant Service Deposits screen, click Continue. The Record Merchant Service Deposits dialog box that opens looks much like the Transaction List in QuickBooks Bank Feeds Center (page 624). The colored bars at the top show how many credit card payments need to be added to QuickBooks, are ready to record in QuickBooks, and are pending. The Bank Activity bar represents deposits made to your bank account. 3. To add transactions that occurred outside of QuickBooks, click the Add Online Payments bar at the dialog box s top. In the table, click the Add Payment button in a transaction s Action column. The Customer Payment window opens so you can select the invoice to apply this payment or create a new invoice, just as you would to match a payment a customer made by check (page 627). Managing Your QuickBooks Payments Account You ll probably want to do things with your QuickBooks Payments account like add authorized users, edit account details, view and download statements, and so on. The Online Service Center is the place to go for all those tasks. To open the Online Service Center (shown in Figure E-10), in QuickBooks, choose Customers Credit Card Processing Activities Merchant Service Center. Alternatively, in a web browser, head to FIGURE E-10 To manage your Quick- Books Payments account, you first connect to your Intuit account, and then click the Payments button to open the Payments Service Center. Appendix E: Getting Paid With QuickBooks Payments E-17