Cloud-based accounting service FreshBooks has added payment processing functionality to its solution, addressing what it calls the No. 1 problem facing small- and mid-sized services businesses: cash flow.
FreshBooks integrates the WePay payment processor into its accounting platform, allowing service SMBs to accept online payments without having to deal directly with payment processing companies, a process that FreshBooks calls “a nightmare.”
“One of the biggest frustrations with online payments is that it requires too much time and work, from initial setup to tracking payments to updating reports,” said Freshbooks CEO and co-founder Mike McDerment in a statement. By making setup and payment seamless for both users and their customers, FreshBooks eliminates the need to deposit cheques, and manually track and up date accounts, McDerment said.
Users can also view payment status within their FreshBooks dashboard, and automatically update accounts as payments are made, and tracks associated expenses, chargebacks and refunds.
The complexity of using online payment processors leads to SMB service companies defaulting to cheques as a payment method, which FreshBooks says causes cash flow problems that are a major reason one quarter of new businesses fail in their first year.
FreshBooks’s beta customers of the payment platform seem to demonstrate a considerable improvement in cash flow. Fifty-two per cent of invoices issued with the new payment offering were paid the same business day, and 70 per cent within two days.
Users also have access to FreshBooks live support.