Summer Vacation: How to Manage Your Payments While Enjoying Your Family Vacation

August is prime time for family vacations and like the millions of Americans who plan to hit the road for sun, fun, and relaxation, small business owners need a summer vacation too. If you run your own business, you know that it can be hard to pack-up and take time off, whether it’s a long four-day weekend, or an extended two week trip.

At Intuit PaymentNetwork, we believe everyone deserves a summer vacation and want to help you take off some well-deserved time to spend with your family and friends. Below are some tips on how to manage your invoices through Intuit PaymentNetwork before and during vacation, alleviating one less task from your pre-vacation check list.

• Do you collect weekly, bi-weekly or month payments? Set up reoccurring payments reminders to your customers to make sure they pay on time, even while you are out of the office!
  • You can manage your recurring payment schedules by clicking on ‘Recurring Payments’ on the left of your Intuit PaymentNetwork home screen (example below):
• Tell customers and clients you’re taking a vacation by sending out invoices early! This will help keep you bank account in check, despite being out of the office.
• We hope you can disconnect from work during vacation, but if you need to check-in, remember that IPN is only an Internet connection away. If you need to check on payments owed or received, just log-into IPN from a computer or smartphone with an Internet connection and you can check on business deliverables.
• For more tools on preparing for vacation, check out this “getting reading for vacation” guide from Small Business Trends.

If there are any tips you have for us, or your fellow readers, let us know in the comments section below or Tweet @IPNTeam. Happy vacationing!

Attention QuickBooks Users – Intuit PaymentNetwork Feature Alert!

Did you know you can accept credit cards through Intuit PaymentNetwork in QuickBooks 2012*? You can elect to have customers pay by credit card or with their checking account. This feature can be turned on in QuickBooks 2012, and you can customize this feature to be for one invoice, specific customers, or all customers.

We hope these features will help you get paid faster. Try it out, and let us know what you think! We love hearing your feedback.

*This feature is only available in QuickBooks 2012. Users of earlier versions can turn on/off credit card acceptance by logging into their Intuit PaymentNetwork account under the Profile tab. 

Happy holidays from the Intuit PaymentNetwork Team!

As we wrap up the year, we’d like to wish you a joyful holiday season and a prosperous 2012.

You might be hearing sleigh bells ringing, but this year, we heard you – our customers – loud and clear! As a result of your great feedback, here are a couple of the many features we’ve implemented:

• Credit card acceptance –Intuit PaymentNetwork businesses that send invoices through QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online and the Intuit PaymentNetwork site can now get paid by credit card, in addition to bank payments.

• Custom pay link – You can create your own pay link and insert it anywhere you want to get paid from (QuickBooks statements, your web page, your social page, emailed invoices, etc). Just sign in to Intuit PaymentNetwork and click on the ‘Custom Payment Link’ tab in the left navigation.

Lastly, we wanted to thank you for the positive survey feedback. The majority of our customers have reported that they are extremely likely to recommend Intuit PaymentNetwork to a colleague or friend. The best compliment you can give us is this level of referral, and for this, we are quite grateful.

Thank you for using Intuit PaymentNetwork. We hope we helped make getting paid faster and easier. The team here is looking forward to rolling out new functions and features in 2012 to make your business even more successful than ever.

Warmest wishes – IPN Team

QuickBooks Online users can now accept credit card payments

This holiday season, while elves are busy making toys … we’re working hard on adding functionality to make Intuit PaymentNetwork even better. This week, we launched a handful of new features and here are just a few highlights:

1. QuickBooks Online users can accept credit card payments.

Turning on this feature gives your customers the ability to use a credit card to pay their invoice. As a QuickBooks Online user, you can manage (turn on/off) this optional feature at any time by signing into Intuit PaymentNetwork and clicking on ‘Profile’ in the left navigation bar. Navigate to ‘Receiving Preferences’ and click the ‘Turn On’ button. That’s it – easy! All invoices you create and send after turning this option ON can be paid by either credit card or bank account. You can turn this option OFF at any time.

2. IPN pay links go mobile!

It’s now even easier for your payors to pay you quickly – wherever they are! We’ve introduced a mobile friendly experience for custom pay links, which allow your customers to easily pay you when visiting your website/Facebook page etc. And now, if customers tap on your pay link through a mobile device* they will see a mobile friendly site (see below).

* Devices supported: iPhone, iPod touch and Android devices. Other devices will display the desktop friendly IPN website.

 3. Scheduling credit card payments

Customers who receive invoices through Intuit PaymentNetwork and QuickBooks can now schedule a credit card payment, once signed in. Please note that merchants must accept credit card payments to activate this feature.

4. Adding other forms of payment

While sending a payment, in addition to selecting previously entered payment accounts, payers can now add a new bank account or credit card without exiting the payment process.

A big thanks to our Intuit PaymentNetwork customers for the feedback, which helps us build great products for you. Keep the comments coming!

Increase payment conversion by using IPN – Getting rid of sign ups

Dear users,

We work hard at helping you get paid fast. Based on your feedback we launched the following new features:

1) Guest payments on payment requests

Customers that receive ‘Payment Requests’ sent from IPN do not need to sign up anymore to make a payment. They can do one time ‘Guest Payments’.

Signing up does gives them the benefits of doing recurring payments and saving their bank account and credit card information for future payments…. but its not mandatory anymore.

2) Pay button on payment requests

Based on your feedback we have incorporated a ‘Pay By IPN’ button on payment requests.

3) Increased focus on your small business brand

The pay page on a payment request now says ‘Pay Payment Request from Your Company Name‘ at the top.

Here are some screenshots of our new features:

• New Payment Request email that a customer receives:

• Guest payment page when a customer clicks to pay:

Please provide feedback on these features.

Happy Thanksgiving from your IPN team

Help us spread the word – Like us on Facebook

WE ARE NOW ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

Follow us on Twitter (@ipnteam) and check us out on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/IntuitPaymentNetwork)

You can also tweet about us (Twitter), recommend us (Facebook) or like us (Facebook) from the IPN Home Page

Top 5 reasons for joining our fan base:

1) Give us feedback. Your feedback has helped us improve IPN (recurring payments, pay links, guest payments, etc). Now you can post your thoughts on Facebook and we will consider your suggestions

2) Get updates on latest features and releases. You can now check our ‘What’s New’ section on Facebook or read our posts/tweet to be abreast of the latest features we launch

3) The more you rave about us….the more it helps awareness. With every like, recommendation or tweet, more users find out about IPN and start using IPN. This in turn helps you get more payments through IPN

4) Find out what others are saying about us.

5) and last but not the least…”We like you”.  As our esteemed customers we would love to have you be part of our social networks

IPN sign up in QuickBooks Online (QBO) is now simpler than ever

We’re happy to announce that we’ve rolled out a new and improved IPN signup in QuickBooks Online (QBO)

You can sign up for Intuit PaymentNetwork inside QuickBooks Online in the following ways:

• From Company > Preferences, on the side menu, select Accept Online Payment and then click Learn More

 

• From Create Invoice, click on Learn more under “Let customer pay online” in the Delivery Information box.

New improved sign up lets you get started in minutes.

 1)      It’s just one step: create an account using your QB online log in info and let us know which bank account you would like your invoice payments to be deposited into.

2)      Next, set up QuickBooks Online to record Intuit PaymentNetwork payments automatically.

 

 

Receiving more payments through IPN

While we’ve simplified signup, we recognize that our customers often need more processing power. You can either apply for higher limits right away, or later, by logging in to http://ipn.intuit.com.

Try it out and let us know what you think!

Significantly better “Reconciliation” for QuickBooks 2012

Dear users,

For the last few months you told us:

1) Is there an easier way to connect my QB company file with IPN?

2) Which business profile in SYNC manager should I use to link to IPN? There are many I have created and don’t really know which one I should use.

3) The current process of reconciling is complicated and is very challenging to understand and use.

4) Why does SYNC do double posting on my invoices?

5) Why cant I reconcile my 50 c fees in QB? My bank statements don’t match my deposits in QB. Can you fix this?

6) Whats a realm id?

We took all of your inputs and recently launched a turbo charged way to reconcile in QB 2012. Here is what you can now do to close your books

Access reconciliation directly from your Quick Books

Once you are in the QB company file that you want reconciled with IPN, go to the ‘Online Services’ menu in QuickBooks then click ‘Intuit PaymentNetwork’ and select ‘Download Payments’

Login to your IPN account that you want reconciled

Download payments into QuickBooks

• Click the ‘X’ if you don’t want to select a specific payment to download

• You can either chose to only close invoices or also choose to do bank deposits. Bank deposits will automatically record the fees against the QB bank you pick. Fees will be marked in an ‘IPN Fees’ expense account in QuickBooks

• You can select a single payment or multiple payments

• Both ACH (bank payments) and Credit Card payments can be reconciled

• Only payments off QB invoices can be reconciled

Confirmation

View downloaded history

Enjoy and please provide feedback on this feature…Your comments truly help us build a better product.

- Your IPN team

Donate buttons for non-profits, credit card on payment requests and a slick new home page

Dear users,

Thanks for providing feedback on the recent features we launched. Based on what you told us, we now have the following enhancements in IPN:

• Donate buttons

This is particularly useful if you are a non-profit and want to get paid for only 50 cents a payment from your web site. You can create blue and orange ‘Donate’ buttons when you add a new button from your ‘ECommerce Buttons’ menu on the left in IPN.

• Credit card payments on payment requests

We are extending credit card capabilities beyond QuickBooks invoices. Now as a small business when you turn CC capabilities ‘ON’ from your ‘Profile’ menu on the left in IPN, your customers can pay you using CC when they do an email payment from IPN or when then click the pay button on your payment request.

• Invoice/Reference # field in ‘Send Payment’ and ‘Request Payment’ flows

You can now track your payments or payment requests with a reference #. This reference # can be an account #, invoice # or any other identifier that you want to use.

• Memo field in ‘Custom Pay Link’

When customers pay from a customized pay link they can now enter a message. Some examples of messages could be ‘Payment for bolts delivered’, ‘Payment for account # 21269′, etc

• Emails on scheduled payments

You will now receive an email notification when a customer schedules a payment for a future date letting you know when the payment is scheduled for.

• New IPN home page

Slicker , cleaner home page that focuses on the key benefit to users (50 c payments) and other value added features (eCommerce payments, QB integration, etc)

As always…. please continue to provide feedback on what you like about the existing features of IPN and what enhancements you would like us to build to better serve your needs.

Thanks,

The IPN team

Credit card and recurring payments

PAYING USING CREDIT CARD

Customers that receive QuickBooks invoices can now pay using their Credit Card (VISA and MasterCard).

Set-up to pay with a credit card:

1. Sign In to your IPN account and click on ‘Accounts’ on the left
2. Click on ‘Add a Credit Card’
3. Confirmation screen

Paying using a credit card:

Now you can pay using a Credit Card on QuickBooks invoices if the Small Business is enabled for accepting credit card payments.

• Click on IPN payment link when you get a QB invoice

• Sign In to your IPN account

• Select your CC as an option to pay

• You can track your CC payment through IPN

PAYING USING RECURRING PAYMENTS

You now have the option of setting recurring monthly and weekly payments when you pay from IPN

You can manage your recurring payment schedules by going to the ‘Recurring Payments’ tab on the left

As our valued customers please feel free to provide feedback on these features. We strive to build better products based on what you tell us.

Cheers,

Your IPN team