Is your small business growing like gangbusters, but you're still cash-flow poor? An unreliable accounts receivable system may be to blame. Lucky for you, the solution to your payment problems may be as simple as downloading an app.
Ahead, we've identified some of the best payment apps for small owners to help you get paid faster and more regularly.
PayPal Here
Don't have the budget or the office space for a clunky point-of-sale system? The PayPal Here app (iOS, Android) and pocket-sized companion mobile reader takes your payment process system portable. The app lets you accept payments on an iPhone, iPad, iPod or Android device.
All you have to do to start processing payments is download the app, sign up for the PayPal Here and attach either the magnetic stripe or chip card reader to your smartphone. The encrypted card readers disburse funds from your customer's card to you in mere minutes. Each swipe comes with a 2.7 percent fee to you.
Square Point of Sale
Need a mobile point-of-sale system that does more than simply accept payments? One of the best payment apps for small business owners, Square Point of Sale (iOS, Android) works with the Square Reader for magstripe card or the Square Reader for chip cards to help you accept payments on-the-go, receive the funds in one to two business days and even print receipts when you connect your smartphone to a receipt printer.
Built-in card reader features allow you to send and keep tabs of invoices, monitor sales and view and manage inventory and employees. You'll incur a 2.75 percent fee for taps or card dips or swipes.
QuickBooks GoPayment POS
There are no wires or worries when you wirelessly connect the QuickBooks GoPayment POS (iOS, Android) app on your smartphone to the QuickBooks Bluetooth card reader to accept on-the-fly payments from magstripe or chip cards.
The app works with Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay, but you can alternatively get paid via traditional credit or debit card, cash or even a check. You'll pay a fee of 2.7 percent plus $0.25 for each card transaction. Built-in fraud-protection keeps your customers' card information safe during every transaction.
Google Pay
Tired of wasting precious time and energy at the checkout counter swiping credit cards? Google Pay (iOS, Android) is one of the best payment apps for small owners who want to accept contactless payments. All you need is a Google Pay-compatible point-of-sale system with an NFC reader to accept contactless payments in-store from a digitized version of a real bank card that your customer stored in the app.
Accepting online payments via Google Pay requires integrating the Google Pay application programming interface (API) with the online store. Successful integration would allow your customers to pay you online with a single click.
Stripe Dashboard
If you accept online payments from customers via Stripe payment APIs, there's no better way to monitor your transaction history than with Stripe Dashboard (iOS, Android). When you log in to your Stripe account, the app lets you view balances, earnings payments (whether successful or failed) and more financial data in daily, weekly, monthly and years views so you can keep track of sales figures in the past and present and better forecast where they will be in the future. You can even delve deeper into transactions that went wrong, issue refunds or estimate future payments so you can stay on top of your cash flow.
