Smartphones turn into payment terminals with a SME-friendly device.
Almost 2/3 of SMEs don’t offer credit-card payment options, MYOB research shows. A quarter of these put this down to the cost of processing payments and one-tenth said they have lost customers due to not accepting credit-card payment options.
MYOB has come up with a solution in PayDirect, an app that enables both ‘swipe and sign’ and ‘chip and sign’ credit cards to be read via a device that connects to a smartphone via an audio jack.
Cashflow & time savings
The flexibility and ease of set-up is aimed at mobile businesses – from market stall holders to personal trainers, tradies to beauty therapists, animal groomers to accountants – with the added benefits of improving cashflow and saving time spent chasing up payments and bookkeeping.
‘One of the most important indicators of business health is cashflow,’ says MYOB CEO Tim Reed. ‘It’s also the second-most-common business pain point. Having solid control over money-in and-money out is core to the long-term success and viability of every business, and can be the difference between it thriving and failing.
‘Compared to the current process of returning to the office to generate invoices at the end of the week or month and then waiting 30 days or more to get paid, MYOB is accelerating the cash cycle dramatically.’
Set-up
Bendigo Bank (merchant accounts) and Mint Wireless (mobile payments gateway) have partnered with MYOB to create a seamless set-up where an application takes 15 minutes online and a total of five days for bank approval and mailing of the reader device. Reed is aiming to reduce this set-up time even further.
The app integrates with MYOB’s AccountRight Live, meaning that invoices can be issued, receipts emailed and contacts updated with account status right there and then.
Three payment plans include a $199 + GST initial outlay for a card reader, including replacement with an advanced reader allowing EFTPOS and ‘chip and pin’ credit and debit cards later in the year. The ‘pay as you go’ plan, for less than $2000 in payments per month, has no monthly fee and charges 3.2% + GST per transaction. Transaction charges decrease with volume, with $20 per month and 2.1% + GST for the ‘everyday’ plan and $60 a month for the high-volume plan (over $5000) and 1.35% + GST transaction fee.
Jim’s onboard
The Jim’s Group has signed on as an early adopter to integrate PayDirect with its Jimbo CRM and MYOB financial package. Chief Operating Officer Neil Welsh said MYOB PayDirect allowed Jim’s franchisees to close the loop and carry out the work, present the invoice and collect payment, all on the same day.
PayDirect is available for iOS users from 2 April, with Android users to follow in late April.
Find out more at myob.com.au.
