You’ve probably heard of Venmo, Paypal, and Square, especially when small businesses everywhere have started to offer digital payment options. The problem with these platforms is that they haven’t kept up with the complexities that come with running a small business. Here’s why Finli is the best payment platform for small businesses.
1. Transparent, Standardized Pricing and Transaction Fees
With Finli, you’ll never have to guess what you have to pay at the end of each month. We offer standardized pricing tiers based on the number of active, paying customers you have so you never pay for more than what you’re actually using. On top of that, we don’t charge any transaction fees for you or your customers if they’re paying through ACH! Sweet, right? At Finli, we don’t believe that small business owners should pay exorbitant fees to get paid. The best payment platform for small businesses just so happens to also be the most inexpensive one.
On the other hand, Venmo is not meant for business use unless you’re explicitly authorized by Venmo to do so. (Here’s a more comprehensive look into why using Venmo for your small business is a bad idea.) In fact, if you try to use Venmo for business transactions without permission, Venmo has the right to freeze your account and put a hold on your funds for up to 180 days! And if you’re registered to operate as a business on Venmo, they charge you 1.9% + $0.10 per transaction, meaning the more you make, the more you have to pay them, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to us.
Although you can technically operate as a business on PayPal without registering for a business account, the fees are through the roof! Fees range from 1.9-2.9% + a standard $0.30 PER transaction, which could add up to HUNDREDS a month! This is not a cost effective way to collect what you’re owed.
Square isn’t cheap either. They charge 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction and 1% for ACH transactions, both of which are sizable amounts to miss from what you’re owed.
2. Never Chase Down Payments Again
With Finli, you’ll never have to waste time chasing down payments again. We’ll do that for you! We send out regular reminders to your customers in a firm but friendly way to help you maintain your customer relationships. We also help you settle payments and concerns before they have a chance to become disputes and chargebacks. Have you ever debated between hassling your customers for late payments and damaging your relationships with them or letting it slide and being a couple hundred bucks short for the month? With Finli, you don’t have to decide—you can keep your customers AND get paid on time, every time. (For more information on how to collect overdue payments without risking losing your customers, read here.)
Venmo, on the other hand, holds your customers accountable for disputes, which could lead to diminished customer trust and increased hesitance towards your business in general. If a customer tries to initiate a chargeback, the process could damage your relationship. It’s also difficult to remind your customers to pay through Venmo (and to keep track of payments altogether). Using Venmo for your small business could lead to a messy payment experience for all parties involved.
The converse is true for PayPal, which offers too much protection for your customers, possibly to your detriment. In the US, PayPal charges $20 per chargeback and $15-30 per dispute. You run the risk of paying more in chargebacks and fees than you charged for your service in the first place!
Square gives you two options—either return the funds immediately upon receiving a dispute or challenge the dispute while Square holds the disputed funds, which you’d need extensive documentation (that you may not have collected) to recover. Either way, it’s a nuisance.
3. Customizable Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) Specifically for YOUR Business
With Finli, you have access to an extensive and comprehensive CRM system. You have the ability to filter your customers by tags, add in custom fields to customize your system to your unique business needs, and contact a specific group of customers (like just your morning yoga class or only the customers who have small dogs) or all of them at once.
Venmo does not have a CRM at all.
With PayPal, you’d need to use an outside API, and it can be frustrating to choose which API to use because none of them are specifically designed for you.
Square does offer a free CRM, but the useful features will cost you. For example, if you wanted to do email marketing, it’ll cost $15 a month. Finli allows you to do this for free.
4. Allow Your Customers to Allow Others to Contribute to Their Bills
Venmo, Paypal, and Square do not have the option of allowing multiple people to contribute to your bills, and we don’t blame them. It’s a clumsy process, and it’s quite a bit of work. At Finli, we believe that it’s work worth doing. What if your customer’s child’s grandmother wants to help pay for their piano lessons? What if they’re divorced and coordinating separate bills for their children is too much of a headache? It only makes sense for bill contributions to be built into your payment platform—and that’s exactly why Finli offers it, free of charge.
The best payment platform for small businesses is the one built for them, with their specific problems in mind.
Ready to ditch your incomplete and lackluster payment platform? Finli’s here to help. With our comprehensive payment, invoicing, and CRM system, you can put those tedious hours of busywork behind you. Schedule a demo here.
