How Can I Take Payments While Self-Employed?

When working for yourself, you want to make sure that you get paid for the jobs that you do. There are many ways that you can achieve payment, depending on your preferred method, as well as that which your clientele would prefer to use.

Giving due consideration to each style of payment may allow you to figure out which is best suited for your business. When using more than one method, you may also want to look into ways of keeping track of each, for tax and finance purposes.

Card

Card payments don’t just need to be taken with a client at a register – by looking at this list of available scanners, you can see that card payments can be taken from pretty much anywhere, so long as you have Bluetooth and either cellular data or an internet connection.

This could see you taking payments from within your store, over the phone, through online transactions, and even when out of the office.

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Card payments can be beneficial as it means that there is no money being physically handed over, meaning you are unlikely to be given less than you are due, or losing cash. It also means that amounts are displayed on a digital system, which might make any accountancy work a little bit easier.

Cash

Taking cash payments for transactions may be a more traditional means of having a buyer and seller relationship, but that doesn’t mean it is entirely outdated. For the customer, it can be easier to budget if they have the cash to hand.

As a business owner, you will need to consider the ways that you can keep your money safe, such as using a cash register or locked box. You may also want to think about depositing the cash at the end of the day, in case of loss or theft.

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Keeping a small number of notes and coins aside, known as petty cash, can help you to provide change for your customers. Although more people are starting to use card payments, still accepting cash means you won’t be ostracizing those that still like to use traditional payment methods.

Wire Transfer

When it comes to remote payments from customers, deposits, or even larger sums of money, you may not want to be dealing with lots of cash, or even taking card details. Here, the use of wire transfers may come in handy.

By supplying a few business account details, the customer can then transfer the money directly from their bank account into your own. Depending on the provider you use, or the amount being transferred, there may be fees, so this is worth researching before you decide to use it.

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Receiving payment can help to motivate you to continue working, as well as to pay your bills and keep you afloat. Regardless of the means that you choose, it can be good practice to make note of incoming and outgoing money, which can better allow for auditing and tax returns to take place.