Suitable credit card options and crm for startup.

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sdavisnz

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#185858 8-Dec-2015 11:00

Hi Guys,

Helping a friend set up a start up and we're looking for a solution for credit card payment and crm,

had a look at anz fast pay but want to avoid the significant start up costs.

Also paypal payments but payments don't automatically go into business bank account.

also looking for mobile CRM, customer management and invoicing,

I'm a little green. Are these seperate apps or is there a good solution that has everything included.

The situation is he is selling products and services from his car and wants to be paperless.

Has a business bank set up with anz

Has email set up with google apps for business.

All help will be appreciated.

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#1442544 8-Dec-2015 11:02

@nate probably could help with some comments.

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#1442551 8-Dec-2015 11:07

I would recommend a combo of Xero and Payment Express. That'll take care of all invoicing, and customers can pay via Xero/Payment Express when they receive an email invoice.

I'm not sure how it would work with face-to-face payments on the spot, perhaps Payment Express have an option to manually enter credit/debit card info but I'm not 100% sure.

I do know that Stripe will be launching as a private beta in New Zealand "in the next few weeks" so that might be something to keep an eye out for.

Can't help with the CRM side of things sorry, but again I know there are several solutions that tie in directly with Xero.

Martin_NZ

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#1442606 8-Dec-2015 12:25

Up until a few weeks ago I would have recommended SwipeHQ and their K1 mobile payment device as a great credit card / eftpos payment solution. More recently I'm getting concerned about numerous service outages they have had. In any case check them out at swipehq.co.nz and decide if they fit the bill yourself.

ajobbins

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#1442622 8-Dec-2015 12:51

Have a look at Zoho CRM. It's not the best in the world, but their basic CRM is free for up to 10 users. These also have some other useful apps for small businesses many with a free tier.

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jnimmo

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#1442666 8-Dec-2015 13:16

Braintree are fairly new on the scene in NZ but pretty cool

MikeB4

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#1442674 8-Dec-2015 13:22

Xero, however cash flow is vital to startups, try to make it as close to cash as possible.

The other killer of startups is the second year tax burden, be aware of it and plan for it. It does not take prisoners.

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Dulouz

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#1442676 8-Dec-2015 13:25

For CRM I use www.nutshell.com. Not expensive and decent functionality.

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nate

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#1443384 9-Dec-2015 10:30

You're not going to be able to find one product that will fit the bill for everything, so it's a matter of finding a suite of products that plug into each other.

Definitely use Xero for accounts. That's a no brainer.

There's a few good CRM suggestions here already.

For payments, Paypal is fine, you just need to withdraw the money manually once you hit $150. Alternatively, buy/lease a mobile EFTPOS unit.

RobinmNZ

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#1462278 6-Jan-2016 13:04

A couple of our customers use eWay as their payment gateway, and while they do't use it for stock control, I think it can be done in conjunction with the likes of woocommerce.

firefuze

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#1462314 6-Jan-2016 13:37

Martin_NZ: Up until a few weeks ago I would have recommended SwipeHQ and their K1 mobile payment device as a great credit card / eftpos payment solution. More recently I'm getting concerned about numerous service outages they have had. In any case check them out at swipehq.co.nz and decide if they fit the bill yourself.

From what I understand they went bust recently? Their website still functions but it does have in nice big red font "we are not accepting any new customers"

nunz

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#1477691 24-Jan-2016 09:48

I've been running an IT business using Freshbooks.com and paypal

freshbooks:

Allows you to track time
Allows you to send invoices to clients
Allows yo to see when clients have logged in and seen invoices
Allows you to email clients and keep basic info (address, multi contacts, phone, email etc)
Awesome service.
It is not a full GL ledger.
It has android, ios and obviously html based access - all good.
invoices can have paypal links to them which auto sign off an invoice as paid
Can have repeating invoices and auto late penalties, remniders etc
Faster to use than xero - which I am rapidly going off for the business which does use it (slow to enter into, lots of glitches and bad work flow).

I personally dont like paying through the nose just to have a credit card system via the banks then getting hit for a good percent of each transaction. The two - three day wait is worth it for me to use paypal.

Try the freshbooks 30 day trial. It changed my business.

As for a CRM - either freshbooks will work for you or it wont (logical hey?)

Be careful jumping into a CRM - as you often spend more time managing them than using them.

What do you want from a CRM?

Names and addresses? Freshbooks, shared contacts in gmail or office365 or outlook or an exchange service like digiwebs or... all do that.

Notes on visits? Then a basic access Db will do that.

Other like sales pipes etc? The you may need a CRM. Zoho is meant to be good.

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raytaylor

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#1480089 27-Jan-2016 17:38

We use eway. Quite good.

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darylblake

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#1480144 27-Jan-2016 18:41

I have used payment express. They are good. Easy to integrate with as well.

Yes Xero is by far the best accounting solution.

As for CRM that would depend on what you need to record/manage about your clients. Look at the xero addons and see what crm's are suited to your business model.

RobinmNZ

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#1480258 27-Jan-2016 21:30

I now have to revise my comments on eway. My clients are no longer using this service, as there was an issue with the eway payment plugin, which is provided by a third-party. This could not be resolved and we've had to take a different route.

Technofreak

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#1480276 27-Jan-2016 22:14

Be careful with Paypal. They can, at the drop of a hat, decide to place a significant reserve on your Paypal account, if they decide our business has some risk associated with it.

The risk may take several forms, type of product you sell, time to delivery, a sudden increase in turnover, and increase in refunds etc. This means they hold onto the money for up to six months before releasing it. I've heard of rolling reserves of 20%. Can you afford to have 20% of your turnover locked away for several months.

Do some googling of Paypal reserves.

Having said that Paypal is easy to set up and is a well known and accepted payment system.

Long term I'd look at a system that pays directly into your bank account.

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