Quicker Online Store Cash Flow And A QuickBooks Accounting Hack

attractive woman holding credit card out in front of notebook computer

I thought some history of credit card processing would be a good base to build this post upon.

Going back as far as 9000 BC one could use cattle, camels and fish as currency.

You had to spend the fish fast.

Cowrie shells, gold and silver nuggets leading to Chinese deerskin notes and Native American wampum beads.

The Manhatten Wampum bead myth

“In the Dutch National Archives is the only known primary reference to the Manhattan sale: a letter written by Dutch merchant Pieter Schage on November 5, 1626, to directors of the West India Company, which was instrumental in the exploration and settlement of “New Netherland.” In the letter, he writes, “They have purchased the Island of Manhattes from the savages for the value of 60 guilders.” (There is a surviving deed for Manhattan and Long Island, but this was made well after this initial Manhattan purchase, when the Dutch had already been inhabiting the island for several decades.) 

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As far back as 5000 years ago Mesopotamians used clay tablets but found them to be impractical for their wallets and purses.

Melting down tons of copper was not a much better option as you needed a horse and cart full of copper to go shopping at the renaissance mall.

In the 19th century, merchants would use “credit coins” and “charge plates” to extend credit for local farmers and ranchers, providing credit until their crops and livestock were sold.

Growing up in the 20th century long before Internet, payments were primarily made in cash or with a paper check.

In1946 guy by the name of John Biggins, a banker created the”Charge-it” card.

Purchases were forwarded to Mr. Biggins bank who reimbursed the merchant and chased the customers for payments.

This was coined the “closed loop system.”

Five years later, New York’s Franklin National Bank issued its first charge card.

Charge cards like the Diners Club card and American Express emerged but banks found a gravy train with consumer cards providing revolving credit with Bank of America leading the charge <-pun, in 1958.

Franklin’s marketing plan was to mail out thousands of cards arbitrarily to folks in California.

In 1966 MasterCard was born out of a group of banks forming the Inter-Bank card Association (ITC)

Bringing us to “now,” the buffet of payment processing choices is large enough for a kings celebration.

  • Credit Cards
  • Mobile Payments
  • Bank Transfers
  • Ewallets
  • Prepaid Cards
  • Direct Deposit
  • Cash

Cities are trying to ban cashless businesses 

Good luck with that.

What’s even more remarkable is the exponential explosion of companies and methods for processing money online.

Here are a few that I found, I’m sure there are more

Due
Stripe
Dwolla
Apple Pay
Payoneer
2Checkout
Amazon Payments
Square
Payza
Skrill
PayPal (237 million people have active PayPal accounts)
Braintree
Venmo
Visa checkout (20 million active customer accounts worldwide)
Google wallet
Masterpass
ACH (a U.S.-specific payment method) increased by more than 1 billion in 2017 for the third year in a row)
Ali Pay (China)
WebMoney
iDeal (the Netherlands)
Giropay (Germany)
Sofort (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain)
eNets (Singapore)
Boleto Bancaio (Brazil)
Paysafe
SEPA Direct Debit (500 million Europeans)

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Begin Quicker Online Store Cash Flow And A QuickBooks Accounting Hack

Every article you’ll read and all the questions you  see on LinkedIn about merchant processors sound like:

“What’s the best merchant processing rate I can find?”

“What are all those fees and will they keep me PCI DSS compliant?”

Editor’s note – We currently use PayPal exclusively online for credit card processing (and PayPal Express) which does not require PCI DSS compliance.

Continue reading “Quicker Online Store Cash Flow And A QuickBooks Accounting Hack”

Herding Cats And Chasing Social

Young stressed handsome businessman working at desk in modern office shouting at laptop screen and being angry about spam

Or

 

Why I see social media imploding under its own weight.

 

None of the big-brained internet CEO’s nor the billions of people who walk the planet with a not-so-smart-phone held out in front of them so they can interact with people not close have figured out what James Madison meant when he wrote the first amendment.

 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

December 5, 2018, Tumblr banned porn.

 

A couple of little hiccups as reported by the Washington post cropped up:

 

The first lesson is that it’s hard.” 

Continue reading “Herding Cats And Chasing Social”

Another Middle Finger From Zuck To The SMB’s Of The World.

x-ray of hand

I’m no stranger to social media.

You might say “I’m ancient”.

In spite of being enrolled in Medicare, I operate double-digit WordPress and Zen cart sites and have probably half a million humans(?) following me on social media in the captive bird niche.

My target audience defined broken down by buyer persona: 

Does the mirror fog when you place it under their nose? Yes.

Do they have or are they thinking of acquiring a captive bird? Yes

Great make sure we acquire their email.

Continue reading “Another Middle Finger From Zuck To The SMB’s Of The World.”

Why Paypal Working Capital Should Be An SMBs Go To Lender

black and gold PayPal logos

Full transparency, my only relationship with PayPal is as a customer.

PayPal Working Capital was formerly Bill Me Later.

We’ve been using PayPal for 14 years and currently have three active accounts we use for selling online. 

Square is used for walk-in retail sales so we are able to separate Indiana cash and credit card sales for sales tax filing purposes.

Ironically 10% of all our online customers live in Illinois and now get a 10.25% discount from us as we are no longer collecting and paying sales tax in that state.

Continue reading “Why Paypal Working Capital Should Be An SMBs Go To Lender”