Tag Archives: payments

Business, editorial

Process Payments On The Go With Payment Boss

Ever wish you could process payments on the go and accept credit cards via your phone? Payment Boss can offer you that solution. Today we have with us Peter Liao, the Director of Product Management to explain the features of this mobile application:

1. What exactly is Payment Boss?

Payment Boss is a mobile browser-based credit card processing application.

2. What are some of the key features that might be useful to freelance writers?

Some of the features freelancers may find useful include:

Users are able to use their existing merchant account to get paid, no need to sign up for a new one. Payment Boss currently supports Sage Payment Solutions, Cybersource, Moneris, Authorize.net, E-xact and BeanStream Payments.

  1. Richer information for product and customer information – users are able to enter and capture their customers information (eg. address, email address) as well as what was sold and have it centralized in one area, no need to maintain multiple data bases for marketing and sales purposes.
  2. Works on any 3G enabled mobile phone that has a internet connection.
  3. Integrates with Billing Boss so users can have a full end to end experience in managing their cash flow. With Payment Boss – the user can get paid now, with Billing Boss the user can get paid later. Data captured through Billing Boss or Payment Boss is centralized so the user only needs to update one application for real time updates on payments and customer data.
  4. Real time payment confirmation – users will know whether the payment has been successful or not

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3. How difficult is it to set up and use?

It’s easy. Once you have signed up, login to Payment Boss from your mobile browser, setup your merchant account, click on process payment and start getting paid.

4. How much does it cost?

Payment Boss is $9.95 a month—a fraction of the cost of a mobile terminal rental. There are no transaction fees or additional costs (outside of your existing merchant account fee.).

5. Where can writers find more information about Payment Boss?

You can visit www.paymentboss.com or www.sagespark.com/paymentboss.

Payment Boss is a new Freelance-Zone.com sponsor. We welcome them to these pages and invite you to check out their services. Freelance-Zone.com is selective about our clients and sponsors, learn more about our transparency policy and how we evaluate potential clients and advertisers.

gear, lifestyle, resources

Lakshan Perera on CurdBee.com

Curdbee Online invoice

Lakshan Perera is the Lead Developer of CurdBee, a Sri Lanka-based company offering online invoicing for freelancers. We asked Perera to tell us about the service and what it has to offer the busy freelancer. How does Curdbee work? The notion of having an online tool to manage your invoices and payments from the coffee shop, the airport, or the home office makes sense to us. A big concern when it comes to invoicing services or software is the potential overhead; Curdbee handles that issue quite well.

FZ: What is CurdBee, and why should freelance writers consider using it?

Lakshan Perera: CurdBee is a simple online invoicing tool for creating estimates, sending invoices and receiving payments. For most freelancers, the process of sending estimates/invoices and collecting payments from clients is an extra burden and always causes unnecessary overhead. With CurdBee, we try to streamline the billing process and help you focus on what you do best, be it writing, design or whatever it is that you’ve been called to do.

Is CurdBee expensive, and can I upgrade/downgrade or cancel my account if I need to?

CurdBee’s pricing is designed in a unique manner, so you pay only for the features you actually use. If you compare us with other online billing apps and their price models, you will see that you can save a lot by using CurdBee. Further, you can enable/disable any of our more advanced features at any time with just the click of the button.

What are the differences between the standard and the pro account?

The standard version of CurdBee is completely free. There’s no restriction on the number of invoices or clients you can create with it and it comes with the ability to accept payments via PayPal and Google Checkout. CurdBee Pro version is $5 per month ($50 for the yearly plan) and is a totally unbranded service that even includes the option of using your own domain.

With the option to to use CurdBee with SSL encryption, Pro is ideal for anyone whose business depends on online billing. Pro users will also have the option to enable additional modules such as Estimates, Recurring Billing, and the Authorize.Net payment gateway module. Each additonal module cost only $5 per month. For a more complete overview of what we offer, please visit  http://curdbee.com/features/

Is CurdBee easy to use? How long does it take to invoice clients?

Actually, we developed CurdBee to scratch a personal itch – we needed a simple online billing solution. Thus, we took extra care to make sure the process to be intuitive and efficient. As our existing users will tell you, the process of creating and sending an invoice in CurdBee can be completed within minutes. Features such as the ability to duplicate invoices and convert estimates to invoices often makes this process even faster.

Can CurdBee help a freelance writer brand themselves?

Yes. You can use your invoices to establish your brand among clients. With options including the ability to use your own domain name, logo and color scheme, you can create unique invoices that will really make your business stand out.

Is there anything else you can tell freelancers about CurdBee?

We believe the best way to experience CurdBee is to try it out yourselves. We even have a demo version with all the advanced features enabled at http://demo.curdbee.com.