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• Improves cash-flow
• Smaller clients are more more likely use it than a check (better business expense tracking).
• Funds are immediately available
• Eliminates "bounced checks"
• Eliminates miss-labeled checks (Pay to)
• Eliminates "lost checks"

Our Pay Online add-on can be used for accepting:

• Invoice payments
• Donations
• Security deposits (e.g. for an event or rentals)
• Payments for certain types of products (e.g. electronic files that are custom created for a client and distributed manually to the client).

Fortunately, there is a free online service that just about any website owner can use. It's called PayPal™ and your next stop on this page may be the one below this section that talks about the two most common misconceptions about that service.

Despite the obvious advantages, there is one other consideration: "Paying with Plastic" is how the world works today.

• A visitor does not have to have a PayPal account in order to pay for something through their services.

This requirement was dropped when eBay™ acquired PayPal in 2002.

• Their fees are competitive (and often better) than other online merchant card services.

Yes, it will cost website owners a small amount per transaction to accept credit cards. It has been our observation that if those fees are a "deal killer," the business itself is probably in trouble to begin with.

HirMon & Associates uses PayPal, and over the past 5 years, we've noticed it has a lot going for it:

• Accepts virtually every major credit card for payments, including American Express™ with no additional fees.
• Allows our clients to pay by eCheck
• Interfaces with just about every major shopping cart system available (including MySimpleCart which we created in-house for specific uses).
• It's free and there is no monthly sales minimums or other arbitrary criteria surrounding having one of their Business accounts.
• Since insisting that our clients use our online payments system to remit their invoices, neither Jacqueline nor I can remember the last time we had a "bounced check;" it's impossible.
• A majority of our clients pay online and are happy to do so.

We developed this add-on over the past few years as a "convenience feature" for our own in-house website development (Pay Online is included in just about every website we design these days).

Needless to say: Using the same form time-after-time is okay, but sometimes our clients need to see something different. That's okay to. What it does (always) is -

• Self-validating - A visitor has to enter something for an Invoice Number or Reason for payment. In addition, some number must be entered for the Amount. If the entries are missing or incorrect in some way - the program advises the visitor what is wrong.

• Provides simple instructions to visitors about the process, including the fact that (since 2002) - they do not have to have a PayPal account in order to use the payment routine.

• Contains all verbiage required by PayPal for legitimate access to their systems (the Credit card services provided by PayPal - with a link to their site).

• If (and only if) it is required, the program can be setup to add in PayPal's service charges to the amount being paid. We do not recommend this, but it is provided for special-use situations that have yet to occur.

• Can be interfaced within just about any web page design. Also included is "rearrangement" of the layout of the stock page to suit the needs of the client, include any preferred changes to the wording.

Note: Installation does not include redesign of the form or including additional functionality over what is provided from stock.

• Does not require special website support services like (buzz words): PHP, MySql or anything else.

See our version (actually a stock version) by clicking here to try it out! This link will open a new browser window; close it to return to this page.

Our Pay Online add-on does not capture or save any data on the website where it is installed for the following reasons:

• Liability mitigation - By not capturing data (especially credit card data), the site owner is protected against possible involvement in any third-party identity theft schemes.

• Some website which could benefit from such an accessory program have web hosting services that cannot support data acquisition. The Online add-on is intentionally designed to work on as many types of websites as possible.

• By convention, PalPal imposes a restriction of a maximum $2,000 payment for what they call "unverified" accounts. This includes those individuals that do not have an account and simply pay online with a credit card.

Normally, this restriction is not an issue, but must be noted for completeness.

• Access to the website owners PayPal account is secure, because the accessing mechanism used by Pay Online add-on does not include the account password (only the email address is required for online payments).

As with all HirMon & Associates website software, you cannot buy our Pay Online add-on directly and install-it-yourself.

Having said that, it also means that when we get through installing the software - you are ready to rock!

Here is what you will need:

• A PayPal Business account (not the Personal or Platinum varieties); there is no charge for setting up such accounts: they are free.
• A service fee of $125 for us to set it up on your website. This fee includes:
  • Tailoring the form to change verbiage to fit your requirements.
  • Modification of one (1) existing page on your website to create a new web page containing the form and processing system.
  • Installation of all software components (3)
  • Assistance (if required) with setting up the PayPal Business account.
  • Functionality testing prior to completion.
• What you won't need are special support services (buzzwords: PHP, MySQL or anything like that). They aren't required.

We have to assume that you have a web person available that can install links to this page from existing web pages. If not, we can contract for that work separately.