Getting Paid Just Got Easier: Introducing the New PayPal Invoicing

When we launched PayPal Invoicing back in 2004, we did so as a part of our effort to serve as an end-to-end solution for businesses. PayPal isn’t just a payments processor or a method of payment, we offer a full range of tools to help businesses get paid faster and more securely -- and our invoicing tool is one such product. Last year alone, 2.5 million businesses of all sizes created and sent out PayPal invoices to make it seamless and more flexible for their customers to pay, and to make it quick and easy to get paid.

Today, with the help of valuable feedback from our customers, we’re excited to announce the launch of our new invoicing product and the rollout of several new critical invoicing features to help businesses bill more efficiently and get paid faster. In addition to the extensive capabilities PayPal invoicing already offers, we’ve simplified and streamlined our product and are rolling out six new features:

• Three new invoice template options for added flexibility:

1. Quantity – For breaking out the quantity sold
2. Hours – For billing by an hourly rate
3. Amount only – When quantity or hours do not apply 

• Partial payments: You can allow partial payments and a minimum payment amount so your customer can pay a deposit upfront and pay the remainder later. Once paid, your invoice will have a partially paid status until it has been paid in full. And, the amount paid and due will appear on the invoice for both you and your customer.
• Record cash or check payments: This allows you to create and manage all of your invoices with PayPal, even if your customer pays you by cash or check.
• CC line: You can now copy people -- like your customer’s spouse, accountant or business partner -- when sending an invoice.
• Share a link to your invoice: Most often you’ll enter your customer’s email on the invoice, and we’ll email the invoice to your customer. If, however, you want to send the invoice to your customer yourself you can copy a link to your customer’s invoice.
• Save a PDF of the invoice for your records

As always, we’ll continue to support our existing invoicing features to help businesses send, track and manage customized invoices and get paid quickly and efficiently. These existing features enable businesses to:

• Customize invoice templates to meet your exact business needs
• Save customer and item details for re-use
• Send invoices to a group of people, such as for an event
• Attach files, like product images, expenses, or contracts
• Send invoices to international customers, complete with a localized invoice and email notification 
• Quickly view all unpaid or overdue invoices and send out reminders
• View a detailed history of your invoice, including any reminders you have sent
• Use the PayPal Here mobile app to create simple invoices when you’re on the go

Feedback from businesses that have long used PayPal Invoicing was critical during the development of our new product. Merchants that beta tested our new invoicing product have already shared positive feedback:

“PayPal Invoicing has been my method of invoicing customers since I started my business almost 10 years ago, and it's helped me stay in business,” said Becky Crockett, Owner, PodcastDesigns.com. “It's the quickest, easiest way to send invoices and the fees are low so it saves me time and money. The new version is much cleaner and more streamlined -- and includes new features that make it faster and easier to find the information we need quickly, send invoices, and get paid. The new Share Link feature gives me a new way to send my clients their invoices. I can also use it as a way to track the invoices in my project management program.” 

“I’ve been using PayPal Invoicing for almost a year, and this new version of the product has some significant improvements that speed up the invoicing process from start to finish,” said Heather Herring-Boli, Owner, Virtual Assistance Services. “I'm a virtual assistant and my services vary. I love having the flexibility to choose different templates for different projects, customize the invoice fields, save templates and reuse them, and add attachments to the invoice. Plus, sending one invoice to multiple clients is a useful improvement for my business that saves me a lot of time and effort. My clients also love it. It’s easy for them to pay even if they don’t have a PayPal account.”

We’re launching our new invoicing product in the US first and then rolling it out to global markets in the coming months. We’d love to hear from you. If you have any feedback, comments or questions, please contact us here. If you have a US PayPal account and are not yet upgraded to the new invoicing product and would like access to it right away, you can upgrade here.