At some point every business hears the question: "Can I just pay you online?" And many owners assume the answer requires building an online store — product catalog, shopping cart, the works.
It doesn't. For most service businesses, contractors, and shops, there are far simpler ways to get paid online, and the right one depends on how your sales actually happen. Here are the main options, from simplest to most involved.
Payment links: the fastest path to "paid"
A payment link is a secure URL you send by text or email. The customer taps it, sees the amount, enters their card (or bank details), and you're paid. No website required at all.
It fits any business that quotes or invoices per job — deposits, balances due, phone orders. We've covered how payment links work in detail, and why industries like auto body shops have adopted them so fast.
Invoicing with a pay button
One step up: send a proper invoice with an embedded "Pay now" button. The customer gets an itemized bill, pays by card or ACH, and the invoice marks itself paid. If your books live in QuickBooks, this is where our QuickBooks Online integration earns its keep — the payment posts and reconciles automatically.
For big-ticket invoices, offer ACH as a payment option alongside cards — your customer clicks the same button, and you pay a fraction of the fees.
A virtual terminal for phone orders
Sometimes "online" really means "not in person" — a customer on the phone reading you their card number. That's a job for a virtual terminal: a secure browser page where you key in the card yourself. No hardware, works from any computer.
A simple checkout page on your website
If you have a website and want customers to pay without you sending anything, a hosted checkout page is the middle ground: a secure payment page branded to your business, linked from a "Pay online" button on your site. The card data is handled entirely on the payment provider's secure page — which keeps your PCI compliance burden at the simplest level, the same as a payment link.
A full e-commerce store — catalog, cart, shipping — only makes sense when you're selling products at volume online. Don't build one to collect invoice payments.
Choosing your setup
You quote per job or invoice per customer: payment links or invoices with a pay button.
You take orders by phone: virtual terminal.
You want a "Pay online" button on your site: hosted checkout page.
You sell products online at volume: an actual e-commerce store — and we build sites for our customers, so ask.
Getting set up
All of these can run under one merchant account, one statement, one support number. Tell us how your sales happen or call 718-702-0186, and we'll set up the online payment mix that fits — usually within a few days.