
Payment Processing for Accountants and Accounting Firms
An accounting firm can finish a tax return on time and still spend weeks collecting the fee. A client forgets a cheque, an invoice gets

There is no “one size fits all” in payment processing. If you’re looking for the top payment processor, figure out what is important to you. The main things you’ll want to consider are the ways you accept payments such as online, physical storefront or office, or mobile. The second thing you’ll want to consider is the service level you’re ok with. Do you want to be able to call a support line or are you ok with self-serve? This can make all the difference in payment processing.
This is the most important thing to look for. If you can’t accept payments the way your business needs, you’re in trouble. There are payment processors that focus on online payments. There are payment processors that focus on physical, in-person payments. Then there are payment processors that focus on payments when you’re mobile. Lastly, there are payment processors that deliver them all with a full solution.
This is likely the second most important item. Some payment processors have set themselves up to let merchants help themselves. They offer online forums and documentation to support merchants. Other payment processors have support staff available by phone, email, or live chat.
Some merchants are happy to help themselves. This means they can troubleshoot problems without assistance and generally use the out-of-the-box product solution. Anytime you want to connect to other software systems or you want to customize the checkout experience, it’s nice to have customer support available.
To keep things super simple, we’ve listed the top payment processors in Canada in a few categories. In full disclosure, we’re certainly biased as being Clearly Payments, but we have many customers to back up our opinion.
Clearly Payments offers a full payment solution with online, mobile, and physical storefront or office payments. Clearly Payments has world-class technology and service. One of the benefits of Clearly Payments is the customer support is offered by email, phone, or live chat. This is offered anytime you have an issue. They’ll stay on your case until you’re up and running. They aim to be known as the friendliest payment processor on Earth. If you’re looking for a full solution, Clearly Payments is the top payment processor.
Stripe is a company that has grown quickly over the years. It offers a fantastic online payment platform. Although their customer support is primarily self-serve, they are known for great documentation. Stripe has relatively high fees at 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction, but that works well for merchants processing below $100,000 per year. If you’re looking for a great online payment processor and want to do it yourself, Stripe is the best way to go.
Square is known as a mobile payment processor. They have a great mobile POS for phones and tablets. You can take payments, track inventory, and manage your customers and employees. They offer self-serve support for the most part, but their apps are quite nice so any semi-technical merchant should have no problem. Similar to Stripe, they have relatively high fees with an average of 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction. They range from 2.65% to 3.4%. If you’re looking for mobile payments only, it’s hard to beat Square.

An accounting firm can finish a tax return on time and still spend weeks collecting the fee. A client forgets a cheque, an invoice gets

Credit card payments typically take 1–3 business days to settle, although some transactions can settle as quickly as the next business day. The exact timing

Businesses in the United States and Canada have hundreds of payment processing providers to choose from, including merchant account providers, acquiring banks, payment facilitators, ISOs,