I have owned a craft business for a few years now and have tried pretty much every popular method to take payments. Some I liked, some I hated, and some are just “it is what it is”.
Cash App is owned by Square (you’ll see more about Square below). It has the option to get a free cash card where you can have instant access to your money in your account. You can Request or Pay money using this app with other users who also have the app. In addition, you can use it to invest in stocks including Bitcoin. It helps you keep track of the stocks as well.
Paypal is probably the most common form of payment. I feel like I used to know PayPal really well, it was the main way that my family and I transferred money back and forth. But it seems now that even when I’m sending my mom money to pay for my cell bill, I still get charged a service fee even when I’m transferring Friends and Family. Friends and Family used to be free, but PayPal must have realized the money they were losing and are now charging everyone for the service. The service fees do change, make sure to look those up before committing to PayPal. They are normally equivalent to the fees of Square when it comes to selling.
PayPal does have protections for both buyer and seller when making purchases. If you pay for a service or item but don’t receive it, you can file a PayPal claim and potentially get your money back.
Also for PayPal, if you like to travel items while traveling, they do have a card reader available for purchase you can use to charge customers for the items and the money will then go right into your PayPal Account. Finally, if you are setting up a website, there are ways to use PayPal for the Buy now option on your website.
Overall, Paypal is a great choice if you are using it for business purposes. However, for personal use, Venmo or CashApp is a better option because they are actually free to use.
Venmo has many great features that are most likely underutilized. Not only can you send money to friends and family for free, it has several other great features as well.
* Venmo offers a credit card with automatic cash back on every purchase. It comes with no annual fee.
* It tracks all purchases you make through the app
*There is a Venmo debit card that allows you to earn cash back. There are no monthly or minimum fees. You can use the debit card to shop at eligible merchants to earn cash back, and it’s a debit card so they have no reason to run your credit.
* You can use your Venmo account to sign up for Direct Deposit through your employer. The routing number is in the app for you for easy access.
* You can cash a check using the Venmo app. It’s as simple as confirming your info, scanning your check, and entering the amount and cash out details.
Out of all the options so far, I have used Square the longest. Square was my first choice when taking payments because it seemed to be the most popular at the craft shows that I was doing. I have been using Square for approximately 5 years now, and it is still my go to payment method. Here’s why:
The Square fees have only slightly gone up since I started using Square. They are currently at 2.6%+10 cents when using the card reader or 3.5%+15 cents when manually typing in the credit card number. Although I hate paying any type of fee, it is necessary and Square has always kept their credit card fee a reasonable amount.
When doing craft shows, I can use the Square app (or website) and enter the items I plan to sell. I include the price, sales tax (when applicable) and a picture of the item. This way, when I’m at the craft shows all I have to do is tap the item I’m selling and all of the other information is already loaded into the app. It makes helping customers check out much faster.
In addition to the app that is very user friendly, Square also offers a free website hosted through Weebly that you can use to set up and sell with. If you don’t care that it isn’t a custom domain, you can do this completely free with the exception of the Square credit card fee. This is a GREAT option if you are just starting out with selling. It isn’t limited to crafts either. We have personally used the Square website to sell tractor parts, clothing, crafts, and dog clothes (nope, not kidding).
Square also has so many other great features too. You can send custom invoices, make appointments, Payroll, gift cards, and so much more. They have different levels of membership depending on the services you want use them for. If you just stick to the simple website and using Square for selling, you’ll only pay the 2.6%+10 cents. Square never has hidden fees, make sure to check out their website to see what the current rates are!
I have previously used Wave but do not currently use it. Wave is great for basic accounting that is 100% free. You can track your income as well as expenses. It has a separate app that can be used to scan your receipts as well to help you track your expenses without keeping a pile of paper receipts laying around. It also has the ability to print out perfect reports for tax time.
The reason I don’t personally use Wave anymore is there is no direct way to track Mileage. Not only do I own a craft business that requires mileage tracking when making deliveries or going to pick up supplies, I also Doordash and UberEats. All three of these things require mileage tracking which Wave does not do. Want an app that tracks income, expenses, and mileage tracking?
Hurdlr is an app I used in the past and recently starting using again because the features are perfect from what I need to not only run my craft business but also to DoorDash and drive for UberEats. Hurdlr is free, but if you want premium features such as automatic mileage tracking and income and expense tracking, it’s $60 a year. Let me tell you, that $60 is well worth it. And don’t forget, it’s a business expense!
I use Hurdlr to automatically track my mileage. Then when I get home, I simply swipe to show that it’s a business expense, and I pick which business it was for. That’s it! Do you go the same place frequently? You can set up rules based on address that it will automatically categorize those drives for you.
For expense tracking, you can use the preloaded expenses and/or add your own. It also has the ability to take pictures of your receipts for you, so you don’t need to store a pile of paper receipts for 7 years for tax purposes.
Income tracking — you can link your bank account and when income shows up, Hurdlr will put that information in and have you review it to see which company the income was for. It’s super simple.
Finally, by entering tax information, Hurdlr will show projected taxes owed for Quarterly and Annually. You can also keep track of payments you’ve made so far towards those taxes. Also on this screen you will see the button to run reports for tax reporting. There are options for both a Schedule C and for Tax Details for tax filing. Out of all the apps I’ve tried so far for tracking all of this, Hurdlr definitely wins.
Everything listed in this article is information I have from personal experience. I have an iPhone so I can’t speak for Androids or other types of operating systems for cell phones. Links in all my posts are referral links that can lead to me earning a commission that will then in turn be used to continue to blog about things I’ve learned that I’d like to share with others.
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