Do you Create Invoices with PayPal? We want to hear from you!

[PayPal_Dinesh]

Have you used PayPal to create and send invoices or make payments on invoices sent to you?

If so, please reply to this topic to send us your thoughts on new features or improvements that you or your customers would like to see.

Do you have a question about invoice creation or payment?

Please first search this discussion board (Receiving Money) to see if your question has already been previously posted. If you post your question as a new topic, be sure to tag it with appropriate keywords like “Send Invoice”, “invoice payment” etc. as the case may be.

Thank you,

The PayPal Invoicing team

[sharpiemarker]

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@PayPal_Dinesh wrote:

Have you used PayPal to create and send invoices or make payments on invoices sent to you?

If so, please reply to this topic to send us your thoughts on new features or improvements that you or your customers would like to see.

Do you have a question about invoice creation or payment?

Please first search this discussion board (Receiving Money) to see if your question has already been previously posted. If you post your question as a new topic, be sure to tag it with appropriate keywords like “Send Invoice”, “invoice payment” etc. as the case may be.

Thank you,

The PayPal Invoicing team

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Please allow for auto-save of invoices to drafts because sometimes I would be in the middle of an invoice and the session times out and I have to start all over again.

This would in turn create a page containing a list of draft invoices as opposed to the one for "templates".

Thanks.

[AtlantaCubicles]

Yes - The question is must my customer open a Paypal account in order to pay me - one time - with her VISA card?

[Moskose]

They do not need to open a PP account.  Invoices allow anyone to pay with a credit card only.

[sharpiemarker]

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@Moskose wrote:

They do not need to open a PP account.  Invoices allow anyone to pay with a credit card only.

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This is FALSE.  Currently the only way people can pay without creating an account is through a "Buy Now" button or email link which Sellers can create through the "Merchant Services" tab once you log in.  And make sure you have the "PayPal Account Optional" setting in your Website Payment Preferences turned on before creating the button/link.

[Moskose]

To clarify, using the invoice process creates the email link noted in Sharpiemaker's reply.  The recipient of the invoice does not need a PP account - they receive the invoice via email with a link they can pay from

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@sharpiemarker wrote:

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@Moskose wrote:

They do not need to open a PP account.  Invoices allow anyone to pay with a credit card only.

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This is FALSE.  Currently the only way people can pay without creating an account is through a "Buy Now" button or email link which Sellers can create through the "Merchant Services" tab once you log in.

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[sharpiemarker]

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@Moskose wrote:

To clarify, using the invoice process creates the email link noted in Sharpiemaker's reply.  The recipient of the invoice does not need a PP account - they receive the invoice via email with a link they can pay from

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@sharpiemarker wrote:

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@Moskose wrote:

They do not need to open a PP account.  Invoices allow anyone to pay with a credit card only.

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This is FALSE.  Currently the only way people can pay without creating an account is through a "Buy Now" button or email link which Sellers can create through the "Merchant Services" tab once you log in. And make sure you have the "PayPal Account Optional" setting in your Website Payment Preferences turned on before creating the button/link.

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Nope, that is absolutely wrong.  The link takes you to a page where you can pay but the PayPal Account Optional feature is/was not available.  I lost a sale recently when a PayPal Invoice I sent did not allow the buyer the option of not creating an account.  I did some research later and found that it was only available via Buy Now button or link.

[sharpiemarker]

@ Moskose, Check this link, if you do not believe me:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/pop/help-account-optional

Or even this quote under the PayPal Account Optional setting in your Website Payment Preferences:

"When this feature is turned on, your customers will go through an optimized checkout experience. This feature is available for Buy Now, Donations, and Shopping Cart buttons, but not for Subscription buttons."

There is NO mention of the PayPal INVOICE feature being included in this.

And I may add that the link in a PayPal Invoice email is different from the (email) link and/or Buy Now button created via the Merchant Services page.

[PayPal_Dinesh]

@Mokose

@Sharpiemarker

@AtlantaCubicles

Please take a look at the attached screenshot. This is the page that the recipient of your Invoice or Money Request will see. The link in the area outlined in Red is what they would have to click to complete payment via credit card.

[sharpiemarker]

Thanks Dinesh.

That's well and fine but either the customer freaked out because they're only focused on the "login" box and just dread opening a PayPal account or not reading thoroughly what's on the screen so what PayPal must do is make a similar box where it is dummy-proof and absolutely clear that you can send payment without having to create a PayPal account.  I have buyers who order from overseas and they intuitively know what a login box is but when there's too much text around the link to pay with credit card only, they get confused. 

I will do a test with a PayPal invoice myself to see what the customer sees to determine that if paying with credit card, without creating PayPal account is possible.  Keep in mind that last I checked (a few weeks ago) the only way that is possible is with the "Buy Now" button/email link and I don't believe I was picked to get a preview of the new version of PayPal invoicing where that feature is turned on.

[MollyBad]

I've been following this discussion and I agree that the "Don't have a PayPay account" element of the payment panel is not visually helpful.

I don't know why, but people look for the boxes to enter their information; they don't look left when the key info is to the right. I would suggest putting the "Don't have a PayPal account?" prompt right below the PayPal log-in feature, perhaps in the same graphic box.