A customer portal is a safe online platform that gives customers (or prospective customers) of a business access to a range of self-service features. These self-service solutions let your company assign certain tasks to the individuals who are most committed to them, so they may be finished swiftly and simply. A client portal might, for instance, enable consumers to: 

• Create support tickets to address technical problems with your products or services. 
• View the shipping or payment information for a specific order. 
• Permit product reviews to be posted by verified customers. 
• Determine what is owing and pay it.

Our article today focuses on the latter—customer payment. Customers can access and pay their bills through the customer payment interface included in our accounts receivable automation software, Invoiced.  

Our platform's payment portal functionality expedites the customer-side portion of these transactions, which is more beyond your control, in addition to using extensive automation and integration features to streamline business operations. 

I'll go over the essentials of customer payment portals with an emphasis on invoiced payment portals. 

What is the purpose of a client payment gateway, and what makes one? 

A generic customer-facing portal can serve a multitude of purposes, as previously mentioned. Nevertheless, the only things that a client payment gateway handles are the receipt, registration, and documentation of the monetary exchanges related to the selling of your products or services. Payment portals typically enable users to: 

• Ask questions about billing. 
• Assess and approve the estimates. 
• Control account data, such as business addresses, payment information, and authorized users. 
• Make payments available. 
• Examine and get related documents (such as credit notes and invoices).

The way that present and potential clients see and engage with your company can be significantly impacted by these portals and how they are used by them. After surveying more than 400 businesses, Balance Payments, Inc. revealed: 

• When choosing providers online, 83% of respondents stated that a seamless payment and checkout process was their main concern. 
• Ninety percent of respondents said that a commerce site that made purchasing more difficult would significantly affect their brand loyalty. 
• 73% said that if they had any difficulties during the checkout process, they would be more inclined to give up on their electronic shopping cart.

Put differently, your bottom line may be impacted by a user-friendly and effective payment interface.  

There are many different types of payment portals; the most popular ones are found on e-commerce sites that cater to consumers, but there are also payment portals for business-to-business (B2B) transactions. These are invoicing-related, so they usually need to be more sophisticated and feature-rich platforms. 

A consumer payment portal's advantages for both customers and enterprises  Payment portal advantages for your clients:  Control and visibility over the requirements and timing of payments 

Remarkably, a considerable proportion of businesses—roughly 33% in the US and Canada, based on survey data compiled by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP)—continue to settle invoices with physical checks delivered via regular mail. These clients don't know when those money will disappear from their accounts with this method. Buyers can have more sophisticated control over their company's cash flow by precisely controlling when they pay their bills with a self-service payment interface. 

Easy and convenient payment methods 

Making it difficult for someone to pay you is a definite way to run into problems and delayed payments because paying the bills is rarely someone's idea of fun. With a few mouse clicks, your customers may review, pay, and even dispute unpaid invoices using an intelligently designed invoicing site. In addition, an online payment portal is accessible around-the-clock, allowing customers to conveniently settle their accounts even after regular business hours. 

Payment portal advantages for your company include:  Same result, but with less effort and money 

Generally, switching to a client payment portal allows you to devote less resources to your accounts receivable (A/R) operations without having an adverse effect on your company's profitability. The majority of the actual work required in processing invoices will be handled by your clients because payment portals are self-service. 

Bonus: You may manage the payment cycle with less direct human intervention when you combine your payment gateway with automated workflows that handle internal operations. 

Receive payment more quickly. 

No one has ever said, "I want to get paid slower!" Going back to the AFP poll, 54% of the firms that responded said that shorter A/R cycles were a major factor in their decision to use digital payment methods, and 62% said that receiving payments more quickly had a "positive" or "very positive" impact on their company.  

Through the elimination of lengthy back-and-forth correspondence and delays typical of traditional payment methods, a customer portal will promote the expedited resolution of outstanding accounts. 

Simple access to more recent data for forecasting and analytics 

A portal might be useful for identifying sales patterns and streamlining internal operations. In addition to receiving and sending out invoices on a regular basis, your gateway can also gather certain metadata regarding the specifics of purchase transactions, such as how and when they were completed.  

Through your analytics and forecasting efforts, you may generate more value with this larger, richer, more digitized data pool. 

Additional characteristics to consider while selecting a payment portal for customers 

Selecting a payment platform that best suits the particular requirements of your company is essential. To truly grasp what features you might require, assess your present sales and collection processes as well as your overall A/R efforts before making a decision. 

To accommodate huge numbers, does your team need a platform that can utilize automation, or do you deal with fewer, larger invoices? Which payment methods would you like to offer your clientele? In what way should problems be escalated to promote quick fixes? 

To assist you, consider the following crucial elements of a B2B payment platform: 

• Automation: Reduce intervention and labor expenses by having the platform manage your processing and validation processes. Work smarter, not harder. 
• Pay by Auto: This option, which is especially helpful for subscription-based businesses, allows returning consumers to streamline and stabilize their payment transactions. 
• Customer support: While self-service is great, having quick access to the appropriate help when there are questions or concerns about an invoice will help you keep your clients satisfied. or at the very least, less irritated 
• Management of incentives: If you provide credits or early payment reductions, you should design your interface so that it is simple, transparent, and easy to apply these deductions. 
• Payment flexibility: Your prospective client base will grow the more B2B payment methods (such as credit cards, virtual cards, and ACH transfers) you accept through your portal. 
• Reporting: As previously mentioned, integrated analytics and reporting capabilities facilitate your ability to take advantage of market trends and generate new efficiencies at every stage of the accounts receivable cycle. 

How to create a portal for client payments 

It is advisable that you adhere to the specified set-up procedures that come with your selected solution. However, we can offer some insight into what those efforts can entail because we include a client payment site in our portfolio. 

The Work 365 Portal site requires no setting and operates straight out of the box. You can personalize how your portal settings behave, particularly regarding: 

• A portion of the money 
• Payments in advance 
• Enrollment in AutoPay 
•  Changing the contact details 
• Utilizing open credits 
• Subdomain for customer portal 

More sophisticated configurations are also supported by our platform, and these include: 

• Bespoke layouts created using JavaScript and CSS
• Domain forwarding
• Google Analytics monitoring 
• Security measures
• Just one sign-on

Work 365: Simple B2B invoicing 

With Work 365's payment-focused client portal, which is already included in our accounts receivable automation software, you can keep your customers satisfied and your finances running. 

Among the payment-portal-related services that Invoiced provides for you are the following: 

Adaptable payment plans: Include tax assessments, AutoPay, early payment discounts, and more when creating invoices. 

Support for a variety of payment methods: Give your clients the freedom to select the electronic payment option that best suits their needs. 

A Check Lockbox feature would automate the scanning, depositing, and matching of these offline payments with invoices in order to streamline tasks associated with accounts that continue to pay by check.