Arti Patel Martinez, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: On today's episode of In the Know, we'll be learning more about the Buy Now, Pay Later feature.
Hey ProAdvisors, it's Arti, and you're watching In the Know, where you get exclusive access to demos of Intuit product enhancements by the leaders who built them.
Let's jump right in with Kristin, who will demonstrate how to use the Buy Now, Pay Later feature in QuickBooks.
Kristin, welcome.
Kristin Griffith: Thank you. Arti. Hi everyone. I'm Kristin Griffith and I work in product marketing in Intuit, specifically on QuickBooks Payments. And I live in the Bay Area, specifically Oakland in California. I'm really excited to talk to you all today about Buy Now, Pay Later, which is a new payment method available on QuickBooks Online Invoices.
And I will dive a little bit deeper into what we heard.
Consumers really want to have the option to pay over time. One thing that we know about consumers and especially younger consumers, is that they use Buy Now, Pay Later as a payment method nearly as frequently as credit cards, 44% versus 50%. And what this really tells us is that in the market, consumers really like the pay over time option, and it's become more and more popular over time.
And what this means for businesses, or your clients, is that businesses want to meet their customers where they are. If their customers want or need to pay over time, they want to be able to easily offer that option to their customers. And businesses, ultimately, want to be able to offer multiple payment options to just speed their time to get paid and ensure they do get paid.
Something else that we heard from businesses is that existing financing options outside of QuickBooks Online can be difficult for them to reconcile, since the transaction scope is generic payments without context to tie the amount back to the service or product delivered. So if your clients are trying to offer financing outside of QuickBooks Online, it's not as easy as it could be.
So overall, businesses do want an easy way to offer pay over time options to their customers.
So hearing this, what we did is we have partnered with Affirm to offer Buy Now, Pay Later as a payment option on QuickBooks Invoices, and specifically, QuickBooks Online Invoices. In terms of who this offering is for, it’s specifically for QuickBooks Online users who send invoices.
And what we're actually offering is that they are now going to be able to enable Buy Now, Pay Later on their pay-enabled invoices within QuickBooks Online.
When is this happening? The rollout has already started, so some existing QuickBooks Online users have already begun to have the option to use Affirm and offer it to their customers.
So the rollout has already started this month, which is extremely exciting and we expect it to be available for all new and existing QuickBooks Online users that send pay-enabled invoices by May, and specifically just within the US. The only exclusion is that it's not going to be available for Intuit Enterprise Suite at this time.
So in terms of exactly how this works, what will your clients actually see? The first thing is how will they be able to turn Buy Now, Pay Later on and off within their invoices?
They are going to be able to turn off Buy Now, Pay Later as a payment option. Toggle it off and on just like they do other payment methods.
What you're looking at now is this is the invoice screen that your client would see. On the right side, you can see where they can currently toggle on other payment options like cards or bank transfers. They'll now see Buy Now, Pay Later, with Affirm as a new option that they can toggle off or on on their invoices. And they can do this for their individual invoices, but also they do have the ability or they will have the ability when it's enabled for them is to globally turn it off on their settings, within their QuickBooks Online settings and in sales settings. They can do that globally as well.
Once Affirm is enabled as a payment option, when they send an invoice to their customer, their customer will see something slightly different on their invoice. You'll see that they will see 0% APR or as low as X dollars a month after your invoice is ready.
You'll see that here on this invoice and it will show it with Affirm. Underneath view and pay, they're going to see the firm logo next to any other logos for other payment options that they may have. That will show up automatically on the invoice when Affirm is enabled.
Once the customer wants to pay the invoice, then they will have Affirm as a payment option, so here they can select Affirm as the payment method. You'll see that Affirm logo shows up here, and then they would click pay over time with Affirm, and now, the client's customer would be taken to the Affirm platform. And this is where they would fill out a short application process, then Affirm will offer different payment plans to the customer based on their credit score.
Here is an example of different payment options or payment plans that the customer could choose from for different links and different monthly payments. And so here, they’re selecting the first one and they will click “choose this plan.” And then your client will be paid through Intuit Payment.
Typically, they're paid the next business day, and they'll be paid just as fast as other payment methods such as ACH and credit card. And all the while, the customer is going to be paying Affirm over time. And the invoice payment is going to flow through the books just like it does for other payment methods, so you'll see here on the right that it will show up as paid through Affirm.
In this case, you, as an accountant, would not need to do anything different. It reconciles just like other transactions do.
In terms of the benefits of Buy Now, Pay Later for you, there are a number of them. First, there are no workflow changes. I mentioned before that Affirm transactions will reconcile just like other payments in QuickBooks Online, so there is no added work for you at all.
This feature also will help stabilize client cash flow, so your clients will be able to support customers who don't necessarily have the immediate cash on hand to pay the full invoice upfront.
And then there a number of benefits for your client:
- They will be getting paid upfront while the customer is going to be paying Affirm over time.
- They'll be getting paid just as fast as other payment methods such as ACH and credit card.
- There is zero repayment risk. Affirm is going to be assuming all of the repayment risk for your client's customer. If your client's customer either defaults on payment or is late for the payment, Affirm is assuming that risk, so there is no risk to your client.
- Your client will have affordable rates for the pay over time option. It will just be the standard credit card processing rate that they would be paying.
- They'll also spend less time on collections, because Affirm is going to be handling all the payment collection and follow ups with the customer.
- There is no setup required. Affirm will automatically appear as a payment option on your client's invoice.
There's also a number of benefits for your client's customer as well:
- They'll have flexible payment solutions that can fit their budget and their life.
- They can access services they need now, and pay over time with different payment options.
- They may be able to afford larger purchases as well, because they can have a pay over time option.
- Affirm offers transparent terms; Affirm will be offering financing that guarantees no hidden fees, compound interest, or late charges.
- Customers will be able to check their payment options worry free when they fill out the application process. The eligibility check happens in less than a minute, and it would not affect your customer's credit score.
Arti Patel Martinez: Awesome. That was really incredible, Kristin. So many benefits to the clients and the customers. This is so great. We do have quite a few questions. I think we can probably get through just a couple of them.
Just as a reminder, how much will my client pay to offer Affirm Buy Now, Pay Later?
Kristin Griffith: Clients will pay the standard credit card processing fee, which is 2.99% per transaction.
Arti Patel Martinez: Okay. Awesome. And then what transaction amounts will Affirm Buy Now, Pay Later be available for?
Kristin Griffith: It will be available for invoice amounts ranging from $50 to $20,000, at this time.
Arti Patel Martinez: Wonderful. And then one last question. How will Buy Now, Pay Later transactions be reconciled within QuickBooks?
Kristin Griffith: The good news is that they'll be reconciled exactly like they are for other payment methods today. So there won't be any difference in terms of workflows for the reconciliation of transactions or in the invoice flows.
Arti Patel Martinez: Thanks so much for that walkthrough.
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