The CoachAccountable Blog

In addition to Stripe and Square, you can now use PayPal to allow your clients to pay your invoices and purchase your Offerings.

CoachAccountable’s support for PayPal has been a bit of a winding path.  PayPal was the original and only payment processor one could choose for client invoice payments for several years.  It was phased out in favor of Stripe and Square, both of which had better support for in-app payments (as opposed to the need to bounce on over to paypal.com), and the ability to save client cards on file for later invoices.  The former advantage was especially nice for Offerings, and the later for automatic recurring payments in coaching Engagements.

We really wanted every payment processor option to be on even footing, meaning we didn’t want some users to have less functionality available than others based on that choice.  Everyone using PayPal was grandfathered in, but we removed it as an option to steer folks towards Stripe and Square for what they made possible with Offerings and Engagements.

AND YET, it turns out that years later, with the growing CoachAccountable customer base in an increasingly varied set of countries, for many Stripe and Square simply aren’t options due to more limited country support.

So, in spite of the limitations, the time has come for PayPal to rejoin the ranks of payment processors supported by CoachAccountable.

Let’s see how it works!

» Continue reading “PayPal”

For the longest time in CoachAccountable, choosing the currency in which you did business with your clients (for invoices, Offerings, and Engagements) was a one-and-done, set it and forget it kind of thing.

This simple model of one-currency-per-account has worked just fine for over 99% of our customers: most everyone using CoachAccountable to bill for their services only needed to do so in exactly one currency across the board.

But as we get to serving more and more folks, particularly larger organizations with an international base of customers, they “hey I need to bill some folks in X and others in Y” sentiment has become more prevalent.

The time has come for CoachAccountable to support billing in multiple currencies, and so this is now a thing.  Let’s check it out!

» Continue reading “Different Offers, Different Clients, Different Currencies”

Until now, you’ve been able to accept coaching client payments via Stripe. Today we’re pleased to announce that your clients can now also pay via Square!

As in the case with Stripe and Authorize.net, clients can pay your invoices directly inside the online coaching platform, rather than going to an external site.

Setup from within the CoachAccountable system is easy. Just navigate to Settings >> System >> Client Invoicing Config.

Here, select Square as your online payment processor.

Look at that big beautiful Square!

If you’re not logged in to Square, you’ll be directed to the Square login page.

This one should look pretty familiar!

If you are logged in, you’ll skip right over that one and see this next. Square will make sure you want CoachAccountable to have some permissions.

Please say yes – don’t make us get down on one knee!

And voila! The connection with CoachAccountable is complete.

CELEBRATE!! You WIN! Go get that money!

Now your money is going right into your Square account.

What Does This Payment Integration Cost?

It’s free on our end! CoachAccountable doesn’t take any cut of your payments. The only fees are what Square charges you.

Conveniently Save Card Information

As in the Stripe and Authorize.net payment process, your clients can have the system store their credit card information for future use. That makes those automatically recurring invoices a snap and takes them off your mind!

But is it secure? Yep – CA is just a pass-through. Just like coach subscription information, we never keep card details (other than what’s needed to identify the card for the client, such as the last 4 digits and expiration), but instead use a unique token. Square adds yet another PCI-compliant way of taking your customers’ payments through our online coaching tool.

Were you hoping for Square integration in order to sign up for your free 30-day trial of CoachAccountable’s coaching tool? Hop on board today!

I’ve surveyed the audience and one thing is clear: when it comes to running a coaching business, it’s REALLY nice (some would say downright essential), to have a clear separation between getting paid for coaching work and doing said coaching work.

One invariable muddles the other: blessed is the coach who outright won’t tolerate clients who would make them chase checks, and it’s really nice if the client doesn’t get distracted with logistics of paying for business, life, or health coaching when they’re heads down getting the most out of a coaching experience.

CoachAccountable makes this possible.  All you really need to do is set up your coach portal to process client invoice payments on your behalf, by connecting it to your Stripe or Authorize.net merchant account.

» Continue reading “Automatic Subscription Billing”

Since its release, even WAY back in the 1.0 days, CoachAccountable has allowed coaches to accept invoice payments online via PayPal.  It felt like the time was right to open this up to a wider range of payment processors.

Now coaches can offer their clients a way to pay their invoices online with Stripe or Authorize.net.

Not affiliated, respective trademarks, etc. etc.. :)

» Continue reading “Accept Client Payments online now via Stripe and Authorize.net”

There was a time, late last April, when I received some feedback about CoachAccountable’s system for client invoicing.

It was critical but fair, and pointed to a lot of the shortcomings one is bound to find in a system that presents itself as purposefully lean and minimal.  It was a reminder of a fact that I well knew but resisted: CoachAccountable client invoicing was a far cry from the level of polish and quality found everywhere else in the system.

To explain why, we need just a little historical perspective.  Client invoicing was truly the bastard step-child of the system, left over from the 1.0 days and never really given the sort of love of a re-write which most of the rest of CA received when I created version 2.  Prior to launch it was never important enough to prioritize among so much else to work on, and I was perhaps too sentimental to axe it completely.  In the FAQ’s I gave a small apology on the matter: in response to the hypothetical question “What about invoices with broken-out line items? Or taxes? Or reports for my accountant?” I wrote the following:

Sorry, the billing setup of CoachAccountable is deliberately lean and mean, and indeed will probably fall short for more complex scenarios.  CoachAccountable is not meant to be a full on invoice and accounting solution, so if these tools fall sort there are other great online options that do it better than CA ever could.  I’m a fan of Freshbooks myself.

Content as I was to not reinvent the invoicing wheel, I still found this particular earnest criticism of the neglected feature really cut home:

I understand the desire for the lean mean look, it’s strange but when people are spending top dollar for coaching, I like my invoice to reflect some care… just a thought.

CA invoices didn’t reflect any care?  “Holy moly he’s right” I lamented to myself.  I resolved that I needed to remove billing if this is what it’s like.  Then I looked into how many coaches were actively using it: about 30% of my then modest collection of customers.

» Continue reading “Billing Mega Remix”