Finances
Income
- http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/
- http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/charging_clients_retainer_how_they_work.aspx
Price plans
Cloud Web Design
- Business Card, Articles, Blogging, Image Galleries, etc.
- WordPress.com, Tumblr.com, etc.
- From £400.
- Plus costs (£40/yr for theme & ad-free, plus domain).
Web Site Design and Build
- Self-hosted Drupal site with bespoke configuration and theme
- Using process estimation tools vs. budget
- From £650 (5 days), at £130 a day
- SSL cert. extra
Hosting and maintenance
- £15/mth for hosting, plus security upgrades
Support, Training, Consultancy £25/hr for additional backend or administration support, or £100 for a full day consultation.
Cloud site setup and custom theme, from £400, or a full site with bespoke backend and custom theme, starting at £650.
Accounting
Software
Services
- http://www.freeagent.com/?referrer=33dgfkb0 - rachel's code
- PocketSmith - The personal finance app with cashflow forecasting
Budgeting
5 fridays (or 5 mondays?)
Scripts
Invoicing
Templates
Open source systems
Services
- http://www.bookkeepy.co.uk/ - nice and clean
- https://www.invoicejournal.com/ - popped up via hn
- http://curdbee.com/pricing/ - free branded teir
Late
Credit notes
Tax
See also Credits
Self-assessment
- https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns
- https://www.gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment
- https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/deadlines
etc
- http://www.besttaxback.com/calculator/taxcalc.aspx
- http://www.easyaccountancy.co.uk/about/freelancer_sole_trader_take_home_calculator.html
- http://www.smallbusinesspro.co.uk/tax/sole-trader-tax.html
- http://www.easyaccountancy.co.uk/faqcentre/self_employed_faq.html
Sole traders’ tax responsibilities:
- send a Self Assessment tax return every year
- pay Income Tax on the profits your business makes
- pay National Insurance
- register for VAT if you expect your business’ takings to be more than £77,000 a year.
Limited Company: Any profit it makes is owned by the company, after it pays Corporation Tax. The company can then share its profits.
Tools
other
- http://www.launchside.com/blog/llc-vs-s-corp-vs-c-corp/ - usa startup taxes
VAT
Banks
Tridos
"We do not provide counter banking services from our Edinburgh office (or indeed any of our UK offices) but are pleased to meet with business customers who have a pre-arranged appointment."
Co-operative
Online service, no real-life access?
Has branches under the name Britannia. One on George Street.
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/17/co-operative-bank-bail-in
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10125254/Co-operative-Bank-faces-nationalisation-if-junior-bondholders-reject-haircut.html
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/coop-saved-but-banks-face-shakeup-in-pivotal-week-8661174.html
- http://moneyweek.com/what-happens-to-co-op-bond-now/
P2P lending
Trading standards
- http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/Aberdeen/bus1item.cgi?file=*BADV612-0100.txt
- http://retail.about.com/od/lossprevention/a/retail_returns_2.htm
Merchant services
to further sort
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_services
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce_credit_card_payment_system
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Payments_Administration
Articles and guides
- http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/what-you-need-to-know-about-credit-card-processing/
- http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/my-search-for-reasonable-and-understandable-credit-card-processing/
- http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/your-get-started-guide-to-online-credit-card-processing/
Before Stripe;
Stripe;
- http://www.wired.com/business/2012/09/payment-processor-stripe-goes-to-canada/
- http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tools-and-tips/so-you-want-to-accept-credit-cards-online/ - simplicity of stripe, but techy
Etc.;
- Shopify Ecommerce University - Learn how to run an online business.
Banks
- Issuing bank is a bank that offers card association branded payment cards directly to consumers. The name is derived from the fact that it issues payment to the acquiring bank on behalf of its customer (the purchaser in the transaction).
- Acquiring bank (or acquirer) is the bank or financial institution that processes credit and or debit card payments for products or services for a merchant. The term acquirer indicates that the bank accepts or acquires credit card payment from the card-issuing banks within an association.
Card associations
The best-known (credit) card associations are Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners Club, Japan Credit Bureau, Attijariwafa Bank, and China UnionPay.
- http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/getting_started/index.asp - A guide to accepting card payments
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interchange_fee
- http://www.visaeurope.com/en/about_us/our_business/fees_and_interchange.aspx
- http://www.mastercard.com/us/company/en/whatwedo/interchange.html
Merchant accounts
- Merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by payment cards, typically debit or credit cards. A merchant account is established under an agreement between an acceptor and a merchant acquiring bank for the settlement of payment card transactions. In some cases a payment processor, independent sales organization (ISO), or member service provider (MSP) is also a party to the merchant agreement. Whether a merchant enters into a merchant agreement directly with an acquiring bank or through an aggregator such as PayPal, the agreement contractually binds the merchant to obey the operating regulations established by the card associations.
- http://paymentbrain.co.uk - guides. no Stripe.
Comparison sites below require signup..
- http://merchantaccounts.expertmarket.co.uk/compare-uk-merchant-account-providers
- http://limpidmarket.co.uk/uk-merchant-account-comparison/compare
- http://www.advansys.com/data/pci_dss.pdf - list of visa linked companies
Provided for by newer payment service provider solutions like Stripe, PAYMILL, etc.
Payment gateways
The payment gateway forwards the transaction information to the payment processor used by the merchant's acquiring bank. The payment processor forwards the transaction information to the card association.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_system
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_processor
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_gateway
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_service_provider
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_payment_service_providers
- http://www.quora.com/How-does-one-start-a-payment-gateway
- http://www.quora.com/Payment-Gateways/What-is-the-difference-between-Payment-Gateway-and-Payment-aggregator
- http://www.quora.com/Payment-Processing/What-rules-and-regulations-should-third-party-payment-aggregators-be-aware-of
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_Secure - redirection to bank site for extra auth
Services
Authorize.Net
Online Payment Gateway and Merchant Account
- http://www.authorize.net/en-GB - owned by Cybersource, owned by Visa
- Setup Fee: £50.00*
- Monthly Gateway Fee: £20.00
- Transaction Fee: £0.15
- Debit Card Settlement (Visa, MasterCard): £0.40
- Consumer Credit Card Settlement (Visa, MasterCard): 2.25%
- Commercial Credit Card Settlement (Visa, MasterCard): 2.75%
- Chargeback Fee: £15.00
- Advanced Fraud Detection Suite: £9.95/month
- Automated Recurring Billing: £10.00/month
- Customer Information Manager: £20.00/month
Online Payment Gateway and Merchant Account
- Setup Fee: Free
- Monthly Gateway Fee: £20.00
- First 350 Transactions Per Month: Free
- Per-Transaction Fee (>350 Transactions): £0.10/trans
Sage Pay
- http://www.sagepay.com/online-payments - accounting, FTSE 100
- 10p/transaction
- Minimum of £25 per month
- No set-up fees, percentage fees or annual charges
- http://www.sagepay.com/great-value-merchant-services-sage-pay
- http://www.sagepay.com/partners/merchant-acquiring-banks
WorldPay
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldPay - Advent International + Bain Capital 80.01%, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group 19.99%
Business Gateway
- Monthly fee: £19.95
- Transaction charge: 10p (350 inclusive per month)
Business Gateway Plus
- Includes merchant account
- Setup fee: £75
- Monthly fee: £19.95
- Transaction fees: From 1.65% + 10p per transaction
Elavon
- Elavon Inc. is a major processor of credit card transactions and a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp. Elavon offers merchant processing in more than 30 countries and supports the payment needs of more than 1,000,000 merchant locations across the globe. Elavon is the 4th largest U.S. credit card processor and is a top 6 acquirer in the European marketplace.
- http://www.elavon.com/ - sub. of U.S. Bancorp, 5th largest bank in USA
- https://www.myvirtualmerchant.com/VirtualMerchant/ - USA payment gateway
- Packages: Core (unbundled) / Flexible (bundled)
- Monthly Gateway Fee: £15.00 / £25.00
- Transaction Fee: £0.09 / First 200 transactions included. Excess Transaction Fee: £0.14. ???
- Both: 10 Virtual Terminal licences included. If further licences are required £30 per user set up will be applied. Tokenisation 1000 cards included. £0.03 per card stored per month in excess of 1000
"Our secure Virtual Terminals can be downloaded to your desktop. The Virtual Terminal is a secure browser based tool, there is no installation required, just an internet connection." ??
CCS/UPG
Elavon resellers
Virtual Terminal:
- £100 + VAT set-up fee (includes 250 free gateway transactions)
- No monthly fees for the gateway
- If it's as the Elavon Virtual Terminal, not really needed?
customer quote -
Merchant Account:
- 1.5% Personal Credit Cards
- 19p per Debit Card
- 1.8% Business Cards
- £4.99 per month recurring PCI Compliance charge
- £12.50 minimum monthly service charge
my quote -
Ecommerce:
- £12.95 per month for payment gateway
- 6p per transaction (fee charged by UPG for gateway processing)
Merchant Account:
- 1.8% Personal Credit Cards
- 20p per Debit Card
- 2.2% Business Cards
- £4.99 per month recurring PCI Compliance charge
- £12.50 minimum monthly service charge (minimum processing requirement per month)
Transactions via;
- Total Setup fees (one-off): £60
- Annual fees: eCOM Basic £99, eCOM Standard £195, eCOM Premium £249
- Transaction credits (fees with minimum): 100 £25 = 25p, 250 £55 = 22p, 500 £99 = 19.8p, 1,000 £149 = 14.9p, 5,000 £499 = 9.98p, 10,000 £899 = 8.99p, 25,000 £2000 = 8p, 50,000 £3750 = 7.5p
Ogone
Online payments - Express Bundle
- Setup Fee: Free
- Monthly Fee: £19.99
- Transaction charges: 300 free transactions/month, after; £0.15/transaction
Stripe
New to the UK market. $40 million USD in investment from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, and PayPal founders Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
- Setup: none
- Monthly: none
- 2.4% + 20p + VAT per successful charge
- No card storage fees
- Holds funds for 7 days?
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6217536
- https://stripe.com/gb/help/pricing
- https://stripe.com/help/transfers
- https://support.stripe.com/questions/which-currencies-does-stripe-support
- https://stripe.com/help/ssl - security/pci
- https://stripe.com/docs/libraries
- https://stripe.com/docs/testing
- https://support.stripe.com/questions/vat-on-stripes-fees
- https://support.stripe.com/questions/custom-fields-for-tax-tips-shipping-and-more
If you are registered for VAT in your country, you can provide us with your VAT number and Stripe will not charge you VAT on our fees. VAT still applies, and you likely need to self-accout for VAT in your local VAT return at the prevailing rate in your country through the reverse charge scheme. Your accountant will be able to assist you with VAT reporting through the reverse charge scheme. If you use Stripe outside Ireland and are not registered for VAT or have not provided us with your VAT number, we will charge you VAT on your fees at the Irish VAT rate, currently 23%.
...
Stripe's pricing starts at 2.4% + £0.20 per transaction + VAT. Stripe charges 2% for foreign conversions (i.e. charging in EUR, when you want to be paid out in GBP).
PayPal's pricing starts at 3.4% + £0.20 per transaction. In addition to their published rate, you'll also pay:
- £20 per month if you want to design and host your own checkout pages.
- If you process in other currencies other than your local currency, PayPal will charge you a fee of 2.5% above the wholesale exchange rate (https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/cross-border-and-conve...).
- If you receive payments from customers outside of the UK, PayPal will charge you a fee of anywhere from 0.4% to 1.5% (https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/cross-border-and-conve...).
- If your customers pay with American Express, PayPal will charge you a fee of 3.5%.
- If you issue a refund, you will pay a fixed fee portion of the original transaction fee.
PAYMILL
- Transaction fees: 2.95% + €0.28 (= £0.24)
- Setup fees: €0
- Monthly fees: €0
- Set up time: 2-3 days
- German, supports UK
- payments via Acceptance (-> AirPlus -> Lufthansa)
- and via Wirecard (principal Member of VISA, MasterCard and JCB, listed on the Frankfurt Securities Exchange)
- http://paymill.tumblr.com/post/51215975425/process-up-to-120-currencies-hi-all-furthermore
- https://paymill.zendesk.com/entries/22598076-Which-currencies-countries-does-Paymill-accept-and-pay-out-
Braintree Payments
- https://www.braintreepayments.com/ - Series A VC funded
European pricing;
- Interchange +.9% + €.10 per transaction.
- Total costs are typically 1.8% to 2.6% of the transaction.
- There is a minimum cost of €100 per month
- Stripe has instant signup. Braintree does not (yet). You have to send us a few documents; the signup process takes a few days.
- Stripe multicurrency support is limited to USD, EUR, and GBP. Braintree can accept payments in 130 currencies and settle in the following currencies: AUD - Australian dollar, CAD - Canadian dollar, DKK - Danish krone, CHF - Switzerland francs, EUR - European Union euro, GBP - British pound, HKD - Hong Kong dollar, JPY - Japanese yen, NOK - Norwegian krone, NZD - New Zealand dollar, SEK - Swedish krona, USD - US dollar, ZAR - South African rand. Being able to settle in DKK, CHF, NOK or SEK might make a big difference to merchants with large customer bases in Northern Europe.
- Stripe charges a 2% currency conversion fee if you settle in a different currency than you present. Braintree does not.
- The pricing structures are different. Stripe charges 2.4% + 20p per charge; Braintree charges on an interchange plus model: IC + 0.9% + 10p, with a 100 GBP monthly minimum.
Balanced
- https://www.balancedpayments.com - USA only atm
- No monthly fees.
- No setup fees.
- No recurring fees.
- Processing: credit card (per txn): 2.9% + 30c
- Processing: bank account (per txn): 1% + 30c
- Payout: bank account (per deposit): 25c
Simplify Commerce
- https://www.simplify.com/commerce/ - USA only atm
- 2.85% + 30¢ per transaction
- No setup fees.
- No monthly fees.
Beanstream
- http://www.beanstream.com/site/ca/index.html - USA and Canada only
PayPal
EEEk
- https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/merchant
- https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-payments-advanced
- https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/payflow-payment-gateway
- Google Checkout - will sunset late 2013
- Google Wallet - US only as of aug 2013
Simplified Ecommerce
- https://merchee.com - USA only
Other
- https://gocardless.com/ - 1% per transaction up to a maximum of £2.00. Simple Direct Debit, for regular billing & invoicing.
Point of Sale
Payleven
- https://payleven.co.uk/ - Accept credit cards, anywhere
- £82.50 equipment purchase
- 2.75% per transaction
- No monthly fees, no minimum revenue
Sumup
- Mobile card reader (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices): £19.95
- 2.75% per transaction
- No monthly fees
mPowa
- 2.95% per transaction, or 25p oldprice? (highest)
Contactless
Near field communication
Markets
Software
- Grism is an open source stock market observation tool. It allows you to easily track the evolution of stock prices through watchlists, portfolios and charts.