Why Cheques Make Sense for Your Small Business
We live in an age of technology, and nearly everything is digitized. Physical products are often devalued in favor of information passed among computers and handheld devices. This modernization process has also infiltrated the financial world, and cheques might seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur. Many transactions take place with a swipe of a card, some simple data entry on a computer, or some sensors passed in front of a screen.
The cheque is still a worthwhile financial instrument for small businesses, however. Even though it might seem like an old-fashioned method of payment, it has several advantages over digital payments. The cheque has survived for centuries, and there are reasons why it isn’t going anywhere soon.
So if you’ve started your own business recently, find a place to get the best variety and quality of cheques. Here are some of the reasons why they’re still a great way to make and receive payments.
RELATED ARTICLE: B2B PAYMENTS STILL LARGELY DRIVEN BY PAPER CHEQUES
Many Businesses Prefer Them
If you’re making B2B payments, a cheque might be the only method with which you can get this done. Credit card processing often contains hidden fees for the merchant, which means that many businesses shun payments by credit card if possible. In addition, certain local tradesmen only accept cheques for payments, so if you don’t have them, you might not be able to hire them for their services. And that could mean paying higher prices for others from further away to come and do the work.
The Paper Trail
If you want to keep the closest tabs on your payments and receipt of payments, paper cheques again are a great idea for your business. You can even pick up ones that allow you to immediately tear off a copy for your records. This can be useful come tax time, in case the tax officials want to see a paper trail during an audit. Having the paper evidence also helps to prevent fraud. In addition, many people struggle to read the information from credit card statements. Writing in the register a record of all the cheques you have coming and going will eliminate this problem. As a small-business owner, eliminating problems is invaluable.
Other Benefits
There are other benefits to small businesses still writing and receiving cheques to do business. For example, there’s the little bit of advertising you can do with a well designed cheque. It can make a great impression on the people who receive it. It also provides handy information that the receiver will be able to file away in their records. In addition, there is the little lag that the sender of a cheque gets between the time when they send the cheque and when the recipient cashes it. That can come into play if cash flow is lagging when the payment is required.
So it’s a good idea not to write off cheques, at least for now. As a matter of fact, if you own a small business, the cheque can be your best friend.
