How to set up Bpay bills in Xero
BPAY for Xero bills
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Reward customers to pay early and say bye to cashflow stress.
Parakeet adds real-time early payment discounts into your Xero invoices so your customers are rewarded with a discount for paying you early.
We do this straight out of Xero, which means no additional data-entry work is needed and reconciliation is taken care of automatically.
This means you don't have to worry about selling invoices, taking on more debt or chase outstanding invoices.
It also insures you against potential customer defaults.
Have existing early payment discounts in place? We can replicate and automate those and save you the hassle of reconciling short payments.
Did you know...
"95% of customers surveyed said they would pay an invoice early if they were offered a discount?"
It's simple to add early payment discounts into your Xero invoices...
How it works
Continue to invoice from Xero
Our integration with Xero means we are able to take your approved invoices from Xero and automatically add real-time discount offers to your invoices, without changing your invoicing process.
No additional effort required by you.
Update your contacts
Keep you customer's contact details (Contact Name Primary Person, Email &Tax (ABN)) up to date in Xero and all your invoices will be configured for early payment discounts & on-line payments.
Send your Invoices from Xero
Once the invoices are approved in Xero, we automatically apply the real-time early payment discounts based on your global or customer specific settings (more below) to the payment.
For the first time, you can also BYO banking and add it into your Xero invoices which makes taking online payments via Xero even easier.
Customers accepts the discount & pay at the same time!
We have made it easy for your customers to pay you early with your new 'Check Todays Price' button.
Your customers will now see the latest 'updated' payment amount, which is valid for 1 day only.
Choose between static (discount remains the same until x from due date) or reducing/incremental (the discount reduces every day), which means the longer they wait, the lower the discount.
Aside from getting paid via EFT, you can also enable Card payments (with or without surcharges) with BYO Banking.
Your customers do not need to be Parakeet users to take advantage of this.
You get paid early.
No chasing, no debt.
When they do choose to pay, they will pay using your pre-configured payment methods (bank or cards) all at the one-time.
Easy.
Reconciliation
We take care of all the entries for discounts, surcharges recovered and close out your invoices automatically, so all you need to do is "1-click" bank rec. See here to learn more about reconciliation.
See the results our users are getting!
(as of September 2023)
Helping Australia's business community
Shelly Wong
Configure your global discounts & BYO banking and...
Start offering early payment discounts and accept online payments quickly
Set your default ("Global") Discounts
Configure the three 'Global' Discounts settings that you like to offer your customers.
Choose to offer either Incremental or Static discounts.
Maximum Discount Rate (e.g. 6%)
This means you will not offer more than 6% discount on your invoices.
Maximum Cap (e.g. $500)
This means you will not give away more than $500 on an invoice.
Set up BYO Banking for Xero invoices
Whether you want to receive payment via EFT and / or via Cards, Parakeet supports Bring-Your-Own (BYO) banking.
For EFT (Bank) payments
We support deposits to any Australian denominated Bank account (subject to account ownership verification).
BYO Banking
For Card payments, BYO merchant ID
If you have an existing 'bank' internet merchant facilities provided by AMEX, ANZ, Bank of Melbourne, Bankwest, Bendigo Bank, CBA, First Data, Macquarie Bank, NAB & Westpac, you can now use it with your Xero invoices.
For BYO 'online' merchant facilities, we support Stripe and Braintree.
This means you can now take payment from your Xero invoices and customers pay into your current banking arrangement, without needing new banking or merchant relationships.
Your customers don't need to register
Your customers do not need to be a Parakeet user which makes acceptance & payment of your discounted invoices even easier.
However, if your customers do register with Parakeet (refer next section), not only do your customers benefit from personalised discount rates, but you can relax knowing your invoices are automated for direct payment, which means less chasing for you.
Optional - Register your customers with Parakeet and everyone benefits
Personalised discounts for registered customers and certainty of payment for you
Review or Automate Discount Acceptance
You and your customers can choose to review discounts prior to acceptance or let the software auto-accept discounts if it meets your discount settings, saving you time and effort.
Incremental discount rate
For those customers who receives a better rate than your Global discount rate, simply ask them to register for Parakeet (optional & free) and they will receive their special custom rate, automatically.
You can customise the incremental discount rate^, set the maximum cap amount and even toggle on auto approval, making life easier for you & your customer.
^ Incremental means the discount reduces every day until the due date, where it becomes zero. Great for encouraging earlier payment and for new discount arrangements.
Incremental
Static discount rate
For those existing discount arrangements where a Static discount rate^ is used, you can customise that too (e.g. 7.5%/Net 20, etc).
This ensure discounts are only earned by your customers when the invoices are paid early in accordance with your terms.
^ Static means the discount is fixed for the duration of the period and drops to zero once it passes the offer period.
Static
Finally, we have cut your Xero & bank reconciliation to just 1-click
Reconciliation
We know reconciling short-payments are a pain to deal with, so we...
Sorted out the book keeping entries too, including reconciling the discounts
Every invoice paid (early or on-time) is individually marked as paid in Xero, with accurate discount charges applied to save you time and effort.
We automatically create a 'Spend money' transaction in Xero, to record the discount against an interim clearing account* and book it under your new Discounts Expense* account.
For Surcharges Recovered under Card payments, we create a 'Receive Money' transaction and record it against a new Surcharge Recovered* expense account.
* We help establish these accounts as default, however you can customise it at anytime.
Finally, we 'net' the amount you receive into a 'Final Clearing' account (we establish for you) so when you download and reconcile your bank statement, you will see the net amount, ready for you to 'match' off.
In this example, you received a net amount of $5,922 (after discount of $378 across 2 invoices) from customer 1 & $2,250 (after discount of $250) from customer 2.
Now instead of your allocating the discount & surcharges manually, you simply have to do a "1 - click transfer" to your 'Parakeet AR Clearing (Final)' account.
Reconciliation done.
Parakeet Xero Demo
See it in Action
How to add early payment discounts & collect payments from Xero
Early Payment Discount Demonstration on Xero Invoices with Parakeet
Play Video
What users think of our features
Configuring Parakeet
Learn how to set up Parakeet.
Scroll to:
1:00 for Adding Online payment options
2:17 for Discounts configuration
4:32 for Discounts payment
5:00 for Incremental vs static discounts
Get Started with Parakeet and Xero
Play Video
Configure Parakeet
Pick Your Plan
ESD pricing
Start with 14 days free trial
Reward Customers to Pay Your Invoices Early
(14 days free trial applies to waiver of membership fees - optional extras used are payable. All fees quoted excludes GST.)
Monthly Memberships Plans
Start with 14 days free trial
Then select one of the plans below
Growth Plan
$200 per month
1,200 invoices per year
$1.90 per invoice thereafter
Scale-Up Plan
$400 per month
3,000 invoices per year
$1.75 per invoice thereafter
Established Plan
$750 per month
6,000 invoices per year
$1.65 per invoice thereafter
Large Plan
$1,300 per month
12,000 invoices per month
$1.45 per invoice thereafter
Enterprise Plan
Price on application
>12,000 invoices per year
Enquire for Custom Pricing
Optional Extras
(excluded from free trial offer)
Discount fee
20% of the savings / discount given to your customer (e.g. if the discount given is $10, the fee is $2)
Card related charges
0.25% of invoice value paid via Cards
Direct debit charges
$0.00 - included as part of membership plan
BPAY for invoices
Price on application
(learn more here)
Your Customers
FREE
No Fees
Free to receive & pay invoices uploaded by you.
Free Parakeet registration
Parakeet Portal access
Load up unlimited payment methods
Manage discount configurations
Accept customised discounts
Excludes:
Xero Integration and upload of invoices and bills.
Your customers are transferred to a membership plan if a bill or invoice is uploaded to Parakeet via Xero by your customer.
All membership packages include:
Integration & onboarding:
-
Xero integration
-
Free onboarding session
Invoices module:
(Watch the invoice module demo here)
-
Customisable discount rates (incremental or static Discounts)
-
One-time payment with early payment discounts
-
BPAY Automated Invoice Reconciliation
-
Direct debit included
-
BYO Banking & Merchant facility (WBC, ANZ, WBC, NAB, Stripe, Braintree, etc)
Frequently asked questions
FAQ
1. Does you app add early payment discounting to Xero invoices?
Yes.
Once you register & configure your Parakeet portal, we will automatically apply your invoices with the early payment discount rate that you have chosen to use.
2. How does it work?
In 3 steps.
1) Ensure your customers details are updated in Xero (4 fields required - contact name, primary person, email & ABN)
2) Configure your Parakeet account & Connect to Xero
3) Approve your invoices in Xero
From this point onwards, our platform automates the rest.
We update each invoice with the appropriate discount for the day and if your customer chooses to pay early to capture the discount, they can.
Once the invoice is paid, we post the entries back into Xero.
3. How much does Parakeet cost?
4. Can I use different Discount rate for different customers?
Yes.
To have customise discount rate, your customer needs to be registered as a user in the Parakeet portal.
We find this is really useful for regular clients that you deal with as they receive a customised rate whilst you also know that your customer has set up a Parakeet Wallet, which gives you certainty of payment. They also get the benefit of setting up auto acceptance which means discounts are automatically taken and paid.
For non-registered clients, you can continue to offer them your 'global' discount rate under one-time payment invoices.
5. What's the difference between reducing/incremental & static Discounts?
Early Payment Discounts for invoices come in two styles: Incremental and static.
We recommend incremental, which means the amount of discount decrease percentage points each day until the due date.
That said, we give you the ability to select a static discount — a single offer amount for the entirety of the invoice lifecycle to cater for any existing arrangements you have.
6. What happens if my customer doesn't pay early, do they still get a discount?
No.
Our system calculates and updates the discount every day based on your rules.
So if they only pay after the invoice is due, then no discounts will apply and the full invoice amount will be payable.
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