Invoiced.com, a billing service that allows businesses to create invoices and accept online payments, has started to allow its customers to accept bitcoin in addition to other forms of online payment. The system’s customers can offer their own customers the option of paying in bitcoin in addition to using a payment card or PayPal. Invoiced.com uses Stripe, an online payment processor which customers can integrate into their mobile apps. Stripe charges 0.5 percent per bitcoin transaction.

“We see a lot of demand from our customer base for a more affordable way to get paid on larger transactions,” Parag Patel, co-founder of Invoiced.com, told CCN.com.

“We believe bitcoin is the solution. Bitcoin has the potential to be more ubiquitous than credit cards without the exorbitant processing fees.”

Austin, Texas-based Invoiced.com provides its billing service for $9 a month after 30 free days. Merchant customers can accept credit card, PayPal and bitcoin payments. The company has more than 1,000 customers, including consultants, developers, creative services, and contractors.

Easy-to-use billing service

Invoiced.com merchant customers follow four simple steps to accept bitcoin: 1) Open the Invoiced dashboard; 2) Go to Settings > Payments; 3) Click on Bitcoin; 4) Follow the instructions to connect their Stripe account, enable bitcoin on Stripe, and then enable bitcoin on Invoiced.

“Creating a Stripe account through Invoiced takes minutes with instant approval,” Patel said.

When a customer chooses to pay an invoice in bitcoin, the amount due converts from the invoice’s native currency into a bitcoin amount. Once the customer pays in bitcoin, the amount in the customer’s native currency deposits into the merchant’s Stripe account.

Invoiced.com invoices display a “Pay with Card or Bitcoin” button on the invoice payment pages. Once they click the “Pay with Bitcoin” button, there will be a bitcoin tab. The amount due converts from the invoice’s currency to bitcoin. The conversion amount is valid for less than 10 minutes.

Invoiced’s merchant customers don’t have to maintain a bitcoin wallet to accept bitcoin. “Our bitcoin integration with Stripe converts bitcoin payments into the vendor’s native currency,” Patel explained. “This eliminates the need for the vendor to maintain a bitcoin wallet. Bitcoin is not yet a convenient currency for vendors to possess. We hope this lowers the barrier to entry enough that more merchants will accept bitcoin.”

Target customers: tech and international

Patel thinks that merchants in the technology sector and those taking payments from other countries will be the fastest to start accepting bitcoin. “Our vendors serving a tech-oriented audience or dealing with international customers are most interested in bitcoin,” he said. “The biggest advantage we see is being able to truly accept payments from anyone, anywhere.”