The Challenges and Opportunities of Crypto Invoicing

Is crypto invoicing feasible for businesses?‍

Yes, crypto invoicing is not just feasible; getting paid in crypto is becoming increasingly popular as a widely accepted payment method for businesses.

Feasible and growing popularity:  According to a survey, nearly 75% of merchants in the U.S. plan to accept crypto or stablecoin payments within the next two years. 

Giants in the payment processing industry like VISA, Worldpay, Checkout.com, and Stripe have already jumped on the bandwagon, adding the capability to facilitate stablecoin payments.

Fast and affordable cross-border payments: Accepting crypto as payments opens up a world of cost savings. 

Traditional wire transfers could take anywhere from several hours to a few days to complete. In contrast, a crypto transaction could be completed in a matter of minutes or even seconds.

Moreover, the fees associated with crypto payments are often a fraction of what credit card companies and traditional banks charge. This cost-efficiency becomes particularly impactful for businesses that handle a high volume of transactions.

To put this into perspective, research by Uniswap Labs and Circle suggests that blockchain-based payment systems have the potential to slash the costs of global cross-border payments, estimated at $156 trillion in 2022, by up to 80%. That’s a staggering potential annual savings of $30 billion. 

Challenges in crypto invoicing

While crypto invoicing is a great option for businesses, it comes with its own set of challenges.

When sent manually, crypto invoicing can be error prone, labor-intensive, and hard to monitor:

1.Risk of payment errors

Relying solely on human accuracy is a ticking time bomb for costly errors. As you can imagine, long strings of wallet addresses are easy to mix up, or copy wrongly. 

In traditional invoicing, multiple layers of verification serve as safety nets. 

For crypto payments, however, a single wallet address is all it takes to initiate a transaction. This ease of use is a double-edged sword; a minor mistake can lead to irreversible financial losses.

According to a report by Chainalysis, about 20% of all existing Bitcoin, valued at $140 billion, is lost or stranded in digital wallets

2.Tax reporting nightmares

Tax reporting in the crypto world is a complex affair. 

Whether it's income tax on stablecoins or capital gains tax on volatile assets like ETH, calculating your tax liability is a Herculean task. 

The fluctuating prices of cryptocurrencies further complicate tax reporting. 

Often, inbound payments are confusing as to who sent the payment.

Most accountants end up trying to match the transaction to a specific customer and then manually enter that data into their accounting software.  

Also, without third-party crypto accounting software, it’s cumbersome to integrate these invoices directly into your financial reports and be confident that you are accurate.

3.Manual labour and time drain

Crypto invoicing, especially when done manually, can be incredibly labor-intensive.

The average time to process an invoice manually can even take up to 17 days.

Here's a closer look at the typical steps involved:

1. Draft invoice details in a PDF using a crypto invoice template or crypto invoice generator

2. Copy and paste your wallet’s deposit address into your invoice

3. Send the invoice to your client

4. Client copies and pastes your deposit address and makes the payment

5. Client sends you an email to confirm they’ve made the payment

6. You check the relevant blockchain explorer and your wallet to verify payment receipt

7. You acknowledge payment receipt to your client

8. Once done, you manually input the data into accounting software like QuickBooks

The process is time-consuming, involves multiple tools, and relies on human entry of accurate data at several points in the process.

Crypto invoicing made easy with Request FInance

Request Finance is a game-changer in the crypto invoicing landscape. 

You can send a professional crypto invoice in just 8 seconds. The InvoiceMe feature allows you to share your business information with your suppliers, contractors, employees, grantees, and freelancers. They can then invoice you in just a few clicks using the pre-filled invoice template. 

Once the invoices are sent to you, you can make batch payments to multiple recipients, regardless of the blockchain they're on, saving you time and effort.

With Request Finance, you can effortlessly maintain a thorough record of both paid and pending invoices, along with transaction confirmations. This enables you to track payment status, record crucial transaction details, and seamlessly reconcile invoices.

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Ready to make the switch and simplify your crypto invoicing process? Adopt a smarter way to get paid in crypto today. 

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