PayPal Accounts

[Daveo]

Hi all

I was wondering if I could have your advice on something - I have a couple of websites in the pipeline that will be selling various different things from various different websites each with its own domain name reflecting the product.
I have decided upon paypal as the best method to receive money as a) it has quite good fraud protection services b) customers can pay using a credit card and not necessarily need to be a paypal member and c) many more no doubt.

Anyway my question is do u personally think it better to have:

a) Several different business accounts with paypal who's name reflects the domain name or product it deals with or

+ves -
Customers know the money is going into the right account as its name reflects the product
All transactions aren't in the same place therefore security is improved

-ves -
Confusing for me to have so many different accounts on the go
Lose out on reductions in fees

b) Have one central paypal account that has a universal name and that all deals from all the domains get paid into. I guess something like Powerline systems here at ukexpert is I don't know?

+ves -
Simple straight forward one account for all transactions
Possibility to reduce fees as I only have one account

-ves -
Some people might not know who they are paying the money too as the name of the account does not resemble that of the domain name or the product.

I guess I have confused you all but basically I was wondering whether you think its best to have one account for many websites or many accounts each linked to a websites.

Thank You!

[Steve]

Dave,

We've setup all sorts of payment systems on Web sites and Online Shops etc...all have worked fine for us. Even in some cases using credit card terminals to process online orders offline etc. Many online shopping systems come with a selection of built in payment options.

So, there are heaps of ways to process payments and different systems may work best for different sites. For instance with some online businesses we charge directly to credit cards from the Web site.. but with some others the site/company sends an invoice off and awaits payment arriving back.. and different types of business tend to normally work in different ways depending on what they are selling.

Most of our customers still pay us by cheque for instance.

PayPal are the same folks as eBay these days...and so are seen by many as the largest name in the handling of sales and funds online.. so if people are going to trust someone and use one outfit that may not be a bad choice for a lot of things. With most Web sites a lot will depend on costs, and the company involved will compare the costs of their normal credit card and payment systems with using things like PayPal etc.

PayPal accounts and indeed bank accounts usually go with a business don't they... so if you are operating a business it will tend to have one bank account and one Paypal account won't it.

Your accountants would probably be unhappy if you shared a bank account or Paypal accounts amongst different businesses with different sets of accounts....as it would mean specifying which company every single payment in or out related to.. and that would sound awful to me.

So...my view is that what you should do will probably largely depend on how you are doing your accounts. If one set of accounts for one company covers all your efforts on the Web then one bank account and one Paypal account would seem normal.. but if you want more I guess that won't hurt, as they are all added together to make the accounts/financial dealings of the one company.

...as above, I would not recommend you attempt to do several sets of accounts/companies, with them sharing bank accounts and PayPal accounts....it is only my personal view... but that sounds like it might become impossible to manage....and I'm not even sure it would be legal.

What you are thinking about is folks seeing different names on PayPal to the one on the Web site isn't it. I think you have to make your own decisions on that... but thinking about your accounts and what your accountant suggests may be a good idea.

I'm not sure of the new laws that came in not long back....I think you must inform someone like the Inland Revenue within 3 months now if you startup a business.. something like that anyway... it may be 6 weeks or whatever...you can probably look it up or better still ask your accountant.

I'm glad you are doing things on the Web....but you are very independent in your ways aren't you...and that does seem to mean you constantly using up time you perhaps didn't need to. It has been an age since you first had your ideas hasn't it....if you'd set things up with the help of others...like us here, your sites could have been live and earning money many months back.

We had a Sports Media Manager ask us for a site about 10 days back, and it is now live in the background on his own domain...and his email systems, Web site, and various other things are all sorted... and doing things via folks who know the ropes can save a massive amount of time and effort over DIY work.

Folks have made millions off the back of our help... I hope your DIY methods work out equally well for you... delays are a shame though, in most cases a site can be up and running in no time really.

Steve

[Daveo]

Righty multiple accounts - sounds good to me - don't want things getting confusing, thought as much anyhow
As for accountants well slow down a bit, I'll do my own until im earning enough to pay me and one of those!

Thanks for the advice as ever though