Most of the time it traces back to how hard you make it to pay you. Every step you put between your customer and their payment is another chance for them to put it off, and that shows up in your cash flow and your accounts receivable. If check is the only option you offer, you have built the problem into your own process.
I'm Marcus Mire, CPA and founder of MireGroup CPAs in Lafayette, Louisiana. I run into this constantly, and not only as an advisor. I run into it as a customer. Businesses in 2026 still make it difficult to pay them.
What does payment friction actually look like?
It usually looks like a check being the only way in.
I know that sounds silly in 2026. You still see it all the time in professional services offices. Doctors. Insurance companies. Home service providers. I had somebody wash our windows recently and they handed us a handwritten invoice to pay by check at some point.
Here is what that asks of me. Find the check. Write the check. Mail the check. Find a stamp.
Four steps. Four separate chances for me to bail, and I'm diligent. I want to pay you. You've just given me four opportunities to delay paying you.
My wife and I deal with this at different places that bill us. Half the time we don't even know where the checkbook is.
Why does frictionless payment matter so much?
It's the reason Amazon is Amazon.
They give you the fewest possible clicks to make a purchase. That's the whole thing. People in 2026 want frictionless payment options, and they have been trained to expect them everywhere else they spend money.
Your invoice is competing with that expectation whether you want it to or not.
What payment options should you be offering?
Make it easy. That's the entire takeaway.
- A payment link that gives them options
- ACH
- Credit card
- A payment portal they can move through quickly
- A QR code
- Tap to pay
- Payment built directly into the invoice you email out
You probably already have most of this. Your accounting software in 2026, whether that's Xero or QuickBooks Online, has an easy payment option for your customers sitting right there. It's a setup question more than a purchase question.
What about the credit card fees?
So what to the credit card fees.
If it costs you 3%, that's the cost of doing business. Compare it against what you're spending now. Running collections. Paying an assistant to chase the money. Mailing out invoices, buying stamps, and doing it again next month for the same customer.
Three percent on money that arrives this week beats a hundred percent of money that arrives in ninety days, or never.
What changes when you fix this?
Cash flow gets better. I promise you that.
You'll watch your AR come down. Your days sales in AR comes down with it, which is just a measure of how long your money sits with somebody else before it reaches you. Shorter is better, and it's one of the more useful numbers to watch month to month. We cover a few others in 3 KPIs for Service Business Growth.
There's a second effect that's harder to measure and just as real. Your customers will think you're a more modern business and they'll want to deal with you.
That runs the other way too. When somebody doesn't take credit card payments or quick payment options, it makes me consider other service providers, even when the service itself is great. Don't let that be you.
How do you find your own friction points?
Be a customer of your own business.
Go through the process. Get an invoice sent to yourself. Try to pay it the way you'd ask a customer to. If there are lots of friction points, you just found something worth looking into.
It takes about ten minutes and most owners have never done it.
Where does this sit in the bigger picture?
Getting paid faster is a cash problem, and cash and profit are two different things. You can be profitable on paper and still short in the bank, and the gap between them usually traces back to how money comes in.
Two related pieces if you want to keep going. How Much Cash Should Your Business Keep in the Bank? covers what a real cash floor looks like. How Should a Small Business Owner Read a P&L? covers where profit and cash separate.
Frequently asked questions
Should my business accept credit cards if there's a processing fee?
In most cases yes. A fee in the low single digits is the cost of doing business, and it is usually cheaper than what slow collection is already costing you in staff time, postage, and cash sitting unavailable. Run it against your actual collection cost rather than treating the fee as pure loss.
Can I pass the credit card fee on to my customer?
Sometimes, and the rules vary by state and by card network, so check before you set it up. Worth weighing against the reason you added the option in the first place. A surcharge at checkout is another friction point, which is the exact thing you were trying to remove.
What is days sales in AR?
It's roughly how many days it takes you to collect after you invoice. Lower means your money reaches you faster. It's one of the cleaner signals that a payment process is working, because it moves when the process changes.
Do I need new software to accept online payments?
Usually not. If you're on Xero or QuickBooks Online, payment options are already available inside the invoicing you're doing today. It's normally a configuration step rather than a new purchase.
Why do my customers pay late even when they want to pay?
Because wanting to pay and being able to pay easily are two different things. A customer who has to locate a checkbook, write a check, and mail it has four chances to set the task down. Remove the steps and most of that delay goes away on its own.
If your cash never seems to match your profit and you're not sure where it's getting stuck, we'd love to help.
Mire Group Marketing: Sep 23, 2026, 10:28:07 AM
