GoDaddy Launches 'Get Paid,' a New Payment Processing Tool for Small Businesses

Laura Entis for Entrepreneur writes: GoDaddy has always been the go-to spot for businesses to register their domain names. Now, it wants to be the place where businesses manage their payments.

Today, GoDaddy launched 'Get Paid,' a payment processing tool designed to make it easier for small businesses to get paid promptly and track invoices, weekly expenses and sales as well as billable and non-billable time.

The move brings GoDaddy head to head with similar tools such as QuickBooks Payments, which added a slew of new features in March designed to accelerate the payments process.

Partnering with Stripe, Dwolla and PayPal, GoDaddy has streamlined the services offered by each company into one processing tool that supports all forms of payment, such as credit and debit cards, and electronic checks. Transactions can take place on mobile phones, laptops and tablets.

In addition, 'Get Paid' users can electronically track when an invoice sent via email has been opened, read and paid. Unlike with antiquated paper or attachment invoices, which can be easily lost (intentionally or not), "You'll always know who still owes you money," says Steven Aldrich, GoDaddy's senior vice president of business applications. He's heard some "disheartening stories" starring lost, forgotten about or discarded invoices that results in non-existent or delayed payments.

"We've made it really easy for a small business to create an estimate, turn that estimate into an invoice, present the invoice to a customer and get paid right there on the spot," says Aldrich.

Surprisingly, many small businesses don't have the tools to accept money at the point of sale, and thus must turn down immediate payment. According to a recent survey of 600 small businesses conducted by GoDaddy, over 45 percent of small-business owners still don't accept credit cards or debit cards, which means they're sending invoices. And invoices can get lost – nearly a quarter of respondents polled said they had lost track of whether or not a customer had paid them or not in the last 12 months, or could see it happening in the future.

"If a customer wants to pay you, you never want to have to say no," Aldrich says.

'Get Paid' is currently available with costs ranging from $3.99 to $19.99 per month.