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I have US company and all of my customers so far here in US. I send monthly bill and get a check. No CC processing fees, etc.

Now I have some Canadian prospects. How can I bill them? Should I start accepting CC's or I can send invoice same way and get a check from them?

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As long as the Canadian check is MICR encoded and payable in US dollars, it will be accepted in the US. If either item is missing, you will pay a fee to clear the check.

Note that billing customers in Canada from the US by mail can add up to 20 days of delay to your receipt of payment (up to 10 days for them to receive the bill and up to 10 days for you to receive their payment.)

You might want to bill them via email, and taking credit cards will make it easier for your customers to pay and faster for you to receive payment.

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Ok, so at least it is possible. I think I can wait extra 10 days to avoid 3% fee. Sending invoice via email is possible. – katit Sep 30 '12 at 17:23
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Is this B2C or B2B? Large companies or small companies? Small or large payments? Recurrent billing of fixed amounts or variable amounts?

With large companies or companies which do a lot of business in USD you might possibly get away with a USD invoice. (Larger companies will typically have USD accounts as well as CAD accounts).

Otherwise a CAD invoice / payment by CAD cheque OR accept credit cards (for smaller amounts).

As a customer, it costs me/my business too much effort/money to draw a USD check on a CAD chequing account.

The best solution depends upon the nature of your business and the costs involved.

  • If a lot of payments were involved, you could set up a CAD bank account.
  • If it's B2C, you need to accept credit cards.
  • Paypal lets you send invoices / receive payments in multiple currencies. (If it's a business account, the buyers don't have to have a Paypal account)
  • If you are selling software, companies such as FastSpring will handle the currency conversions, recurrent billing (and a lot more besides).
  • If the amounts are large enough and the payments infrequent enough, the cost of paying a CAD cheque into a USD account may be acceptable. (I do this in the reverse direction)
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B2b and payments monthly, starting at $150 – katit Oct 4 '12 at 3:57
@katit - In which case I'd suggest setting up a credit card recurring billing option - less chasing on invoice payments convenience for both US and Canadian customers, and $150/month on a credit card is easier for many people than getting their company to process a Purchase Order / Invoice. Paypal/Stripe/... others if you don't want to set up a merchant account directly. (Paypal still has perception problems for me for higher value amounts, although my accountant hasn't found using it an issue for some fixed price services). – Mike Oct 4 '12 at 15:43

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