Intuit's GoPayment is now making it possible for small businesses to process credit card payments using mobile phones.

The service is meant to improve cash flow and sales. Anyone with access to the mobile Web or the downloadable GoPayment application can receive an Intuit GoPayment merchant account.

"Intuit GoPayment is one of our first mobile offerings for small business owners," said Chuck Harris, general manager of the payment solutions division at Intuit, Mountain View, CA.

"We've found that our small business customers want to work increasingly when, where and how they want, and using their mobile devices is a key part of this," he said. "Getting paid on the spot is a key need that we found among small business owners."

Intuit is partnering with Sprint in this endeavor to help small businesses get paid quickly using the GoPayment application available on select Sprint phones. Intuit is also working with beeweeb and VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division.

Sprint isn't going unrewarded, as GoPayment enables businesses to obtain immediate payment via Sprint's Now Network.

GoPayment is targeted toward businesses that work outside of an office such as carpet cleaners, plumbers, electricians, photographers and wedding planners.

This service prevents businesses from sending and pursuing invoices after the job is finished.

"Until now, there have not been many affordable and hassle-free ways for small business owners to process payments in the field," Mr. Harris said. "They have either had to write down the card number, call the number back or use an imprint machine.

"All these methods require multiple steps, take extra time and are not very secure," he said. "Alternatively, they have used an expensive wireless terminal that costs around a thousand dollars to use. And because wireless terminals use an older cellular network, coverage hasn't been reliable and coverage is limited."

GoPayment negates the need to carry hardware or a wireless terminal although optional blue tooth hardware is available, such as a card swipe that automatically reads credit card data and a printer that generates a printed receipt on the spot.

Business owners also have the option to add multiple employees to their single merchant account with no extra fee.

Intuit recently ran the survey, "Getting Paid," finding that millions of the smaller businesses nationwide are waiting for approximately $1,500 in overdue payments. Collectively, there is an approximate $33 billion drag on their cash flow.

The same survey said that nearly 40 percent of business owners saw a sales increase after offering their customers the option to pay by credit card.

Intuit is a provider of financial and business management solutions aimed toward small and mid-sized businesses with software products such as QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax. These products attempt to simplify business management and payroll processing, personal financial management, tax preparation and filing.

Intuit's GoPayment coincides with these products. Entrepreneurs who use QuickBooks can download their transactions direct from the Merchant Service Center on GoPayments into QuickBooks Pro or Premier 2009.

For those who don't use QuickBooks, Intuit's online Merchant Service Center offers users the ability to search, view and create reports.

GoPayment includes a merchant account setup fee of $59.99 along with a monthly payment of $19.99.

"The challenge of mobile payments is people's perception of security," Mr. Harris said. "Just like when they were nervous about sharing their credit card information when they first started to buy products over the Web. Now a few years later, just about everyone buys products online.

"But there still may be people who worry about having their credit card information processed over a mobile phone," he said. "With GoPayment, it's just as secure as processing a payment over a credit card terminal."

GoPayment uses the same security technology as the financial services industry and credit card information is not stored on the handset, ensuring both the customer's and the service provider's financial safety.

"Over the next few years, I expect most small business to process payments over their mobile handsets and for their clients to feel comfortable doing this," Mr. Harris said.