iZettle: Payments and point-of-sale solutions for small businesses

If you’re a business looking into seamless ways to take payments from customers, one option is the PayPal service iZettle.

The iZettle solution, made up of its point of sale app and a range of payment options such as payment links and contactless card readers, enables small businesses to accept most types of payment methods and process transactions in seconds. And with our new Marketplace integration, you’ll be able to see detailed payout receipts via the Starling app. Our Marketplace is the in-app space where you can connect third-party products and services to your Starling account, making it quick and easy to manage multiple parts of your business.

There are no monthly fees for using iZettle. Instead, there are flat transaction fees of 1.75% for card transactions and 2.5% for any invoice or payment link transactions. By offering invoices and payment links, iZettle is ensuring businesses can get paid even when their customers aren’t physically present.

Our integration with iZettle

The integration between Starling and iZettle is sleek and practical. With your permission, data can be pulled from your iZettle account into your Starling business account, giving you the following details:

• Number of iZettle transactions taken in the last week.
• Value of iZettle transactions taken in the last week.
• Detailed receipts for payouts received from iZettle, outlining the number of transactions included, as well as fees, tips, taxes and a daily breakdown if the payout covers more than one day’s worth of sales.

Because iZettle is a PayPal service, customers will see their payout receipts marked as PayPal (‘PayPal Pte.’) in the Starling app.

For Starling customers who subscribe to our Business Toolkit, the iZettle integration will also allow you to have all your iZettle transactions automatically recorded in the Toolkit’s bookkeeping system - these will be listed as ‘PayPal Pte’. Entries will be created on a daily basis and split by transaction type and VAT rating, making it easier to comply with cash accounting requirements and saving you time on having to reconcile your sales data.

Managing payments with iZettle

iZettle handles card and contactless payments, and its app and online portal allow businesses to make a note of cash payments. It has also launched the ability to create and send invoices from the app, or receive money through a secure one-time payment link sent via text, email or WhatsApp. The payment link, which has a 2.5% transaction fee, means that there’s no need to exchange account numbers or sort codes.

All transactions - contactless, card, cash, invoicing and payment links - will be recorded in your iZettle receipts and a summary at the payout level will be available to view from within the Starling app once the Marketplace integration is set up.

Setting up or connecting your iZettle account

For both existing and new iZettle customers, simply go into the Starling app, tap Marketplace and find iZettle (PayPal) under the ‘Payments’ category. Existing customers can login and follow the steps to give your permission to pull your iZettle data into Starling.

If you’d like to see exactly how to connect your Starling account to iZettle, you can watch our video.

New customers can sign up to an iZettle account, directly from the Marketplace, within minutes and place an order for the discounted card reader, which should usually take one or two business days to arrive, depending on postal conditions. They will then need to complete the connection process from Starling to enjoy the integration benefits.

Supporting small businesses

Keshia Sakarah, 28, uses iZettle to take payments from customers at her restaurant Caribe', based in the London venue, POP Brixton. She’s been an iZettle customer since 2018 and a Starling customer from the beginning of this year. “The iZettle system is all in one and designed specifically for restaurants and small businesses,” she says. “The card reader is mobile which worked perfectly for re-opening. We put the card reader on the table so that people didn’t have to move around so much.”

Caribe’ serves Carribean food and cocktails. Keshia does take cash, which she logs in the iZettle app, but most customers prefer to pay by card. “I’ve seen a few young businesses like myself using Starling. I think the app is user-friendly and it feels smoother trying to decipher information compared to other banking apps. I like the look and feel of it.”

She’s been running Caribe’ full-time for the last two years. “Carribean culture is liked and celebrated - The Notting Hill Carnival is a perfect example - but I saw a gap in understanding for who and what we are. Many people resonate with certain types of food like jerk chicken or goat curry but I wanted to be the person to delve deeper. The ultimate purpose is to cover as many islands as possible and share things that people aren’t used to seeing.” Her grandparents came from Montserrat and Barbuda and her favourite islands are Trindad and St Lucia.

When a lockdown has happened, she’s kept her business going by offering deliveries, but she also spent more time speaking out about Carribean heritage through her blog, YouTube channel and Instagram account. “I’m as passionate about food as I am my Caribbean culture and history. For example, jerk chicken came about when people escaped slavery, lived in the mountains and started roasting meat on wood. Hardly anyone knows that, even though everyone loves jerk chicken.”

Keshia’s aim - both in her restaurant and online - is to start conversations that lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of Caribbean culture.

The level of detail that our integration with iZettle provides is something that we’re really excited to share - it’s been designed to give our business customers complete control and transparency over iZettle transactions. “I can see all the information at once. When the fees have been taken I receive my earnings and then I can see a breakdown automatically in Starling,” says Keshia. It’s an integration that’s the first of its kind for us but there are more to come - watch this space.