"to pay by invoice or proforma"?

[Borek]

My English fails me.

If you don't know: one of the things I am doing is selling chemical software - you download the program from my site, you pay with a credit card for the license, you get the registration key. You can also buy paying with a bank transfer.

This is a third or fourth time I am asked if it is possible "to pay by invoice or proforma". Any idea what these people really ask?

Obviously I am missing something, the way we do things in my neck of the woods is you pay with money, not with the invoice. Invoice is something that just confirms you paid (or obliges you to pay on a due date). I suppose they don't want to/can't pay with CC, but they don't ask about alternative payment methods. I don't even know what they ask about.

 

[Bystander]

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-...oice is a,other details about the transaction.
"They'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger your software today."

 

[phinds]

Invoice is something that just confirms you paid (or obliges you to pay on a due date).

In the US an invoice is something you (the seller) send to them (the buyer) after having delivered the merchandise to them. It bills them for the merchandise. Invoices are normally used only after a commercial relationship has been established between buyer and seller. Using it for a one-off sale would require WAY more trust that I would recommend.

Just say no.

 

[Borek]

In the US an invoice is something you (the seller) send to them (the buyer) after having delivered the merchandise to them. It bills them for the merchandise.

No misunderstanding here.

Invoices are normally used only after a commercial relationship has been established between buyer and seller. Using it for a one-off sale would require WAY more trust that I would recommend.

For one-off sales I (almost) always tell them I send the registration key after the payment clears out (so technically they pay up front), so that's not an issue.

What baffles me is that they never ask about HOW to transfer money after they get the invoice, which makes me doubt they understand the process - what good is getting the invoice when they can't pay it by CC nor bank transfer, which are the only practical, intercontinental ways?

I sell programs for almost 20 years now, these questions are new (last year or so) and they come from people working in serious companies so I wonder if it is something new that I am missing (or something old that they miss ).

 

[Frabjous]

A proforma invoice is a preliminary invoice. They might just need an official looking document to push through their bureaucracy.

 

[DaveE]

This is the way large business often operate. The engineers tell the buyers to buy something, buyers negotiate terms and ask for an invoice after checking the spending limits the employee has (or the people that approved the expense), the seller sends the invoice which goes to the Accounts Payable department, and is paid after the shipping/receiving department says the package arrived. Of course there are an nearly infinite number of variations, depending on the contracts or situation.

For many years I could buy some really expensive stuff by starting the process, but there was no way I could send money. Later they decided that the overhead was a PITA for smaller stuff like a box of transistors, so they gave us credit cards with a $1000 limit.