Getting Paid in Crypto as a Supplier: A Checklist

For a small business selling services across borders, being paid in crypto solves a real problem: the money arrives in an hour instead of four days, and it costs a fraction of a bank transfer. You can check every claim below against a crypto offramp with published settlement times, which states its terms openly.

Here is what to have in place first.

Price in your own currency

Invoice in euros or pounds or whatever you actually operate in, and state the crypto amount as the equivalent at a stated rate and time.

Do not price in crypto. If you invoice a fixed number of coins and the price moves before they pay, one of you is worse off and it becomes a conversation.

Use a stablecoin if you can

For invoicing, a coin designed to hold a steady value removes the whole problem. Most business clients already hold one.

If the client insists on something volatile, keep the payment window short and state that the amount is recalculated if it expires.

What goes on the invoice

The amount in your own currency. The crypto amount and the rate used. The network, written out in full. The address. A deadline. A line saying network fees are payable by the sender. And a line saying funds sent on any other network cannot be recovered.

Six items. Each prevents a specific thing that will otherwise happen.

Decide who pays the network fee

Say it explicitly. Without that line, a good share of clients will deduct it, and each one becomes a short payment you have to chase or write off. The business equivalent is a provider serving law firms and corporate services, where the settlement side is already handled.

Set a tolerance for small shortfalls so you are not chasing three euros.

Convert promptly

Unless you have crypto costs of your own, convert on receipt. Holding it is a position you did not decide to take.

Set up the conversion route before the first invoice: which provider, which bank account, and do a small test.

Tell your bank

Money arriving from a crypto company may prompt questions. A short email saying what your business does, who the provider is, and that payments of roughly a certain size are expected, prevents almost all of it.

The records to keep

Per payment: the client, the invoice, the amount in your own currency, the crypto amount and network, the transaction identifier, the date and time, the rate you used, and the conversion record.

Filed together. This is what your accountant needs and what a tax authority may ask for.

What it costs, roughly

A network fee of about a dollar on a cheap network. A conversion margin of a fraction of a percent to a percent. Compared with fifteen to fifty in fees plus a conversion margin on an international bank transfer. Whichever way you go, the balance you are actually using belongs at the published coverage list rather than wherever was quickest to sign up.

For a supplier invoicing abroad regularly, the difference is meaningful and it arrives the same day.