1. Price in USD, settle in Bitcoin
Nobody wants to quote a fluctuating asset. Price the catalogue in USD exactly as you would with any supplier, and let the payment layer convert at checkout. Your customer sees a fixed crypto amount, valid for a short window — around twenty minutes on our payment server — and you keep a single, stable price list.
2. What happens between “pay” and “paid”
- The order is created as an invoice priced in USD, with a reference such as S1-4f2a91c0.
- The payment page shows the exact BTC amount and address, locked for the window. The customer scans or copies — no account and no identity verification.
- The transaction is broadcast. On-chain detection is usually minutes; full confirmation depends on the fee set and network conditions.
- Status updates to confirmed, and the order enters dispatch with its batch documents.
3. Why suppliers choose it
- Final settlement. There is no chargeback mechanism. That matters in a trade where disputed card payments are effectively unrecoverable.
- No banking friction. No intermediary deciding whether your sector is acceptable, and no multi-day correspondent-bank delay.
- Predictable cost. Network fees instead of percentage processing fees, with no monthly platform charge.
- Self-custody. Funds settle to the supplier's own wallet — nobody holds your money in the meantime.
4. Bookkeeping: record the fiat value at receipt
This is the part that gets neglected. For each order, keep the invoice reference, the USD total, the BTC amount received and the timestamp. Your accounts receive a normal USD sale; the asset movement is separate. Most payment servers, including the BTCPay Server we run, keep this history for you — export it on a schedule rather than reconstructing it at year end.
5. Volatility and conversion
If a portion of your working capital is held in bitcoin, decide in advance what proportion and what you convert. Many suppliers convert at receipt to fund procurement and hold a reserve. The decision is a treasury decision, not a payment-processing one — the point is to make it deliberately rather than by default.
6. What still applies to you
Accepting bitcoin does not remove tax, accounting or export obligations. You still invoice for the supply, you still record the revenue in your books, and crypto treatment varies by jurisdiction — some regimes treat it as property, others as currency, with different reporting duties. Take advice for your own jurisdiction. What changes with our checkout is simpler: we ask your buyer for delivery details and an email address, and nothing else. No accounts, no identity verification, no third party holding the funds.