Collecting payment as a dog trainer used to be simple. You had two options: have clients pay with cash or write you a personal check. But that came with a serious downside — unless you had clients mail in their payment, or drop by in person to register, it meant not being paid until the first lesson or day of class.

And that leaves an awful lot of room for a client to no-show or fail to bring appropriate payment (while promising to bring it “next time”).

These days dog trainers have a lot more options when it comes to collecting payment for their services — but with options come important decisions that can often feel overwhelming.

After getting asked several times recently what the best options are for dog trainers who want to take online payments, I thought I’d lay out the options I see trainers use most often, and talk about how to tie them into your website or business practices.

Options for Collecting Payment As A Dog Trainer

While there are certainly still dog trainers who opt to collect payment via cash or check, online payments have become much more common. Most of the options dog trainers have for collecting money online fall into 4 categories:

1. Add to Cart or eCommerce Checkout
2. Login to Sign Up
3. Individual Invoices or Checkout Links
4. Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, etc.

There are pros and cons to each of these options and the best option for collecting payment for YOUR business will depend on your sales and client onboarding process, as well as how you manage your business finances.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the options.

Using an “Add to Cart” or eCommerce Checkout as a Dog Trainer

Offering clients the option to choose what they’d like to purchase and just add it directly to their cart sounds great! It seems like a completely frictionless process, and what could be better than waking up to find money had magically arrived in your bank account overnight without you having to do anything at all?

The Pros & Cons of eCommerce for Collecting Payments

While there are some dog training businesses that successfully offer group classes or private lessons using an eCommerce setup, for this to work you have to be okay with not vetting clients before their first class or lesson… Otherwise, you’re going to find yourself offering regular refunds when clients who aren’t a good fit for your services click that “add to cart” button a little too fast.

So when does eCommerce make sense?

This option tends to be best for collecting payment for dog trainers who work mostly with puppies or manners clients where most of the dogs who sign up for a group class are likely to be an appropriate fit (and where a good intake questionnaire can help flag anyone who might not be).

These trainers choose to take the risk that they may occasionally end up with a dog in a class that isn’t a good fit and opt to develop a script for navigating that conversation when necessary.

The other type of dog trainers this payment method can work well for are those whose sales process is essentially to sell a single lesson first. During that lesson they meet with the person and their dog to evaluate what the dog needs and sell that client a program during that first lesson.

And that still leaves those trainers with the question of how to collect payment for the actual program.

As a website designer, this is the most expensive option to build out — it requires building an eCommerce option into your website, including functionality like a check out, a cart, connecting payment options, and making your site secure to accept credit cards. Overall, while it can be the right option to collect payment for some dog trainers, in my experience it’s not the best fit for most.

So, what else do we have?

Requiring Client Logins to Sign Up via Dog Training Business Software

Most of the business software options for dog trainers solve the issues that come with eCommerce one of two ways — they either require you to manually invoice your clients (which we’ll talk more about later in this article) or they require clients to log into their platform before making a purchase.

That means if clients don’t have a login, they can’t sign up… or they need to create a login before they can sign up.

This neatly avoids the issue of having random strangers sign up for classes — but it also means you don’t get the benefits of having a process that’s SO easy that even random strangers can sign up for classes.

Some of the platforms allow clients to create an account as part of the registration process; some of them require you to create an account FOR the client after you’ve vetted them appropriately. If clients can create their own accounts, there is still a risk that sometimes you may end up with a client in a class that’s a bad fit… But the extra step will likely decrease the number of “poor fit” clients you end up having to deal with.

When it comes to your website, this will most often look like having a button or link throughout your site where clients can go to login or register — it’s easy to add, as long as your site’s design is set up with that in mind. Incorporating a link to your software business tool of choice is a minimal additional expense when building out a website.

The Pros & Cons of Client Logins for Collecting Payments

The biggest advantage to these systems is that there are several built specifically for dog training facilities. And if you are a facility offering a wide variety of classes, this is almost certainly the route you’ll opt to go. When clients tend to sign up again and again for classes, having a login where they can easily manage what they want to sign up for is a bonus!

But for businesses where clients may only register for a puppy class and/or a manners class, it may become yet another login they have to manage and another password they have to try and remember.

For those who opt to vet clients before allowing them to create a login, it also adds admin time for the business — either in the form of reviewing their account before they can register for a class (which means they have to come back to your site later to sign up… which decreases the chance of them signing up, since it’s an extra step) or in the form of a sales call.

Using Individual Invoices or Checkout Links to Collect Payment

Sending clients individual invoices or a checkout link to collect payment is probably the most popular choice for trainers who primarily offer in-homes and private lessons. In order to send an invoice or a checkout link, you need to choose a payment processor and/or invoicing system.

If you use invoices to collect payment, you (or your system) will send a unique invoice to each individual client for them to pay. Usually there will be a button they can click to go pay using the credit card or online payment tool (apple pay, paypal, etc) of their choice.

If you use a payment link, you’d have a link for each service or package/program you offer — and you’d reuse the link for each client who wanted to purchase the same service.

Neither option actually involves your website at all, unless you choose to link to your payment links from your site… which then comes with the same cons I mentioned for an eCommerce solution, but without some of the advantages.

Invoicing Your Dog Training Clients

Most business software options for dog trainers come with the option to send invoices. From there, you will need to decide if you want to take a deposit, full payment in advance, or bill per lesson.

Some software options, like BusyPaws, even offer “automatic invoicing,” where they will automatically send your client an invoice a few days before a scheduled lesson. They will even save your client’s credit card details and auto-run their credit card on the chosen schedule.

Of course, even with automatic invoicing, using invoices will require some admin time for each package or program sold.

Using Payment Links for Collecting Payments

Using a payment link will requires a slightly different process. Rather than sending out individual invoices, you’ll still need to manually email or text message your client… but you won’t have to create a custom invoice for each one. Instead, you can use a template with your regularly used payment links, and just send the client the link relevant to what they want to purchase.

Comparing Payment Links vs. Individual Invoices

Personally, I think both invoicing and using payment links are pretty similar from a business standpoint. Invoices feel slightly more personalized, in my experience, and tend to integrate more smoothly with a variety of bookkeeping softwares… while payment links require a bit more work on the bookkeeping front.

Popular options for both payment links and invoicing include Stripe.com, Square or Paypal.com… and of course, many of the business software options also include options for one or both of these payment options (and may or may not ALSO require a stripe or paypal account).

Collecting Payment as a Dog Trainer by using Venmo, CashApp, Zelle, etc.

The final option I see trainers today use is to have clients simply send a money transfer using the payment app of their choice. Paypal used to be the most popular option for this — but then Venmo, Zelle, and CashApp all hit the market.

In each case, you verbally or via email/text message, tell the client which app you’d like them to use and share your details (usually an email or phone number).

In a lot of ways, that process is similar to using a payment link — you still have to message the client and they still need to manually send you their payment. The difference here is usually that they also need use the app you prefer. That often leads trainers to having several apps, so their clients can chose the one they prefer to use.

That means having to check multiple places to see if a client has paid for a lesson, program, or package… and handling bookkeeping for all of those various revenue sources as well.

I think many trainers default to this option because it seems easiest at first glance — just download an app and you’re all set to take payments! But I think it’s often a slippery slope that can lead to other headaches down the line, if not thought out carefully.

No One-Size-Fits-All for Collecting Payment as a Dog Trainer

Hopefully, if you’ve taken nothing else away from this article, you at least can tell there’s not necessarily a “best practice” or a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to collecting payments. Which option is going to be best for you and your business will depend on the type of business you have, the services you offer, your sales process and client onboarding process, and more.

This is one of those decisions where it’s really worth taking the time to evaluate your options — setting everything up right the first time can really save you a lot of headache down the road.