6 Ways to Use Bumpa to Get Paid Faster and Never Chase Payments Again

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Ask a business owner in Nigeria, Kenya or pretty much anywhere else in Africa what gives them the most stress, and payments will be on the list. Is this transfer even real? Will the money reach me today, or next week? And is there a tool built for how we actually do business here, not one designed for somewhere else?

If you already use Bumpa, you likely know a few of them but what you may not know is how many of these features actually exists to help you get paid not only faster but as securely as possible without posing a risk to your business. So here are six ways to use Bumpa to get paid faster and more securely, plus a bonus that does the chasing for you.

Quick answer: To get paid faster on Bumpa, set up your Bumpa Wallet with a PIN and Tier 1 KYC so you can withdraw successful naira payments instantly. Then share order links, send SMS payment requests, accept partial payments, collect transfers with Bumpa Terminal, and let invoices, receipts and reminders go out on their own.

One thing to note before you start

Before you're able to make withdrawals on Bumpa, you need to complete your verification by providing the following:

• Your National Identification Number (NIN)

• Bank Verification Number

• CAC Document Verification

This is very important because it's the one way we have to keep your payments safe and ensure that any payments go to the right person, right bank account and the right details. If you're yet to verify your identity, simply look at the top of your dashboard in your desktop screen and you'll see a banner there with a list of things you need to complete.

You'll need at least a Tier 1 KYC (it asks for your BVN and NIN), and our post on KYC verification and fraud prevention explains in more detail why you should get this done as soon as possible. Now that we've gone through this, let's explore the 6 ways to use Bumpa to get paid faster:

1. Get paid into your Bumpa Wallet and withdraw in real time

The Bumpa Wallet essentially functions similarly to how your bank account work but it lives on Bumpa, without any of the usual headaches that comes with using an external bank account. Successful naira payments from your website, shared order links and Bumpa Terminal all go straight into it.

It also comes with something called "Instant Settlement". Normally, settlement (your money moving from a completed sale to somewhere you can actually use it) takes up to 24 hours but with Instant Settlement, the money lands in your wallet almost immediately, and you can withdraw it to your bank in real time with your PIN. So you can restock, pay a supplier or send out the order the same day, instead of waiting until tomorrow to see your money.

To qualify for instant settlement, you need to fulfill a couple of conditions like:

• Tenure: You must have been on Bumpa for at least one month.

• Transaction frequency: You need a consistent track record of payments processed through Bumpa.

Setting up your wallet takes two things: a PIN and the Tier 1 KYC from the step above.

If that sounds like you, here's where to find it. Click Bumpa Wallet in the left sidebar of your dashboard, then click Settings at the top of the wallet page. Get Instant Settlement is in that dropdown, sitting alongside options like Change PIN, Interests and Bank Account Details.

A few details worth knowing:

• Each withdrawal costs a flat ₦50, plus ₦50 stamp duty on amounts of ₦10,000 or more.

• The wallet is for naira. USD and GBP payments still take 5 to 10 working days.

• Money you leave in the wallet can earn interest, paid monthly. Withdraw too often, though, and you lose the interest you've built up, so patience pays here.

Our Bumpa Wallet post has the full breakdown.

2. Turn any order into a link with Share Order

If most of your sales happen in WhatsApp chats and Instagram DMs, you know the routine. Price. Account number. "Please send proof." "Have you sent it?" Then again with the next customer.

Share Order cuts most of that out. Open the order, click Share Order, and Bumpa copies a link. Paste it into the chat. Your customer opens it and pays on your website, without scrolling through your whole store first.

You might call this a payment link. We don't, technically, but it does the same job. Our post introducing the Share Order button shows what your customer sees on the other end.

3. Nudge quiet customers with an SMS payment request

"I'll pay tonight." That was three days ago.

Instead of drafting another polite-but-firm message, open the unpaid (or partially paid) order and click Request Payment. Bumpa checks with you first ("You're about to send an sms payment request to [customer]"), and once you confirm, your customer gets an SMS with their order details and a link to pay.

It's a small thing, but it takes the awkwardness out of following up. And if unpaid orders have started to pile up, your dashboard to-do list will prompt you to request payments for them in bulk from the Orders page.

4. Accept deposits and instalments without a notebook

Some customers pay half now and half on delivery. Some pay in three parts. Some pay "when salary enters". All of that is fine, as long as you can keep track of it.

Mark the order as Partially Paid, and its page shows two numbers: Amount Paid and Amount Due. Each time money comes in, click Record Payment and log the date and how they paid, whether that's Bumpa Terminal, Cash, POS Terminal, Merchant's Account or Gift Card. When the balance is cleared, the order flips to Paid on its own.

One handy detail: Request Payment works on the balance too. And when you want to see everyone who still owes you, the Partially Paid filter on your Orders page pulls them up in one list.

5. Confirm every transfer on WhatsApp with Bumpa Terminal

This is the one we built with fake alerts in mind.

Bumpa Terminal gives your business its own account number, in your business name, for customers who pay by bank transfer. When a payment lands, a WhatsApp alert goes to you and the staff you choose (up to five people, you included). Your sales rep doesn't have to call you to ask "has the money entered?", and they only see the amount of each payment, not your balance.

That alert comes from Bumpa, not from a screenshot on a customer's phone, which makes it a much better thing to trust. It's still worth knowing the warning signs of a fake alert, though, and the guide we linked earlier covers them.

To match a transfer to its order, use Record Payment and choose Bumpa Terminal. Got more than one shop? Each physical location gets its own Terminal account. Your wallet account number is the same as your Terminal account, too.

Selling in person? The POS tab gives you Pay Online (a QR code your customer scans), Cash, POS Terminal and Terminal. There's more on that in our Bumpa POS post.

As for fees, Terminal charges ₦50 on payments under ₦1,000, ₦75 from ₦1,000 to under ₦5,000, and ₦100 on ₦5,000 and above.

6. Let invoices and receipts send themselves

Nobody started a business to write receipts.

On Bumpa, the paperwork follows the order. Create an order as Paid and you get a receipt. Create it as Unpaid or Partially Paid and you get an invoice. Each order has Print and Send buttons for its receipt, and anything bought on your website gets a receipt automatically.

If you'd like customers kept in the loop without typing a thing, head to Settings, then Notifications. You'll find toggles for emails when an order is created, confirmed (paid), shipped, returned and more.

Two small touches worth knowing about: invoices can carry custom notes (a good spot for payment instructions), and invoices from a Bumpa Terminal account include the account number. Our Invoice Generator 2.0 post covers both.

Bonus: let Bumpa do the chasing

Of everything here, this is the one that comes closest to the title of this post.

Go to Settings, then Orders, and turn on Abandoned Order Recovery. From then on, Bumpa emails and/or texts customers about their unpaid orders for you. You decide how many reminders go out (the app recommends at least three) and how far apart they are, with a minimum gap of 30 minutes. Each email uses 4 Bumpa credits, and each SMS uses 8 credits per 160 characters.

Set it once, and the follow-ups happen while you get on with everything else. Our post on automated abandoned order reminders goes into more detail.

While you're in Settings

• Give customers more ways to pay. You can connect Paystack, Nomba, PocketApp and Fincra, which opens up card, transfer, USSD, QR, Pocket wallet and OPay. Our guide to Bumpa's payment methods has more.

• Decide who covers the fee. The Transaction Charges setting lets you absorb transaction fees or pass them on to customers, and you can show the fee at checkout so nobody's surprised.

• Keep an eye on settlements. Finance, then Transactions shows your Transaction History and Settlement History. Pending settlements are paid within 24 hours.

Over to you

You don't need all six at once. Set up your Bumpa Wallet first, then pick the feature that fixes whatever's costing you the most time right now. If you're not sure where to start, the automatic reminders are a good bet.

Not on Bumpa yet? You can create your account at getbumpa.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I get paid instantly on Bumpa?

Set up your Bumpa Wallet with a PIN and Tier 1 KYC, and turn on Instant Settlement once you qualify (at least a month on Bumpa and a steady record of payments). Successful naira payments land in the wallet immediately, and you can withdraw to your bank in real time.

2. Does Bumpa have payment links?

Not by that name. Share Order copies a link you can send on WhatsApp or Instagram, and your customer pays on your website.

3. Can customers pay in instalments?

Yes. Mark the order as Partially Paid and log each payment with Record Payment.

4. Can Bumpa send payment reminders automatically?

Yes. Turn on Abandoned Order Recovery under Settings, then Orders.