In the payment and credit card processing for small business industry, there are lots of one-solution-fits-all options which salespersons love pushing. They never take time to understand how your business operates and the tools you use. The fact is that no two businesses are similar. You and your competition might be utilizing different software, websites, and POS (point of sale) system.
But, lots of these providers will offer the same solution to all of you. In several ways, it is quite challenging to provide a straightforward solution for every business, as there are several ways that payment processing services integrate with other varying aspects of your business. To discover the most appropriate solution, ensure that the payment processing solution you are considering integrates with your business tools like;
POS systems
Having a great POS system is a requirement for doing business in the restaurant or retail industry. But lots of larger payment processing firms will provide you with a sub-par system which features limited functions for managing your business. You might have a system already, but the firm that offers your POS system demands higher rates than you like. To find the most appropriate payment solution for your establishment or business, your chosen option has to smoothly integrate with your POS system. There will be times when one or the other will be down, and working with a firm that features quality software and hardware and fair rates is key to accepting cards for small business.
Website
Frequently, individuals take payments via websites as something that only eCommerce platforms will use. Nevertheless, several businesses like lawyers and doctors’ offices could also benefit from online billing page options. Several businesses discover that it greatly decreases their accounts receivable as well as late payments when their establishment makes it easy to pay for their services online. Not all processing firms offer excellent processing rates for online billing services and they include a bunch of varying fees. Getting a processing firm to offer a fair rate could rather be a challenge. Thus, check varying options out.
Accounting software
Several payment processors don’t integrate directly with accounting software, which produces a huge burden on a business’ accounting team when manually reconciling transactions with the bank. Using a processing solution which integrates quite well with your accounting software could greatly decrease manual bookkeeping tasks. Make sure that you research how any specific payment processing solution integrates with your business’ accounting package. You surely won’t want to use some provider who spoils your accounting workflow.
CRM
Similar to accounting software, having your payment processing solution sync with your CRM is an amazing means of eliminating repetitive tasks. If you utilize your CRM mainly for tracking billable hours, syncing the processing software to update projects as ‘paid’ eliminates risks of errors and greatly streamlines your billing tasks. Whenever any payment is received, the appropriate integration will auto-update the ticket in your business’ CRM and then notify the accounting department.
By the end of it all, to find the most appropriate solution for payment and credit card processing for small business, you must consider all tools you presently use.