Given the speed at which payments are evolving, it’s easy for ISVs to focus their solutions on unique ways to process credit and debit cards. At the same time, many businesses and merchants still and will continue to process cash and check payments. ISVs need to provide that option to truly deliver a comprehensive solution.
Enter ACH processing. ACH offers numerous benefits to merchants – among them are faster access to cash and lower costs. The right ACH payments solution can also process checks. But not all ACH solutions are created equal. Choose the wrong partner, and you will be forced to compromise and/or build workarounds.
An ideal ACH partner offers flexibility, transparency, and the freedom you need to transform their ideas into profitable payments solutions.
The right ACH payments partner will be flexible about creating solutions for your customers. For example, many ACH payment partners utilize their banks to “clear” your transactions and then send the settled funds to your bank. This is workable in scenarios involving modest transaction volumes within well-established industries. However, many ISVs and their large or high-risk merchants have established relationships with banks that understand their business.
An ISV with enterprise and high-risk merchant clients needs a partner that allow you or your customer to work directly with either of your banks to set underwriting standards, manage risks and speed up funding. When a payment processor can support a direct to bank ACH file that is scalable and reliable, they make ACH and Check Capture about you, not them.
Taking it a step further, the best ACH partner can process transactions with any bank and adapt quickly to any new banking relationships added to the mix.
ISVs need to develop solutions that can evolve as their merchants evolve. When it comes to accepting cash and checks, this is especially important. For example, some ISVs are content relying on a processor for their transactions, and they take on as little risk as possible. As they evolve, ISVs may find themselves willing and wanting to assume more risks, further customize their solutions, and even become “the processor.” A great ACH partner has the tools and banking options to support this evolution. Even better, that partner should provide a path for success and grow.
When you begin working with an ACH partner that offers easy enrollment, robust technology, management tools, and bank clearing to assume risks, you won’t have to change ACH payments partners as you evolve. Over time, a superior ACH partner can hand off responsibility for risks, enrollment, and banking while accelerating the flow of funds and reducing costs.
In today’s world of breakneck speed innovation, integration should be frictionless and easy. Any solution provider worth their salt will offer a RESTful well documented API that makes it easy for your development team. Just because a vendor has a RESTful API doesn’t mean the integration will be seamless. Too often, ACH vendors come to the table with preset integration processes that might seem simple to them but can result in additional coding work for your development team. Every minute spent performing unnecessary and unanticipated work to integrate is time lost.
Instead, look for an ACH partner that offers flexible integration processes that minimize the work your development team has to perform. When discussing integration, ask about integration resources and communication. Find out if the ACH payments partner can integrate around existing workflow, and make sure that there’s no expectation of a process change.
An ideal ACH payments solution will plug in and support ongoing development efforts, enhancing your competitive advantage — instead of tearing developers away from your core focus.
Global insight is a crucial component of ACH processing. ISVs need visibility over their entire operation to identify opportunities for greater efficiency and creativity. At a minimum, an ACH partner’s RESTful API should tie back to comprehensive reporting that can be viewed online, shared via API, or exported into a client’s proprietary reporting tool.
By offering this level of transparency, you enable better decision-making, more collaborative work teams, and earlier identification of potential issues before they become problems. It also allows you to manage security. A great ACH partner will give you control user activity, security and permissions, as well as restrict the volume of payments each user can work with in their system.
Transparency is also important prior to signing an agreement. A great ACH partner will have a sandbox account that can be easily obtained without having to send a request via phone or email or without having to commit to anything. This makes it easy to explore and understand how the partner’s processing works before signing an agreement.
If we’ve learned anything after the last several years, it’s this industry innovates and grows quickly and, sometimes, unexpectedly. The technology we consider "advanced" today will need to keep pace with the needs of ISVs as they evolve, in order to remain competitive. That means incorporating what’s new as soon as it’s available.
A great ACH payments partner can easily and efficiently interface with all merchants’ customer touchpoints, including websites, kiosks, pay-by-phone, recurring payments, and any other type of payment interface. Updates and rules changes should be implemented on a timely basis across an ISV’s full solution without requiring specific modifications.
ISVs that are concerned about staying ahead of technology and keeping pace with their merchant clients’ needs should consider Payroc ACH and Payroc AFT for their ACH, Check, and AFT payments.
To learn more about selling merchant services with Payroc, contact us.