Integrated Payment Solutions

There are several advantages for using an integrated payment solution for business:

1. Reduces your overheads: with traditional payment systems, a lot of time and resources are spent on reconciling against several systems and maintaining several payment systems.
   
   This is the real advantage of integrated payment systems. Without manual intervention or the various systems, there is less resource required to look after this process. This can save significant costs, meaning your margins will be higher compared to a more traditional payment process where manual entry is still needed.

2. Saves significant time: with automating your payments come faster processes. It means no more manual data entry, freeing up finance teams to focus on other areas of the business. It also means you receive your money quicker as everything is automatically posted, rather than waiting for manual input.
   
   With recurring payments, Direct Debit payment collections are also automated so invoicing is sent out without the manual work behind it. The knock-on effect for your business is improving your operations and consequently your business performance too.

3. Reduces risk: the manual side of payment data entry is a huge risk to businesses, considering human error as well as the possibility of staff absences or shortages. The knock-on effect here can also be significant if it damages customer trust.
   
   Prioritise your customers and business safety, and opt for an Integrated payment solution to mitigate risk in an event of manual errors.

4. Improves cashflow: with traditional payment systems which rely on manual admin and reconciliation, the speed of processing can mean payments to your merchant account can be slower. This can impact several areas of your business and put pressure on your operating costs.
   
   Choosing an integrated payment processing platform means you receive your funds faster, which in turn means you have better visibility and control over your cash flow with timely and reliable payments.

5. Analytics and trend data: Equip your business with the ability to recognise trends and learn critical information about your customers’ buying habits.
   
   Understand how and when your customers prefer to pay is just one aspect. Integrating payments into accounting software allows you to understand which products are performing well, or not, which can have an effect on how and where to invest to get the most revenue. In addition, it means a single source of reporting the truth – no need to pull data from multiple sources - all reports are derived from the same Integrated Payments platform.

Integrated payments provide a seamless flow of transactional payments data into business software, such as an accounting package, customer relationship management (CRM) system, or ePOS system.

Payments data is posted directly into the software so it removes the manual, admin-intensive process of checking and reconciling accounts across multiple systems.

This in turn saves significant time and reduces financial overheads and the risk of human error – all of which means internal efficiency improves and creates a strong business structure.

Payment data can be embedded with software using payment APIs. This means an automatic payments process, a major benefit being there is less need to maintain manual processes as data is automated between systems.

Payment APIs are used in integrated payment systems for recurring and one-off payments, making them valuable for subscription model businesses. They’re also easy to customize and can be used with other systems, such as inventory management and accounting software.

Using a payments API gives up-to-the-minute reporting and status updates, which gives businesses a real-time view of their cash flow as well as eliminates the manual reconciliation work.

An ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor and means a business or organisation that builds and markets its own software, whether that’s for a particular vertical or on a wider, mass-market scale.

A key benefit for ISVs with integrating payments into their software is that it can be offered to their customers as another part or module of their software. This in turn can mean a greater revenue opportunity and a way of gaining a competitive edge over other similar vendors.