What Are Integrated Payments?

Integrated Payments Defined

What are integrated payments? Integrated payments refer to payments made through an integrated payment system, which is a payment processing solution that is connected into a SaaS business’s existing software or hardware (such as a point of sale system, CRM, accounting software, etc.). When integrated payments are processed, the transaction and payment data is automatically routed to the appropriate channels for accounting and recordkeeping. 

Why Do You Need an Integrated Payment System?

Without an integrated payment system, SaaS companies, subscription businesses and other online merchants must build their checkout process from scratch or partner with a third-party merchant services or payment processor. It can be a complicated process that often involves redirecting customers or sending them to a third-party website, which can cause friction and complications that impede the customer experience.

Almost every business can benefit from integrated payment systems because they can create an additional revenue stream, streamline buying experiences for customers, and ultimately, increase customer retention. 

How Does an Integrated Payment System Work?

An integrated payment system streamlines the payment process for both customers and businesses. Here’s a scenario to demonstrate how an integrated payment system works in comparison to a non-integrated solution:

Without an Integrated Payment System

1. Customer adds a digital product they would like to purchase to their cart and proceeds to checkout.
2. Customer is prompted to enter their personal details.
3. After personal details are finalized, the customer proceeds to the payment stage. If the business does not have an integrated payment system, the customer is either sent an invoice, redirected to a payment processor, or sent to a third-party website to submit payment.
4. If the customer isn’t put off by the friction during the payment stage, they submit payment for their purchase.
5. After payment is complete, the business manually marks the purchase as paid and closes the sale in the relevant systems.
6. The business adds the transaction to the daily file of receipts and invoices.
7. At the end of the day, the business reconciles all receipts and invoices and enters them into its accounting software.
8. The business manually logs transaction details into relevant channels such as its CRM, inventory tracking system, etc.

With an Integrated Payment System

1. Customer adds a digital product they would like to purchase to their cart and proceeds to checkout.
2. Customer is prompted to enter their personal details, payment information and preferred payment method.
3. Customer submits personal and payment info and completes the sale.
4. Your integrated payment system automatically communicates the transaction data to the relevant back-office systems and completes the sale.
5. Transaction data is automatically sent to your preferred channels (inventory tracking system, ERP, accounting software, CRM, sales analytics, etc.).

What Are the Benefits of Integrated Payments for Your Clients?

When it comes to streamlining business operations, payment technology might not be top of mind for many business owners. But it should be. By syncing payment and other crucial back office systems, integrated payments automate time-consuming, manual processes and unlock a suite of benefits:

Streamlined Operations

One of the primary benefits of integrated payment systems is that they streamline the payment process and resulting data. By integrating payment processing with other business management tools, such as accounting software, or ERP solutions, businesses can reduce the need for manual data entry and reconciliation, saving time and reducing errors.

Fewer Mistakes and Unnecessary Costs

By removing the manual, error-prone aspects of data entry, there is a far lower risk of mistakes. This also helps businesses avoid the unnecessary costs that can come with this time-consuming work, not to mention the possible costs resulting from mistakes and human error.

Improved Cash Flow

Integrated payment systems can help businesses improve their cash flow by processing payments far faster and more efficiently than traditional systems. When payments are reconciled in sync with the transaction, business records are more accurate, which can help them manage their cash flow more effectively.

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Integrated payment systems can improve the SaaS customer experience by making it easier and more convenient for customers to pay. By accepting a wide range of payment methods and providing a seamless payment process, businesses can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Enhanced Security

Integrated payment systems can help businesses protect themselves and their customers from fraud and other security risks. Using advanced security protocols and encryption technology, integrated payment systems can ensure that sensitive customer data is kept safe and secure.

Deeper Data and Analytics

Integrated payment systems can provide SaaS businesses and their clients with real-time transaction data and analytics, allowing them to make better decisions about their operations, sales and marketing strategies. By analyzing transaction data, businesses can identify trends and patterns, optimize their pricing strategies and more.

Real-time Recordkeeping

With an integrated payment system, businesses can quickly and easily address customer inquiries or concerns related to transactions. Whether a customer wants to check the status of a transaction, request a refund, or dispute a charge, you can access the necessary information and resolve the issue within seconds. You won’t have to spend time sorting through invoices or paper receipts or engage in complicated detective work. Additionally, if you need to update or reverse a transaction, the change will automatically be reflected throughout all of your integrated software, giving you peace of mind.

Benefits of Integrated Payments for SaaS Businesses

Like your suppliers, marketing agencies, logistics providers, and other strategic partnerships, choosing the right integrated payment solution is critical. The right partner can provide ongoing benefits that help your business thrive:

Increased Revenue

Integrated payment partnerships can help software businesses reduce processing costs by negotiating better rates. They can also capture a share of the revenue generated from transactions processed within their platform.

Access to Advanced Technology

Partnering with payment providers can give SaaS businesses access to advanced payment technologies, such as embeddable UIs and hosted payment pages, which streamline customer buying experiences and help businesses stay competitive.

Improved Data Security

Integrated payment solutions often have built-in security solutions like PCI compliance, 3D-secure, fraud filtering and tokenization. These protocols help protect customers’ data and avoid the potential cost of breaches. By choosing the right integrated payment solution, businesses can ensure that their payment processing systems are secure and compliant with industry standards.

Customized Solutions

Integrated payment providers can work with SaaS businesses to create customized payment processing solutions that meet their specific needs. The right provider can provide flexibility in revenue share along with developer support to help companies integrate payments, set up subscription billing, invoicing and more.

How to Successfully Adopt Integrated Payments

The key to successfully adopting integrated payments is to find a reliable PayFac-as-Service (PFaaS) provider. The right partner can ensure your business’ needs are met and streamline your payment processing to help you reduce costs and better serve your customers. Here’s what to look for:

Identify Your Needs

When looking for a provider for an integrated payment solution, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what you hope to achieve. Articulate your goals and pain points to potential providers and ask pointed questions about how their solution can address them. This approach ensures that you receive relevant information and helps you make an informed decision about which provider can best meet your needs. Here are a few questions to ask potential providers: 

• Is the solution easy to integrate? 
• Is there developer support available for integrations? 
• Can we read the API documentation? 
• What is the typical revenue split? Is it flexible?
• How fast can we onboard clients to accept payments?
• What payment options will I be able to offer my customers? 

Prioritize Good Support

Whenever there’s a major change in business tech, it’s common to encounter challenges during or after the implementation process. To avoid disruptions to your business, it’s crucial to partner with a company that prioritizes service and partnership throughout the entire journey. Look for providers whose reputation is built on transparency and collaboration, and pay close attention to feedback from past and present customers. This will ensure that you choose an integration partner who remains committed to your success long after the contract is signed.

With that said, many of the bigger or older companies have great reputations, but they don’t always offer the best customer service. As the payment needs of each business vary, automated support mechanisms don’t always cut it. For SaaS businesses especially, personalized customer support can be absolutely crucial during the integration process and for ongoing support.

Integrated Payments with Exact Payments

Exact Payments is an industry-leading payment solutions provider that specializes in integrated payments software. Our simple, streamlined approach has helped thousands of businesses improve their payment processes and accelerate their revenue. Here are a few benefits of Exact’s integrated payments solution:

Tap into Revenue: Generate profits from the payments processed on your platform. Exact offers flexible pricing so your clients benefit from favorable rates while you maximize profit margin. 

Deliver Better Customer Experiences: Create seamless integrations and white-label experiences with multiple payment methods and currencies so your clients can accept their customers preferred payment methods. 

Simple Integration: Our straightforward installation options, like our robust API or embeddable UIs, allow SaaS businesses to build seamless customer buying experiences. While clients retain complete control over branding, logos, colors, style guides, and payment methods offered, we securely store sensitive card information in our PCI-certified platform, ensuring that sensitive card information is kept out of client systems.

Start Accepting Payments Faster: Use our robust API to seamlessly embed payments into your software or build payment forms in less than an hour with our embeddable UI components. Quickly onboard clients with our online application and automated underwriting for same-day account approvals. 

Gain a One-Stop-Shop Solution: Embed payments with our modular platform. Integrate core front-end functionality like onboarding, underwriting, payments, payouts and reporting, as well as back-end ops like reconciliation and chargeback management.

Benefit from Deep Payments Expertise: Receive guidance from seasoned experts at every stage — from technical solutioning, integration and onboarding to ongoing level-one support for all your clients, plus opt-in sales and marketing services. 

Final Thoughts

In today’s competitive business environment, it’s essential to have integrated payment services that are secure and seamless for both your clients and their customers. Integrated payment systems streamline the payment process to help software businesses increase revenue, create a seamless customer experience, and improve customer loyalty. If you’re interested in learning more about Exact’s payment processing for SaaS, visit our contact page to connect with our team.