Until recently, the process of accepting credit card payments from customers has been cumbersome, expensive, and at times downright frustrating.
Now, however, the process is a breeze, saving us over $1,000 a year in just credit card processing. It is quick, simple, and requires a single manual entry. What changed? We began using Acumatica.
Let’s take a look at why credit card processing, PCI compliance, and a few other features in Acumatica, have been such game-changers for our company.
Designed for PCI Compliance
Before switching to Acumatica, we used Microsoft Dynamics GP. With this system, it was quite a chore to process credit card payments. First, we received the payment with PayPal, then we manually entered the information into Microsoft Dynamics GP. While Microsoft offers add-ons for credit card processing, their prices simply made it not worth it for us to buy one.
A major reason credit card processing with Microsoft Dynamics GP was so cumbersome is because it was built on technology that is over 25 years old. This means it isn’t built for modern PCI privacy rules that prohibit the storage of credit card information. As a result, anything involving this type of transaction needed to be housed outside of our Microsoft Dynamics GP system using “tokenized transactions,” where a token, instead of the credit card number, was stored and that token was used to view the information we needed.
On the other hand, Acumatica was designed to comply with PCI rules and as a result, the process is streamlined. To accept credit cards and pay a per-transaction fee, we use a “gateway service,” something that is required whether you run Microsoft Dynamics GP or Acumatica. The beauty of Acumatica though, is that the foundation is already built in. We just add a few features. However, with Dynamics GP, we had to build the foundation plus add extra features. As already mentioned, it’s not impossible to add up-to-date credit card processing to Dynamics GP. But the process is complex and time-consuming simply because it wasn’t designed for it.
Repay, formerly APS Payments, and Century Business Solutions are both great “gateway services.” After investigating them we decided to go with Repay to run with our Acumatica system. The tasks we performed in PayPal can now be done with Repay and Acumatica. The results have been incredible. We are projected to cut a third of our annual $3,000 expense in credit card processing. In addition, significant time will be saved because we don’t need to perform multiple entries since Repay is integrated with Acumatica.
ACH Transfers Made Easy
ACH transfers are transfers of money directly from one bank to another. When using Microsoft Dynamics GP, we would start these transfers in our bank and then manually enter the information into our Dynamics GP system. Once again, using Acumatica simplifies this process. An ACH platform is built into Acumatica to perform these transactions. This means we can start the process and follow it through to completion all within Acumatica- saving time, and ensuring real-time updates on all information.
Instantaneous Credit Card Payment
Another feature in Acumatica that we appreciate is the “click to pay” link. We add this link to all of our small invoices. It takes customers to a secure portal where they can pay immediately by credit card. This eliminates wait time and manual entries and allows us to get started on the job right away.
The Advantage of Acumatica
Microsoft Dynamics GP is still a great system. And we are happy to support our customers that use it. But the bottom line is that Acumatica was designed in a modern age with modern technology. It’s easy to use, integrated with the features we need, and runs on the latest technology.
Our collections process has reached greater efficiency. Acumatica’s automated billing is saving us over 30 hours a month. And we enjoy the benefits of real-time access to information from anywhere with this cloud-based system. The longer we use Acumatica the more benefits we see.
Read more examples of how using Acumatica has benefited our business.
If you are ready to evaluate Acumatica, let’s start the conversation. Contact CAL Business Solutions at 860-485-0910 x4 or sales@calszone.com.
By CAL Business Solutions, Connecticut based Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner, www.calszone.com
