BY MARCI GAGNON
Integrated Systems : The Gold Standard in Payment Acceptance
Over the years Energy Marketers have added software tools to help business operations run more effectively . Software tools including route management , online ordering , and customer portals have helped companies significantly reduce costs and provide more efficient customer service . However , a potential drawback has been reconciling credit card payments from the initial customer sale to the final deposit into a company ' s bank account across multiple software platforms . With multiple systems it can be very confusing and quite time-consuming . The reason matching card transactions from sale to deposit can be hard is something that a lot of Energy Marketers are not fully aware of — credit card transactions are actually quite complex and involve multiple parties . You might not realize this because card transactions happen so fast and with such apparent ease . The truth is that it takes several moving parts working in coordination to ensure a successful credit card transaction . The payment gateway , processor , Issuing and Acquiring bank , the Energy Marketers depositing bank along with the credit card brands Visa and Mastercard are the primary players .
All these intermediaries working in concert make using and accepting credit cards possible . Each of these intermediary steps is often conducted by separate vendors and this is where things can get complicated . Each vendor provides their own reports with their own formats and often their own fees . To get a complete picture of what goes on with a single transaction , a merchant has to wade through all of these different reports . There ' s another problem : Marketers who make sales through multiple sales channels can face another layer of complexity and vendors . For example , Marketers who sell online , as well as in-store , tend to use a different merchant account for each of these sales channels . Historically , the need for a different account has to do with the perceived higher risk profile of online transactions versus a retail physical store . Ultimately this has driven the development of payment solutions specializing in just one of a business ’ s sales channels .
With advancements in payment technology , tracking all of your credit card transactions from start to finish doesn ' t have to be so complicated . In recent years the demand for integrated
payment platforms has yielded updated tools to make reconciliation fast and easy .
An integrated payments platform combines the payment gateway with the payment processor into a single seamless system . In other words , there ' s one less vendor meaning one less report for you to have to analyze and match against other reports .
An integrated platform also works across all sales channels , whether it be a physical store , a mobile phone , a land-line phone , online or snail mail . The advantage to this is there is now no longer a need for multiple merchant accounts . One merchant account does it all . And because you are only utilizing one merchant account , you no longer need to receive separate reports from all those various sales channels . Instead , a single report is generally all that is required to record and recognize all your sales and revenue .
There is another important advantage to an integrated platform — by combining multiple intermediaries , an integrated platform gives you the means to trace every transaction from the initiation of the sale to the final deposit in your bank account from just one source . There is no need to collect different data points from multiple sources as there is with non-integrated payments platforms .
This ability to follow a transaction from end-to-end without mixing and matching information coming from separate platforms leads to more robust data reporting and efficiency . That is to say it leads to much more concise and detailed reports , and that adds up to a much easier reconciliation process . In the end , the better your reconciliation process , the less time devoted to the often tedious accounting activities that go with running a business . And you know the old saying : Time is money . Time is also precious . And wouldn ' t you rather use that precious time engaging in the actual activities that define your business rather than handling paperwork ? l FON
Marci Gagnon is vice president of strategic alliances for Qualpay , which provides processing solutions to fuel delivery and service businesses . For additional information contact Marci Gagnon at marci @ qualpay . com or visit https :// www . qualpay . com / industry / utility-and-energy .
22 FEBRUARY 2022 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www . fueloilnews . com