What does the new NACHA ruling around WEB ACH transactions really mean and why has it been implemented?

An ACH API integration enables a business or SaaS platform to automate ACH
payment processing and reconciliation. Any business that accepts recurring payments should leverage the ACH network for 2 compelling reasons:

ACH API Case Study:

For SaaS applications with payment needs, eg Rentlee, a landlord platform offering rent collection, Payment Facilitation as a Service allows the platform to act as a master merchant account. This allows landlords to be set up as sub-accounts and begin accepting rent payments instantly. In the past Rentlee would have had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and 6+ months to register with the card associations to act as a true Payment Facilitator.

What does a successful Credit Card Payment Integration look like?

Here are Top 9 Things to Look for from a Recurring Credit Card Payment Integration API

1-API availability: Does the partner offer a modern, elegant RESTful API

By integrating a Credit Card Payment Processing solution your application users gain the ability to accept credit and debit card payments from their end customer.

Pay by Text payment solutions offer businesses a simple, cost effective method to securely collect customer payments.

Best IVR Payment Systems: What to look for in your IVR Payment search

An IVR Payment Solution creates new customer option that allows customers to pay bills or invoices without involving business staff or resources. Customers dial into a  phone and connect to an automated IVR system that interacts via voice prompts with the caller, allowing them to pay amounts due without human interaction from the business side.

IVR Transactions: Interactive Voice Response for Inbound Customer Payment Transactions

IVR Transactions occur when customers call into an IVR Payment Solution.

IVR Payment Software: What are your options in your IVR Payment Solution search

IVR Payment  Software Solutions offer payment options that allow clients to pay bills or invoices via self service. Customers dial into a  phone and connect to an automated IVR system and interact via voice prompts, allowing customers them to pay amounts due without human interaction from the business side.

PCI Compliant IVR Gateway Solutions – Interactive Voice Response for Phone Based Customer Payments

An IVR Gateway provides automated phone based payment acceptance solution for organizations.

PCI Compliant IVR Tokenization Solutions – Interactive Voice Response for Phone Based Customer Payments

Credit card data is required to be handled in a PCI compliant manner. IVR Tokenization is the process that securely exchanges full credit card number for a non-sensitive replacement value in an IVR Payment Solution.

IVR Billing - 24/7/365 Automated Customer Payment Center

IVR Phone Payments- 24/7/365 Automated Customer Payment Center

Payment Facilitator Provider: Who do you work to become a Payment Facilitator?

A Payment Facilitator or PayFac  acts as a the Master Merchant. The  Payment Facilitator role is to quickly and easily onboard their sub merchants or SaaS platform users to facilitate credit, debit card  and in some case ACH transactions for participants in their payment ecosystem. The Payment Facilitator is responsible for regulatory compliance and has financial risk of their sub-users.

In the past the only Payment Facilitator Provider offering was to become a  “True PayFac”. Becoming a true Payment Facilitator is expensive, time consuming and requires staffing to meet compliance and risk mitigation demands. In essence you become a payment business in addition to to your core SaaS offering.

Payment Facilitator Companies

A Payment Facilitator takes on the role of the  Master Merchant. The primary benefit to becoming a Payment Facilitator is that you can quickly and easily enroll your app users and enable processing of  credit, debit card and in some case ACH transactions .

As an example: A SaaS offers an invoicing solution eg QBooks. Businesses that want to leverage their invoicing solution complete a simple application and 15 minutes or so later they are approved and set up to accept customer payment. For our example let’s say the business name is “Best Landscapers”.  They applied and are now approved and ready to bill/invoice there customers using the QBooks platform.

Payment Facilitator versus Payment Processor : What’s the Difference

Payment Facilitator Programs

Payment Facilitators [Payfacs] are  Master Merchants that process credit and debit card transactions for their sub-merchants within their payment application.

Payment Facilitator Tools

A Payment Facilitator takes on the role of Master Merchant. This allows them to set up their application users to accept payments. The major benefit to becoming a Payment Facilitator is to quickly and easily onboard sub clients or SaaS platform users to facilitate credit, debit card  and in some case ACH transactions .

An example: A SaaS offers an business management solution for Yoga Studios. The software is call Yoga101.  Yoga 101 uses Payment Facilitator Tools to allow quick sign up and provide payout and compliance functionality.

Text payment solutions offer businesses a fantastic tool for automating payment and especially late payment collection.

Payment Facilitation allows a SaaS application the ability to accept payments on behalf of its end users. The platform users complete a simple application and in minutes can begin accepting credit cards and in some cases ACH Payments.

This ability to onboard clients without having the user apply for a traditional merchant account [that can take days and require supporting documentation like bank statements and tax returns] offers a friction-free onboarding experience.

Payment Facilitation at its core offers instant onboarding of platform users. If that is not an absolute necessity there are alternative that will better meet needs. See Payment Processing Partnerships.