It happens on a regular basis; prospective clients contact us because they have a SaaS application in development, usually nearing launch, and they need a solution to pay-out to people or companies that serve a role within the application's ecosystem, but who are not the primary beneficiary of the funds received from a credit card payment. 

PayFac or Payment Facilitation enables software platforms to both brand and monetize payment processing offerings while at the same time offering instant, hassle-free customer payments onboarding.

How Payment Facilitation as as Service can power revenue growth for SaaS platforms

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.

SaaS companies that offer payment processing solutions must decide whether or not becoming a Payment Facilitator or engaging in a Payments Partnership is the more viable solution for their business. Neither option is “better” per se, the pros and cons of each must be weighed against your expectations for your business. First, we must understand what it means to become a Payment Facilitator (PayFac) or to engage in a Payments Partnership.

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.

MarketPlace Payment Solutions

MarketPlace Payments and the Merchant of Record: What does it mean?

So you want to be a PayFac? The 1 question you must answer

We get frequent inquiries from SaaS platforms and start ups about becoming a PayFac or Payment Facilitator.

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

Payment Facilitator Provider

Payment Facilitators [Payfacs] act as Master Merchants that process credit and debit card transactions for their sub-merchants within their payment application. Typically a Payment Facilitator would be a software platform that serves a specific vertical market eg Event ticketing.

A Payment Facilitator or PayFac assumes the role of Master Merchant. Payment Facilitating allows the Master Merchant to quickly and easily onboard their sub merchants or in the case of a SaaS platform Payment Facilitating allows platform users to the ability to accept credit, debit card and in some case ACH transactions for participants in their payment ecosystem.

Is Payment Facilitation a good option for your SAAS or Platform?

Why a SAAS platform can become a Payment Facilitator but WILL NOT be the next Stripe

Payment Facilitator Systems

A Payment Facilitator assumes the role of the  Master Merchant. 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 .

Let’s use an example: A SaaS offers an invoicing solution eg MyBooks. 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 MyBooks platform.