In partnership with Stax
Finding the right payment platform is critical to the success of your business. With many options in the market it’s important to do your research and find the option that saves money, reduces costs, and allows you to maximize revenue. Knowing what to look for in the right payment processing solution can help you make the best possible decision for your business.
In this blog, we will discuss how the right payment processing solution can help you reduce costs, improve cash flow, and how to identify the right fit for your restaurant business.
The Right Payment Partner Allows You to Decrease Costs and Improve Cash Flow
Avoid paying high credit card processing fees
Restaurant owners work too hard to pay extraordinarily high processing fees. And most have no idea what they’re paying for in credit card processing, resulting in unnecessary money spent.
With the right payments partner, your restaurant business can avoid paying inordinate amounts in processing and reduce costs significantly. They will be upfront about their costs and help you understand the breakdown of different fees. The following are unavoidable charges every business must pay:
- Interchange – the required fee that credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard charge businesses to accept their cards – set by the credit card brands.
- Transaction fees – these are fees that are associated with each transaction run.
Know What to Look For and Run When You See Any Mention of Extra Fees
A few payment processing fees you should watch out for when evaluating a payment processing solution:
- PCI compliance
- Setup fees
- Account maintenance fees
- Statement fees
Choose a Partner That Offers 0% Markup and Lets You Know Exactly What You Are Paying For
Opt for an all-in-one payment solution whenever possible
When evaluating the right payments solution for your business opt for an all-in-one solution that allows you to manage your entire payments experience from within one platform. An integrated payment solution allows you to automate your financial bookkeeping. By allowing you to consolidate your payments solutions you can save time otherwise spent switching between systems to manage your restaurant business. In fact, according to Small Business Digest, 91% of small to medium businesses that incorporated an integrated payment solution reduced overhead expenses by at least 21%.
With an integrated payments solution you’ll no longer have to perform repetitive data-entry tasks and you can save time on manual reconciliation. This process improvement goes a long way in helping you manage your employees’ time in a better manner.
Improve your cash flow
The right payments partner allows you to process your payments as soon as they go through. This means faster deposits and reduction of lag time with manual labor. Put simply, the money enters your account more quickly and you can use those funds to operate your business at peak efficiency.
How to Find the Right Payment Platform
Transparency
When deciding what payment platform would be best suited for your business make sure to do your homework. Find out if the company charges different pricing tiers for different card types. With a tiered pricing model, similar transactions are grouped together and categorized into tiers, each tier is then charged a different rate. Depending on the types of transactions, you could be paying upwards of 3% in processing.
Simplicity
Integrated payments platforms should arrive to make your business operations as simple as possible and educate you throughout the process, so you are empowered to make processing decisions on your own.
Customer Service
A critical factor in selecting the right integrated payments platform is that it’s important to note if it provides real-life human customer service versus a robot or outsourced representatives. If you can access humans and solve your credit card processing problems, it’s a win. Don’t forget that you are the customer and the boss.
Selecting the right payment system is critical to the success of your business. So be sure to do your research before investing in a solution. Opt for a payment processing system that enables you to reduce costs, maximize revenue, and save money.
Stax is one of the leading payment processing providers helping businesses reduce payment costs while streamlining transactions.
About Stax
Ranked the #1 Best Credit Card Processors by US News & World Report in 2022, Stax has disrupted the payments industry with its subscription-based pricing model. Stax is a merchant service provider with total transparency built into its framework. All merchants have access to direct cost payment processing with 0% markups, no contracts, and no hidden fees.
Stax is the preferred payments partner of Dining Alliance and helps you maximize savings for your restaurant. Plus, Stax integrates with most POS systems. As a special offer to Dining Alliance members, if you sign up with Stax your operation will receive 2 months FREE on the Stax monthly subscription.
The Other Side of Payments: Paying Your Vendors Digitally
Tracking, recording and paying invoices by hand is a headache that all restaurant owners, operators and bookkeepers have to deal with.
Accounts Payable (AP) automation is a technology that addresses these inefficiencies – an automated invoice processing system lets operators spend less time with paper invoices and more time on restaurant operations. Digital payments to vendors are a growing trend in the restaurant industry.
Less Cost Than Manual Payments
Paper checks may seem like standard practice but there are several hidden costs involved. Sending checks in the mail incurs the cost of postage as well as the time it takes to send a paper check and record the transaction.
Once a payment is sent, you then need to wait for the payment to post and ensure the balance in your account will cover said payment. This process could take days or weeks to ensure the right person receives the check and claims it in a timely manner.
Digital Payments on the other hand don’t cost money and post immediately, leaving a digital paper trail attached to the invoice and showing exactly where the payment is being applied.
More Efficiency and Accuracy
Digital payments can be sent and received in a matter of days. This allows restaurants to pay their vendors faster with fewer opportunities for miscommunication and errors.
With paper invoices, each invoice must be manually entered into a system and continually checked for accuracy. Because there are so many steps involved to ensure accuracy, you are paying for it in time and resources.
Digital payments provide consistency. Digital payment systems check for duplicate invoices and verify amounts. You can even set payment approval rules that are automatically routed through the system. This is perfect for multi-unit operators. Your team can reference back and understand the status of each invoice and what is pending approval or in process.
With this streamline efficiency the team is able to focus on more important tasks like running the restaurant.
Why Vendors Love Digital Payments
Vendors are becoming more interested in virtual payments for a number of reasons. Everyone likes to be paid faster and on time. Vendors are no exception. Digital payments allow vendors to receive payments quickly and on time. No more following up with customers looking for paper checks.
Overall, digital payments allow you to streamline your Accounts Payable Process by adding efficiencies to every step. Digital Payments allow you to pay how you want and when you want. They even provide a less costly, more reliable and safer solution to writing paper checks.
I’m sure all your personal financing and bill pay is done electronically. Why should your restaurant be any different?
How to Get Started
If you’re a Dining Alliance member, our technology is here help you get on track with all of your accounting needs. Login to your myDA portal to get started!
If you’re new to Dining Alliance, become a member today and embrace these technology solutions that help run your restaurant operation more efficiently. As a member, you also have access to exclusive savings and discounts on items you need for your operation. Join today!
Click here to learn how you can get access to specialty pricing for Stax!
Frequently Asked Questions
How can the right payment platform reduce my restaurant’s costs?
The right payment platform can help lower processing costs by eliminating unnecessary fees, reducing manual work, and providing transparent pricing so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
What fees should I watch out for in a payment processor?
Watch for added fees such as PCI compliance, setup, account maintenance, and statement fees. Look for a provider that clearly explains its pricing and avoids hidden costs.
How does the right payment platform improve cash flow?
Faster payment processing can mean quicker deposits into your account, giving your restaurant access to funds sooner and helping you better manage day-to-day expenses.
What should I look for in a restaurant payment platform?
Prioritize transparent pricing, simple integrations, reliable customer support, and a platform that works with your existing restaurant technology.
What are the benefits of paying vendors digitally?
Digital vendor payments can reduce manual work, improve payment accuracy, speed up processing, and make it easier to track invoices and approvals. For restaurant teams, that means less time managing paperwork and more time focused on the operation.
