No matter how you accept payments from your customers, there’s always a cost involved. From the expense associated with accepting paper checks to purchasing cards, creating a strategy to manage these costs is critical for today’s B2B wholesaler.

More than ever, those costs are being levied on the growing number of web-based purchases, including those made via B2B e-commerce sites and ERP platforms. For buyers, this shift toward the web means an increased reliance on business, corporate, purchasing and GSA purchasing cards, which are far made far more convenient for electronic purchases. In turn, this means suppliers must be more diligent when it comes to managing the fees associated with accepting these payments online.

“Suppliers must be diligent when managing payment acceptance fees.”

MANAGING YOUR INTERCHANGE RATE

The greatest expense to consider when managing your acceptance costs is the Interchange rate – a fee merchant banks pay to cardholder banks to convert the card charge into a cash deposit. While every card transaction is subject to an Interchange fee, the specific rate varies based on the type of transaction. For purchases made with commercial cards via an ERP system, the primary factor that affects Interchange is the amount and type of data submitted with the transaction.

Here’s what you need to know about the different Interchange Levels:

• Interchange Level 1: Qualifying for a Level 1 Interchange rate requires only the bare minimum amount of data to complete the transaction, such as card number, expiry date, and transaction total. Accepting payments with Level 1 data costs merchants the most.
• Interchange Level 2: Level 2 Interchange rates are lower than Level 1 rates but require more information, such as invoice number, billing ZIP code, and sales tax amount.
• Interchange Level 3: Finally, Level 3 transaction data goes even deeper, including enhanced line-item detail about each purchased item. As an incentive to provide this extra data, Level 3 Interchange rates are the lowest.

While the difference in cost between each of these tiers shifts over time, it has never been greater than it is today. Companies handling their purchasing through an ERP system stand to gain as much as $7,000 for every million dollars in sales by incorporating a payment solution that can qualify your transactions for Level 3 Interchange rates.

If you use Acumatica for your ERP needs, AcuCharge could be just the payment processor you need to take your business to the next level of growth. Check us out to learn more today.

AcuCharge was developed and tested by Kensium, an award-winning Acumatica Partner. Kensium can easily implement and support your AcuCharge solution with a team that specializes in working with Acumatica Cloud ERP, as well as Acumatica’s resellers and customers. Contact us to implement AcuCharge, which will lower your credit card processing fees.

This is a guest blog from AcuCharge.