Credit Card Payment Integration: Benefits and How It Works

Does your heavy-duty shop still take payments in the form of shells, livestock, or Mesopotamian shekels? 

If so, it’s obviously time to rethink your payment strategy…but not every outdated payment system is this easy to spot. Even if your business already accepts credit card payments, finding a better way to take these payments could make life easier for your employees and customers alike.

Fortunately, you can modernize this part of your workflow with Fullbay’s fully integrated payments solution, “Fullbay Payments.” (Admittedly, it’s not the flashiest name, but it gets the job done.) In this article, we’ll give you an overview of the benefits of credit card payment integration and explain how these systems work.

What Is Credit Card Payment Integration and Why Should Fleet Shops Care?

The term “credit card payment integration” describes a point-of-sale system that’s directly linked to a payment processor. With integrated payments, you’ll be able to accept multiple forms of payment without investing in separate terminals or processing these payments manually. 

In some cases, integrated payment functionality can be part of a larger software platform. By making Fullbay your shop’s all-in-one fleet maintenance management software solution, you can take care of work orders, invoicing, and payment processing in one place. Thus, your workers will be able to handle these tasks and many others in the same digital environment, maximizing their efficiency.

Benefits of Integrated Payment Solutions for Fleet Maintenance Businesses

By now, you should have a rough understanding of why credit card payment integration matters. However, there’s much more to this topic than the basics. With the help of integrated payments, your shop can:

Accept Payments Faster and Get Paid Sooner

Integrated payment systems don’t just help the people working at your shop. Since they send invoice links as convenient emails/text messages and let customers make payments through a unique portal, these systems can reduce friction during the payment process—encouraging clients to make payments as soon as their service is complete. As a result, your shop will get paid more quickly than it would otherwise.

But that’s not the only way an integrated system can speed up payments for your shop. Traditionally, credit card payments came with a delay of three to seven days before your shop could access them. Fortunately, Fullbay allows shops to get next-day credit card payments—and according to our team of highly skilled mathematicians, that could speed up your payment process by two to six days.

Improve Cash Flow with Seamless Credit Card and ACH Transactions

Believe it or not, credit cards aren’t the only payment method your customers might want to use. You’ll also want a way to accept payments via ACH, fleet cards, and debit cards without introducing new difficulties—and your shop’s software should be able to deliver.

Fullbay can even mitigate some obstacles associated with these payment methods. For example, since ACH payments are transfers from one account to another, you could get hit by chargebacks due to insufficient funds. However, Fullbay Payments can verify the funds in a customer’s account before you accept payment from them, keeping this risk to a minimum.

Visual diagram of credit card payment integration process for fleet maintenance businesses

Boost Customer Satisfaction with Convenient Online Payments

Fullbay Payments simplifies the payment process for your shop’s customers. In addition to the benefits you’ve already read about, this system lets clients pay for your services no matter where they are. This professional, modern payment experience can increase customer satisfaction with your shop (and increase their likelihood of returning in the future).

It’s also important to understand that Fullbay Payments offers a hosted payment gateway. That means every step in the payment process is handled within this platform, providing added security for everyone involved.

How Credit Card Payment Integration Works Inside Fullbay

Now that you know a thing or two about credit card payment integration, what does this process look like in action? Here’s a step-by-step overview of the process of generating and accepting invoices for credit card payments in Fullbay:

1. Create an invoice. This won’t be a time-consuming process when you use Fullbay Payments. Instead of manually creating invoices for each of your shop’s jobs, you’ll be able to generate an invoice based on the information you already have from that job’s work order.
2. Send your invoice. As soon as a repair is complete, you can send your invoice digitally via a text message or email.
3. Let your customer select a payment method. Your customers will have the freedom to make payments with a credit card, debit card, fleet card, or ACH transaction.
4. Process the payment. The payment will be securely processed through Fullbay’s hosted gateway, protecting you and your client from cybercrime.
5. Access your funds. At the end of the payment process, your funds will be deposited in your shop’s bank account (often with next-day funding).

Don’t Settle for Less From Your Payment System

Even if your shop doesn’t rely on a primitive barter system for payments, there’s still a good chance you have room for improvement in this regard. If your current payment system doesn’t let you accept payments as quickly as possible, support seamless credit card/ACH payments, or improve customer satisfaction, it’s time to look for something new.

At Fullbay, we’re proud to help heavy-duty shops like yours benefit from credit card payment integration. And payment isn’t the only thing Fullbay’s software can handle: you can also use our platform for tasks like reporting and inventory management. Take the first step toward adding Fullbay Payments to your business by scheduling a demo today!