Sage North America introduced a new administrative portal this week for the Sage Exchange payments platform. Accessible through the web and mobile devices, Sage Exchange enables small and midsized businesses (SMBs) to view, manage and “connect” their payments environment, and gives SMBs consolidated reporting access to their mobile, point-of-sale (POS), e-commerce and back office merchant account(s) to help them streamline the back office and manage the payments environment. In the future, Sage Exchange will also provide SMBs with an array of connected services, such as international money transfers and business prepaid cards.
Sage Exchange operates in an advanced, Payment Card Industry (PCI) certified environment to provide businesses with confidence in the security and compliance of their payments program. The Sage Exchange portal will provide Sage customers with a simple, three-step approach to “connect” their payment devices with their Sage accounting and ERP software to allow them to automatically post and reconcile their payment transactions.
“Integrating payments with accounting systems has previously only been available to large businesses, given the costs and complexities of mapping and communicating the data from the point-of-sale to the back-office software,” said Greg Hammermaster, president of Sage Payment Solutions, the payments division for Sage North America. “We designed Sage Exchange for the SMB, so a non-technical person can integrate payments with an accounting system in three easy steps. And, we’ll further this value proposition by expanding the Sage Exchange marketplace to offer businesses a menu of integrated apps and services to help them manage and grow.”
The Sage Exchange portal facilitates the integration of web-based virtual terminals, physical POS terminals for store-front businesses, e-commerce sites, and mobile devices equipped with Sage Mobile Payments, to help businesses expand their sales channels, get paid quickly, and eliminate the need to manually enter and reconcile payments in their accounting systems. Sage Exchange will soon offer SMBs numerous advanced capabilities for connected devices, including dynamic couponing for retail businesses and mobile business solutions for service-oriented businesses.
“As mobile POS solutions mature, it will be increasingly important for businesses to have access to integrated solutions that work holistically with financial management tools,” said Nick Holland, senior analyst at Boston, MA-based Yankee Group, a pre-eminent research and advisory firm equipping enterprises to profit in a mobile world. “This applies particularly for smaller businesses where cash flow, accounting, and analytics are critical for survival.”
Sage Exchange will help increase the mobility of the average SMB by allowing them to take their Sage business management solution with them using their smartphone or tablet. For example, portal users will be able to query and select an invoice from their Sage accounting or ERP system, have their customer pay the invoice via credit card, process the transaction, and then post back into their Sage accounting or ERP system – all from their mobile device.
Integrated marketing tools are being built into Sage Exchange to allow businesses to drive repeat business by designing custom coupons, using both text and images, to be printed on their customers’ credit card receipts. Additionally, Sage will be adding a custom gift card solution to Sage Exchange, so businesses will be able to expand their exposure and drive customer loyalty through offering their own store-branded prepaid cards.
Users of Sage Exchange also benefit by viewing their merchant accounts and associated payment applications in an ‘active tile’ dashboard, letting them determine what reports or solutions they want to quickly view and, with a simple click or tap on the tile, launch the full report or connected solution. Administratively, the Sage Exchange portal offers permissions-based user roles, so businesses can determine the level of access employees have to the features, information and available services within the portal.
Sage Exchange requires no information technology resources to gain the full benefit of integrated payments, and businesses can feel secure when managing their payment devices and applications in the Sage Exchange PCI-compliant environment.
The Sage Exchange portal will integrate with the Sage 50 Accounting U.S. Edition (formerly Sage Peachtree) 2013 product line, being released this month, and will integrate with other Sage accounting and ERP solutions later this year. Using built-in integration with Sage Exchange, Sage accounting and ERP customers can attain best practices in payment processing to help them eliminate data entry, save time and reduce potential errors.
