What Does Credit Card Processing Software Do?
You’ll often hear credit card processing software be called “POS” or point of sale systems. A POS can also be thought of as the interface that the merchant uses to process payments which then in turn connects to the payment processor. Delicate information is passed from the merchant’s point of sale software to the processor such as the authorization of payment, the payment itself, and settlement data.
There are as many payment processing software programs as there are credit card processors. While some software is for tablet-based POS systems, other software can be downloaded onto desktop terminals and still other software downloaded directly onto your PC or Mac. Before you purchase any credit card processing software, be sure you know the drawbacks and limitations them. Although they all serve one function (processing payments), they differ greatly in the features and benefits.
3 Problems of Traditional Payments Software
Licensing:
- Companies selling downloadable software will often sell it as a license. It must be sold somehow, but if you grow your business and add more devices, you’ll have to pay for more licenses. What happens if your computer gets old and it’s time to upgrade to a new PC? Well, you better hope you’ve kept that licensing key safe, otherwise you’ll be paying for another license just to upgrade your device.
Backups:
- Some credit card processing software doesn’t get backed up! So when your device crashes, your software and data is gone too. We hope you didn’t have any pending sales in your software when this happens, or you’ll be out of those sales too.
Updates:
- All downloaded software needs updating from time to time. If you forego performing updates, your software will become non-compliant and even stop working eventually. Most desktop terminals need complicated manual updates that require outside programming assistance.
This means you (or your paid staff) will have to call technical support for guidance on how to reprogram the credit card processing software for each and every update. Besides the long waits on hold to get a live tech support rep, you can expect software update sessions to last 30-60 minutes in which your staff, your terminal, and your phone line are indisposed.
- All downloaded software needs updating from time to time. If you forego performing updates, your software will become non-compliant and even stop working eventually. Most desktop terminals need complicated manual updates that require outside programming assistance.
Cloud-Based Processing
Reliability is a huge necessity for most business owners, that’s why we suggest cloud-based processing.
As a certified reseller of PayJunction, PayFrog supports their fast and reliable cloud-based payment processing. All updates or improvements are automatic. There’s no scheduling time to shut down your business for a day while your software updates. There’s no additional purchase every time the system improves itself and there’s no need to reboot. All of your data is backed up to the minute. Most importantly, there’s no need for a new license when it’s time to upgrade the software to the latest credit card software processing requirements. Because our system is cloud-based, we are able to perform updates remotely, putting time and energy back into your daily business routine while giving you the latest and greatest that technology has to offer.
It’s in the Name
PayJunction’s web-based credit card processing interface is specific to PayJunction.
We do not use a third party gateway provider, complicating the whole mess. That makes us more knowledgeable about the credit card processing software we are using, and in turn, educating you better on how it works. There’s no need to wait for 3rd parties to accommodate chip card acceptance, for instance.
Time to Upgrade
If you’ve been in business for a while, then you can remember the various versions of Microsoft office: 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, etc. Every few years there would be a major overhaul to the software programs which would require all new learning and a new purchase of a license for a hefty price to keep using the same programs you’ve been using. Well now there is Microsoft office 365, and the Microsoft office programs can be automatically updated as soon as updates are available. The learning curve is diminished as the user adapts to many very small changes to the software over time reaping the benefit as they come. For a nominal subscription fee, everything is kept up to date. 
This is what you should be looking for as it relates to credit card processing software. Ditch the downloads and stick with the cloud. Rain in the profits! WE’LL SHOW YOU HOW!
