Join Baxter Lanius (CEO) and Steve Taylor as they share exciting updates from Alternative Payments’ Q4 2023 achievements and upcoming features for 2024. Learn about new capabilities that make collecting payments easier and faster for MSPs.
Key Updates Covered:
0:00 – Introduction
2:31 – Q4 Performance Highlights
6:12 – Guest Checkout Feature Launch
8:09 – Custom Payment Links
11:04 – Partial Payments Implementation
14:08 – Coming in Q1 2024:
• Tag Management
• Accelerated Payouts
• API Access
We achieved 34% processing growth in Q4 while improving our customer satisfaction by 20%. Watch to learn how these new features can streamline your payment collection process and improve cash flow.
Have questions? Contact us:
📧 customersuccess@alternativepayments.io
🌐 https://alternativepayments.io
#MSP #Payments #FinTech #ManagedServices #B2BPayments
Transcript
[00:00:00]
Alright, well, hey, I want to thank all of you for being here, um, I know we’re all busy, I get it, so the fact that you want to take some time to learn about what we’ve got going on at Alternative Payments, that means a lot to us, um, So I want to just kind of kick this off and introduce myself. I’m Steve Taylor.
I do content marketing here at Alternative Payments, and I am joined by our fearless leader, Baxter Lanius, co founder and CEO. Welcome Baxter. Glad you’re here, man.
I don’t know if I’m fearless, but I appreciate the adjective.
Absolutely, man. Maybe to be feared later.
Hopefully not that. Hopefully not that.
But maybe.
Alright, and you know, I want to also just take a moment to introduce you to our customer success team. They are not here because they are busy [00:01:00] helping our partners. But, um, this team is critical. Uh, they are incredibly knowledgeable about our product and about our partners. So, if there’s something you need, uh, please, uh, just, just reach out.
Baxter, how do people reach out to us? There’s a few ways.
Yeah, I mean, listen, like, we’re very, very customer focused, as you all know. I mean, you can reach me directly, Baxter, at AlternativePayments. io, customer success team, either your rep directly. Uh, or customersuccessatalternativepayments. io. We’d love hearing from you guys.
We’d love the feedback. Uh, and you know, we really view this product as, as built by, by you and for you. So the more feedback, uh, the merrier at the end of the day and we’re processing and iterating. So excited for, for Q4 kind of summary and, and talk about where, where we’ve gone or where we’ve been. Where we’re going, uh, and, and thank you all for, for joining.
Yeah, absolutely. And, and [00:02:00] like you said, we’re going to talk about where we’ve been and where we’re going. Um, we’ve, we’ve had a lot going on, and we’ve got even more coming down the pike. And we, unfortunately, can’t talk about all of it, but we did have We did cherry pick a few that we think you guys will be excited about.
If you have questions, please pop them into the Q& A box. Uh, that should be available to you. Um, I will, uh, moderate that throughout the session, and then we’ll, we’ll open it up to Q& A at the end as well. So, uh, I’m going to kick it over to Baxter to talk about some achievements and initiatives that we’ve accomplished here.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Steve. Um, listen, we had an incredible Q4. Uh, the way I think about the business at a high level, uh, is really based off of two kind of key metrics. Um, well, a bunch of metrics, but, but, but two key kind of components, right? Which is how is the business growing? Uh, and two, [00:03:00] are we meeting the standards of our partners and helping them get paid faster?
So, those metrics are really consolidated within these quarter of quarter numbers in the top left. So, we’ve growing processing volume at about 34 percent a quarter, um, that is continuing to accelerate, which we obviously love to see. We’re doing that while reducing the time to pay for you and your clients, uh, as well as increasing customer satisfaction.
Uh, and so when we see that, you know, we feel like we’re doing a good job, um, we don’t get, you know, too confident with that. We’re very, very focused on continuing to improve and continuing to accelerate the business. Uh, you know, we had a great, great quarter, you know, a lot of great feedback from all of you, um, and we’re constantly iterating.
One of the key areas where we’re iterating is really, what else can we do for the community? What else can we do for your businesses? How can we help? Other than just payment automation and [00:04:00] payment processing. Uh, and so we’re excited to launch, we launched in October of last year, uh, Office Hours webinars where we highlight, uh, specific topics, uh, within finance, financial planning and accounting, uh, as well as M& A, mergers and acquisitions, to really hopefully provide additional resources for you, your partners, your companies, your employees, Your colleagues and peers, uh, to learn about different subjects.
Uh, we feel like there’s a, a lack of information around these subjects in the market, and we are tireless, tirelessly trying to fill that void. And fill that void with a lot of partners that we work with, either on the accounting side or on the, uh, acquisition side. This will then lead into a community that we’re launching in later Q1.
Uh, it will be Discord based where we invite all of you as well as prospects, uh, as well as anybody who wants to [00:05:00] join to talk about the challenges and opportunities that they’re seeing in finance and accounting, uh, and connect you directly to, you know, a number of leading experts in the space. Uh, who run, you know, big accounting businesses focused on MSPs.
Uh, and so we’re really excited about that. More information to come on that. Steve’s been working really, really hard and it’s looking really, really great. Uh, the second piece is just monthly partner highlights. You know, every month we have partners who work really, really hard to increase automation, increase activation.
Uh, and we’ll start to highlight a number of partners who have, uh, have really shown an incredible effort within a specific month on their results. So, you know, that will just be kind of more social media based, LinkedIn based, um, email based, but, uh, but excited to reach out to you. On some of those awards and highlight you to the public for all the success that, that you’re having.
Um, Steve’s going to [00:06:00] jump into what’s on the docket for what was on the docket for Q4, what we deployed, highlight a few items, then we’ll bridge into Q1 of 25, few items there. Uh, and then, you know, Q& A is always welcome. So feel free to ask away. Love, uh, love the questions.
Yeah, so, let’s, let’s kick this off.
One of the first things that we launched is guest checkout. Now, let’s be honest, logging in creates an additional barrier to getting paid, especially for First time or one time payers. So, uh, imagine you’re doing some, uh, one off consulting for a company, or maybe some time and materials work if you still do that, uh, or a big project for a first time customer.
Um, all of these are, are use cases where, um, they can get the invoice email that you normally send out, [00:07:00] and when they click the link, it’ll open up, uh, this screen, which should look familiar. But now it has a new button on the bottom that says continue as guest. And then, uh, when they do that, it’ll take them to, again, a screen that looks familiar, where they can add their bank account or credit card information and pay that invoice.
Now, uh, something that I want to make sure you guys know, because security is always top of mind for me, as I’m sure it is for you, um, even if. Like a current customer who’s been using the platform for months or years, uh, decides to continue as a guest. Maybe they’re home and they want to pay you, but they don’t have their username and password.
They can do that, but they’re not going to have access to the stored payment data. So, they won’t be able to use their stored bank account or credit card. They’ll have to add that manually for their protection. So, I just want to throw that out there. Uh, Baxter, is there anything else you think [00:08:00] They need to know about guest checkout?
Good, that’s great. Next, we have created the ability to do custom payment links. So, let’s face it, uh, we can’t integrate with everything. I wouldn’t say we’re new, you know, we’ve been on the market for a couple years now, but, um, there’s more platforms, you know, popping up every month, then we have the ability to even integrate with that quickly.
So, this is going to kind of bridge that gap. We’re making it so that way you can use a custom link to integrate. Send to your, your customer or prospect so that way they can pay an invoice. So how, how this might work is you want to use it with QuoteWorks, Quoter, ConnectWise Sell. Um, and, uh, what you do is you, uh, you pop that link into the quote and when they sign the quote and [00:09:00] approve it, they can be redirected to this, or they can click a button and go to this and they can immediately make a payment, uh, with it.
For that invoice, so we no longer have to turn that quote into a sales order and turn that into an invoice and then send them that they can pay this much faster. And I see a question here, which, um, Baxter, I’m going to let you answer. When can the custom payment links allow for an additional parameter that can specify an order invoice or ticket number as a matter of reference automatically?
Yeah, so, so this is. This is one of the more complicated components of custom payment links, right? So, really, the idea behind custom payment links, as Steve said, is you can take a payment based off of any amount. Uh, that can be attached to a quote, that can be attached on a one off payment. Let’s say you just, you don’t have time to create the invoice, or the invoice does not come prior to the payment.
Um, we then plan, and we do integrate [00:10:00] all of those payments directly into your PSA or accounting software. All right. Depending on what the primary integration is. Uh, the challenge today is then you have to manually ascribe that payment to the order or to the invoice. And so the subsequent work stream will be either adding a parameter in the link or being able to match the parameter behind the scenes.
So that we can then reconcile appropriately. So right now, you know, the deficiency with this solution is it causes manual reconciliation versus obviously all of the other payments, which are automated reconciliation, um, but we’re working on that solution. It also changes a little bit by integration, right?
Whether it’s a quoting integration, whether it’s a PSA integration. Um, but that’s to come, Jim. And, uh, happy to connect offline, uh, in more detail as well.
Yeah. All right. So that covers custom payment links. [00:11:00] The next one we want to go over is partial payments. Um, another barrier is sometimes They can’t pay the whole thing.
Maybe you’ve worked out a payment arrangement or they they’re just light for the month or, or whatever the case, um, up until now, they have not been able to pay just a portion of that invoice. Well, we fixed that. So now customers. can pay a custom amount on the invoice, whether it’s, uh, through a, uh, prearranged agreement with you verbally or, or whatever, right?
And then the great thing is this is going to track those partial payments and update remaining balances automatically. And then it will, uh, uh, I believe this will also reconcile all of those payments in your accounting package as well for you. Please correct me if I’m wrong, Baxter.
Oh, that’s exactly right.
And the challenge with this is that some PSA software [00:12:00] does not recognize partial payments as a subtype of an invoice. Uh, and so, you know, we’ve had to manage all of that integration work. Uh, it’s now complete, we’re excited to be launching it, uh, another great use case also is just using partial payments tied to scheduling of a payment, so it just, it takes away that whole concept of a one to one payment and invoice relationship, which, you know, we know, you know, you know, is not as flexible, uh, as, As it needs to be.
Um, turning partial payments on or off, uh, it’s something that we will offer you the flexibility, um, to do so. I’m not sure, Debra, what you mean by recognizing partial payments coming from, well, sorry, yes, so alternative would mark the invoice as partially paid within QBO, and so it would recognize that partial payment.
And the outstanding balance would obviously decline, but there would still be [00:13:00] a, or the, there would still be a balance, obviously, on the account. Um, the subsequent workflow, which we’re also excited about, that we’ll begin building here shortly, TBD, as to whether it gets released in Q1 or Q2, is credits and refunds and the account balance structure, right?
So what partial payments from a technological perspective allows us to really unlock is if there’s a balance on this account, they can then apply that credit balance to this invoice and then pay the remainder of it partially. Um, partial payments would be at a global, a global basis. Um, a lot of questions, Interest right now, we do not allow you to offer interest or charge interest or charge fees attached to delayed payments.
Um, that is something that a bunch of people have asked about and something that’s on our roadmap, TBD, as to where it pencils out. [00:14:00]
Awesome.
All good questions though. Thanks guys.
Alright, let’s talk about some things that are coming soon. These are all features that are planned for Q1. The first one that I think you guys are going to be really excited about is accelerated payouts. Recently we changed everything to what’s called T plus 3, which means three business days after the payment is made, you have the money deposited into your account.
for joining us on this edition of The RocketMSP Podcast. is the ability to have t plus one or t plus two which means next day or two day payouts now this will be available for [00:15:00] a small fee this does cost us money to do but what this is going to give you is the ability to completely control your cash flow timing so a great way you can use this is maybe somebody wants to make a deposit for a big You know, hardware order?
Well, you can have that deposit payout, uh, next day, and then you can use those funds to purchase that equipment instead of waiting three days or worse, fronting that cash yourself. Um, Baxter, how, how is this going to work? Are we going to be able to, uh, pick and choose which payouts we want to be accelerated or,
Yeah, it’s, it’s on a global basis as well.
Uh, but the cool thing about this is that, you know, let’s say you’re preparing for the first of the month, you can turn it on for those payouts. This is tied to the payout, not the actual payment from a fee perspective. So [00:16:00] let’s say you get a hundred payments or you get 10 payments on the first of the month.
You can literally accelerate all of those payments by implementing and confirming the change on your account. You can do this, turn it on and off, uh, it’s fully customizable to you and it’s just an option within your dashboard to accelerate from T plus three to T plus one. Or the T plus 2, right? So T plus 1 is next business day.
What that means is a client makes a payment yesterday, you get paid today. T plus 2, you get paid today, hits your bank account on Friday. And so this will accelerate, uh, and provide you the confidence of getting paid. In a shorter time frame for everything, uh, and then as Steve mentioned at the beginning, you know, ACH and credit card, credit card transactions have been accelerated to T plus 3.
They should always hit your bank account in T plus 3. If you’re having any [00:17:00] issues or questions or, you know, just don’t, don’t hesitate to reach out, um, because we’re really, really excited about this, this holistic solution, uh, for getting paid faster.
Yeah, the next feature we’re really pumped about, and I think you will be too, is tag management.
So you’ll be able to create custom tags or groups, if that’s how you want to think of them. Um, and you’ll be able to cut, uh, tag your customers in alternative payments. And then you’ll be able to use those tags, uh, in conjunction with the automations. So, we’ve got the auto pay automations, and then we’ve got the invoice summary.
And invoice reminder automations. All of those will, will have the ability to use tags as, um, one of the filters for those automations, which means you’ll be able to set up targeted communication strategies for different groups of customers. [00:18:00] Um, Automated email sent to customers when their invoice is generated.
Yes, that can be done today using the email reminder, uh, uh, automation. Uh, Rose, if you have a different question around that, please let me know. And then, will tags be able to be synced from ConnectWise PSA? I suggest company types, which already function as tags. Um,
Yeah, Jim, it’s a good question. Let us, let us look into it, uh, and, um, get back to you on this.
We’ll take a, we’ll take a note. Um, the nice thing about tags, you know, similar to how you use them in ConnectWise today or company types, uh, is you can actually get even more granular with tags. So, you know, let’s say you have a group of customers that are late payers. You could set up a whole different email structure So, yeah, I think that’s pretty much it [00:19:00] for this episode.
so much for watching. I’ll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. And how you want those automation ruling to, to take effect. So again, this is, you know, really partner experience oriented, uh, which synthesizes and provides you a lot of, uh, details in terms of how you want to structure a lot of these rules. Uh, so really excited about tag management.
Yeah, and tag management along with custom emails, both of these together is kind of like a new superpower for alternative payments. So I think you guys are really going to love how tag management allows you to start to fine tune and customize your communications and your automations with your customers.
Yeah, it’s not just like a one off [00:20:00] email here or there, you know, you can, you can really make pretty big milestones and progress here. So,
yeah. Now, we do have one more we want to talk about and I think, uh, I’m gonna pass it over to Baxter to talk about this one.
Yeah, so this has been a big one, if Stevie changes screen here, um, that a lot of people Have been asking for in different forms and fashions, um, but we’re building API access, uh, we’re building API access specifically tied to, um, payments to begin with.
So, think about this as this allows you to embed a payments form within your website, uh, within your e commerce experience, within any You know, end client experience as well, and allows you to then manage those payments through one dashboard. So obviously MSPs, the majority of your payments are invoice based payments, right?
You create an invoice in the PSA, you create an [00:21:00] invoice in an accounting software. Based off of that amount, we take payment tied to it. This then solves all of those other payments that potentially you’re taking, uh, for your business. So we have a lot of customers who come and, you know, they don’t have an invoice created already, but they want to take a payment.
This can encompass a lot of that. Um, this can also allow you to build out payment experiences for your end clients. You know, if there’s a e commerce company that you’re working with and they need some sort of checkout experience, you can leverage our APIs for those types of solutions. Uh, the third kind of key use case here is also just getting access to your data.
So, if you’re running reconciliation analysis, Outside of our system, you know, bank reconciliation, payment reconciliation. Uh, if you want to grab details on which customers are on autopay, but you don’t want to use our UI UX, [00:22:00] and you want to do this more automatically, you will have the ability to get a lot of that information.
Um, straight through our system, uh, which will streamline obviously the experience for you. Um, we obviously know that a lot of you guys, um, you know, are, are quite robust in terms of your technical capabilities and knowledge, and we really want to give you that custom experience, uh, This will also allow us to build into other software solutions in the market.
So, you know, one great example that comes to mind is like a company like Roost, uh, which obviously offers you workflow RPA automation functionality. Um, you know, you could then, you know, create a experience tied to those workflows in a much more automated fashion.
Yeah, so API access, as you can see, we’re really pumped about this and there’s going to be some really cool use cases for [00:23:00] MSPs to be able to use this.
I’m pumped. I can’t wait to see how you guys use this. I do want to circle back. Um, David asked, when can we have the invoice email note that autopay and don’t need to pay again or put in a tick amount? Ticket about why they’re getting invoiced. Um, I don’t know if, if we’re going to add email invoice, email notes like that.
This is coming out in Q1 as well, David. So it’s slated to come out in March right now, where you can improve the autopay notification functionality, whether they’re on autopay or not. Um, this also encompasses a project that we’ve been working on. Which is letting people know if they’re on autopay or not.
So instead of sending an email summary that states, Steve, here are the outstanding email or outstanding invoices, you can send them an email saying, Hey, Steve, here are the invoices [00:24:00] that will be automatically paid through our system, which is a subtle difference in communication, but, you know, David, I know, has had this on his wish list for a while, uh, and is, is important as it relates to customer communication, because he’s You know, if you don’t communicate appropriately, it obviously can create some downstream, uh, impact and work on your side, which, you know, we’re obviously trying to, to limit as much as possible.
Um, those are really the key items that we wanted to highlight for Q1. Um, there’s a lot to unpack there. You know, I’m looking at our roadmap for, for Q1 right now. Uh, we use a software called Linear to manage a lot of it. Uh, you know, there’s probably 30 or so different items. Uh, if anybody wants to dig in further on, on Q1, uh, and where we’re going and why we’re building what, when, where, how, uh, please reach out, you know, we’d love to hear your feedback.
Um, [00:25:00] slide 11, which Steve will turn to now, is a little bit of an overview of what’s been deployed in Q4. Uh, this is not all encompassing, but some of the larger features. Uh, we obviously also have access to product. alternativepayments. io for you guys to track these and provide a little bit more feedback.
Uh, we use another system for more detailed roadmapping. So again, You know, happy to expose that to anybody who’s interested and wants to connect on it. Um, the last thing, uh, on slide 12, you know, we just wanted to thank you for your guys partnership. Uh, if there’s anything you need from us, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Uh, you’ll start seeing additional new faces as part of our customer success team. Uh, we have an offer out, uh, for somebody. Uh, who’s already, um, in the industry, um, and who will be joining our team in probably mid February, uh, and then we’re hiring another person in [00:26:00] customer success, um, so we’re excited about, excited about that as the team continues to grow.
All right, guys, we are going to wrap it up. You all have a great rest of your day.
Thank you all. Have a great day. Thank you for attending. Have a great day.
