Welcome to part 3 of our 12 part series – “Tell Me the Best Merchant Solution for My Business.” In this this chapter we are going to discuss the question of “Do I need software? Do I need equipment? How much will this cost?”
When trying to find the best merchant solution for your business you can know that off of the bat you are either going to need merchant equipment, merchant software or both. Then question is how will you know which you need. Here’s how:
1. You are going to need merchant equipment if you are accepting transactions in person more than a few times per month. If you are accepting payments in person only a few times per month touch tone phone solutions such as Dial Charge will work fine. Otherwise you will need merchant equipment. If you are unsure which merchant equipment is right for your business read part 2 of our 12 part series The Best Merchant Equipment & Software for Your Business. All merchant equipment that you get should be free as part of your merchant service processing agreement.
2. You are going to need merchant software if you are accepting payments via a website. You will either want Authorize.net or or PlugNPay as your gateway. This service should cost you no more than $25 per month.
3.The other type of merchant software you may want is PC Charge. This tool is great if you want to integrate your transactions into your accounting or computer system. PC Charge simple turns any PC into a credit card processing terminal by plugging in a card read directly into the USB port on any PC or Apple computer. You should be able to get this software for free as part of your credit card processing agreement.
Keep reading for part 4 of our 12 part series – “Integrating Merchant Payment Solutions Into Accounting Systems.” In this series we will answer the following questions: “Will this solution I am getting integrate into my accounting systems and payment systems or no? If not, do I need a new system? If so, how do I get them to integrate? Is the integration easy?”
