Category: Business

The Key to Winning (and Keeping) SMBs With Modern Payments

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Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) run on cash flow, customer trust and time they don’t have to spare. When they evaluate financial partners or software providers, they’re not shopping for “payments” as a feature—they’re looking for an easy, reliable way to get paid across every channel their customers use. If that experience feels fragmented, slow or risky, they’ll bounce to a provider that makes it simple.

As payments move from a back-office chore to a revenue generation source, organizations of all sizes—from independent software vendors (ISVs) and fintechs to banks, municipalities, utilities, healthcare and property management companies—are out there competing for SMB relationships. The winners lead with modern merchant services: fast onboarding, flexible acceptance (card, ACH, wallet, text), recurring and installment options and built-in fraud and compliance controls. The common thread: give SMBs one platform that reduces operational work while improving customer experience.

Below is a practical guide to what SMBs value right now and how a unified payments platform helps you deliver it.

What SMBs expect from a payment platform

  • Omnichannel without the hassle: Customers want to pay in person, on a phone, from a bill, inside an app or via a link. SMBs expect tap-to-pay, EMV, QR, hosted checkout, embedded payment pages and click-to-pay links—running through one processor so reconciliation stays clean.
  • Cash flow visibility and predictability: Deposits that arrive when expected, with payout schedules and transparent fees. SMBs want recurring billing, payment plans and tools like Account Updater to reduce involuntary churn.
  • Fewer chargebacks and less fraud: Card testing, friendly fraud and synthetic identities hit SMBs hard. They need layered defenses that work in the background (velocity checks, device signals, automated risk rules) and clear workflows when disputes do occur.
  • No-drama compliance and security: PCI scope reduction, tokenization and secure storage of customer credentials matter. SMBs want to know sensitive data is handled the right way—without adding steps to every checkout.
  • A partner who answers the phone: When something breaks or a statement looks off, SMBs want support that’s accountable. That’s a competitive edge you can’t fake.

 

The case for a one-platform approach (and why it wins SMB loyalty)

Fragmented payment stacks multiply logins, reporting formats, settlement timelines and vendor support queues. A single platform creates consistency across acceptance, settlement, reporting and risk—and it lets SMBs add channels without reinventing the wheel every time.
With the right payment partner, you can:

  • Consolidate acceptance across card-present and card-not-present, ACH, digital wallets, text-to-pay, hosted pages and embedded flows.
  • Standardize reconciliation with unified reporting, so teams don’t stitch together spreadsheets to understand yesterday’s deposits.
  • Embed payments directly into software and portals (for ISVs, governments, healthcare, property management and more) while keeping the UI on-brand.
  • Scale features when needed—from recurring billing and installment plans to automatic account updates, tokenization and fraud controls—without bolting on yet another vendor.

The result: faster go-lives, lower total cost of ownership and a better experience for SMBs and their customers.

 

Cash flow, simplified: recurring installments and ACH that just works

SMBs live and die by cash flow. Give them levers that improve predictability:

  • Recurring billing & payment plans: Automate billing cycles (weekly, monthly, custom), add proration and let customers self-manage cards on file.
  • Account Updater: Reduce involuntary churn by automatically refreshing expired or reissued card credentials.
  • ACH with verification: Offer lower-cost bank-to-bank options with account validation to reduce returns and exceptions.
  • Flexible settlement and reporting: Know when funds will land, by channel, with reporting that matches real-world workflows.

For SMBs in services, subscriptions, HOA/dues, utilities, courts, clinics or rental portfolios, these capabilities reduce manual collections and the “phone tag” that eats staff time.

 

Omnichannel experience without operational drag

Customers don’t think in channels; they think in tasks: “Pay this invoice now.”
CSG Forte supports:

  • Card-present: EMV and tap-to-pay for in-person sales.
  • Card-not-present: Hosted checkout, embedded fields and invoice links.
  • Text-to-pay and email-to-pay: Send compliant payment links that pre-populate account info.
  • Self-service portals: Reduce calls and walk-ins by letting customers pay and set up autopay online.
  • Back-office tools: Virtual terminals and batch uploads for team-assisted payments.

Behind the scenes, tokens and a unified ledger keep transactions consistent across all touchpoints, so reporting and refunds are straightforward.

 

Fraud and chargebacks: layered protection that doesn’t hurt conversion

Fraudsters evolve quickly; tools should too. SMBs need risk controls that are configurable but not complicated.

  • Rules you can tune: Velocity limits, geolocation filters, allow/deny lists and device checks—set once, monitor always.
  • Secure when it makes sense: Add step-up authentication to high-risk transactions without forcing friction on every sale.
  • Dispute workflows: Clear visibility into retrievals and chargebacks with the evidence your team needs to respond on time.
  • ACH management: Account validation and data checks that reduce returns and downstream fees.

The goal: protect revenue while preserving a clean checkout.

 

Data, reporting and insights SMBs actually use

More dashboards aren’t the answer; the right views are.

  • Unified reporting across methods and channels so SMBs can see gross, fees, net and expected settlement in one place.
  • Deposits that reconcile—by batch, by location, by user—without manual gymnastics.
  • Operational alerts (e.g., spike in declines or unusual refund activity) that prompt action before there’s a month-end surprise.
  • Export and APIs for finance systems, CRMs and data warehouses.

For partners (banks, ISVs, fintechs), aggregated views simplify portfolio health, support needs and go-to-market planning.

 

Implementation without the headaches

Payments projects stall when teams underestimate data flows, PCI scope or edge cases (refunds, partial captures, offline scenarios). CSG Forte focuses on predictable go-lives:

  • Clear integration paths that include hosted pages, drop-in components or full API control.
  • Sandbox and sample apps to accelerate development.
  • Migration supportfor tokens, vaulted credentials and recurring schedules.
  • Change management that includes guidance for training staff and communicating to end users.
  • White-glove support: when you want a human to help troubleshoot or plan.

The outcome: less time wiring tools together and more time serving SMBs.

 

Proof points SMBs feel immediately

You don’t need to promise the moon—just deliver outcomes that matter week one:

  • Faster payments: text-to-pay links and hosted checkout reduce “I’ll do it later” delays.
  • Fewer declines and rekey errors: tokenization, card vaulting and Account Updater keep credentials current.
  • Lower total costs (not just rates): fewer vendors and fewer manual steps mean fewer reconciliation headaches.
  • Happier customers: more ways to pay, fewer calls and self-service options that work.

These are the levers that turn an initial “let’s test it” into “please move all of our payments over.”

 

A quick read on fees, compliance and risk (so there are no surprises)

SMBs deserve clarity:

  • Transparent pricing: understand card vs. ACH costs, add-on services (e.g., Account Updater) and how interchange optimization can help.
  • Compliance up front: PCI scope reduction with hosted fields and tokenization; data minimization across your stack.
  • Clear SLAs and support: know how to reach a human and what to expect when you do.

Predictability builds trust—and trust builds long-term relationships.

 

Why banks and ISVs choose CSG Forte to serve SMBs

Whether you’re a community bank, credit union or software platform, your SMB customers look to you for a complete solution. CSG Forte helps you deliver it—without building an in-house payments team from scratch.

 

For banks & financial institutions

  • Modern merchant services under your brand: under your brand: card, ACH, recurring or text-to-pay.
  • Operational efficiency: one set of reports and reconciliations across branches and portfolios.
  • Risk and compliance at scale: tokenization, PCI scope reduction and fraud tools that evolve with threats.
  • Revenue opportunities: interchange and ACH economics, plus higher stickiness when SMBs move all payments under one roof.

 

For ISVs and platforms

  • Embedded payments with clear developer docs and flexible integration models.
  • Faster onboarding so your SMBs start processing quickly.
  • Monetization options without compromising user experience.
  • Vertical depthfor sectors like government, utilities, healthcare, property management, education and professional services.

In both cases, the advantage is the same: a unified platform that’s reliable on day one and extensible on day 1,000.

 

Ready to help SMBs win with payments?

SMBs don’t need another login. They need one dependable platform that helps them take payments anywhere, protect revenue, reconcile quickly and grow. CSG Forte was built to make that the default—so banks, ISVs and growing businesses can focus on customers, not payment plumbing.

Let’s make payments your competitive edge. Talk to a payments expert to map your SMB use cases and integration path, or explore how text-to-pay, recurring billing, ACH and fraud prevention work together by exploring CSG Forte.

Unlock Seamless B2B Payments: How ACH Powers Modern Growth

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Every thriving business relationship relies on trust, efficiency and the seamless movement of money. Yet for too long, business-to-business (B2B) payments have been weighed down by outdated processes, endless paperwork and frustrating delays. But with the continued adoption and expansion of Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, companies are finding new momentum—unlocking smoother transactions, reducing costs and powering growth without the usual financial friction.

Explore the value of this payment type for transactions between businesses.

 

What Are Business-to-Business ACH Payments?

Business to business ACH payments are electronic fund transfers between two companies. ACH payments provide a modern and secure method for processing fund transfers electronically. These transfers occur in the ACH Network and eliminate the need for paper trails that come with checks, money orders and other conventional payment methods.

ACH is a widely used electronic payment system in the United States and internationally. With this network so widely recognized, it can be an ideal solution for business to business payments between companies that are located in different states or countries.

Business to business transactions encompass a wide range of corporate processes, from paying advertisers and shipping companies to covering rent for office spaces. While many individuals have stopped using checks for their day-to-day payments, many businesses are still relying on these slips of paper to make large payments to other businesses. With corporate ACH payments, businesses can streamline a significant aspect of operations.

 

How Does Business to Business ACH Work?

All ACH payments start with two bank accounts—the Originating Depository Financial Institute (ODFI) and the Receiving Depository Financial Institute (RDFI). Essentially, there’s a bank account requesting a payment, the RDFI, and an account sending money to respond to the request, the ODFI.

In B2B ACH payments, this arrangement stays the same. However, rather than a corporate bank account and a consumer bank account, the transaction happens between two corporate accounts. The Clearing House or the Federal Reserve oversees the transaction by storing and processing the funds. Since these transactions are not direct from bank to bank, they can take one to two days to process.

The entire ACH process can be divided into four steps:

  • Authorization: Before funds can move from one account to another, the ODFI needs authorization from the owner of the account to transfer funds through ACH. During authorization, the business will have to provide the account and routing numbers for the corporate account and other details to verify the use of their funds. As a business requesting this authorization, you may send an email with a link to the accounting department, so they can complete the authorization process.
  • Initiation: The business then sends its information to the ACH provider or ODFI to initiate the transaction.
  • Request: After initiating the transaction, the ODFI can send a payment request to the RDFI to receive the necessary funds for a product or service.
  • Processing: As long as all information is correct and the RDFI account has enough funds to complete the request, processing can begin. The funds move from the RDFI account to the ODFI, and the business receiving funds will officially be paid for their product or service.

 

Benefits of B2B ACH Payments

Using ACH payments for your B2B transactions has many advantages, including:

  • Simplicity: ACH payments are easy to set up with the right ACH provider. Both companies involved only need to provide account information for their corporate bank accounts and work with a provider who supports the process. Most banks allow the ACH process to occur with authorization, so there’s no need to have a special account or change the way you manage financials for your business.
  • Speed: While there is a processing window for ACH payments, it is typically only a few days maximum. Even with this processing time, businesses will receive confirmation that funds are entering their account before they officially arrive. This aspect makes business to business ACH debit much easier than checks. Accounting teams don’t need to reconcile the bank account with several outstanding checks that have not yet been cashed.
  • Security: With many businesses still relying on checks for B2B payments, check fraud is a possibility. Businesses are particularly at risk because they send multiple checks with large amounts. ACH payments are completely electronic and verified through your ACH platform, so you know you’re genuinely receiving money from your client businesses, and information like account and routing numbers is kept private.
  • No processing fees: ACH payments are free of all processing fees, which is a major benefit to businesses that transfer money frequently between suppliers, clients and beyond. With so many transactions, small fees can add up and lead to large costs at the end of a month.
  • Low transaction fees: Transaction fees for ACH payments are often free or low in cost, depending on the financial institutions involved. Compared to wire transfers or credit card processing, these fees are incredibly cost-effective.
  • Electronic records: ACH payments have a clear electronic record you can access at any time, so it’s easy to manage invoicing processes, and you can cut down on paper records.

 

Implement ACH Processing With CSG Forte

CSG Forte’s Dex payments platform is the key to implementing ACH processing for your B2B transactions. Manage online, in-person and over the phone payments with a unified, cloud-based solution. With transparent reporting, you can stay connected to every transaction and manage your funds more efficiently.

Get in touch with us today to learn more or make an account with us to get started.

How Can ACH Processing Benefit Your Business?

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Imagine a world where cash flow is seamless, paper checks are relics of the past and getting paid—or paying others—happens almost as effortlessly as sending a text. Welcome to the age of Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, where modern businesses are reimagining the way money moves and unlocking new levels of efficiency, flexibility and security. 

ACH payment processing continues gaining popularity as businesses and customers recognize this system’s many benefits. ACH processing is an electronic payment method that allows companies and individuals to send and receive money.

These digital transactions offer significantly lower costs and added convenience for recurring transactions. As a result of ACH’s benefits, many businesses are leaving paper checks and other payment methods behind in favor of this electronic option.

 

ACH Payments: What Are They and How Do They Work?

ACH payments are a digital method for sending and receiving funds. These transactions pass through the Automated Clearing House, an electronic funds transfer (EFT) system established by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, letting businesses and individuals send credit and debit card payments.

Businesses often use these payments to cover employee payroll or receive money for customer payments for goods and services. In many cases, electronic payments must obtain an authorization request from a credit card network or issuing bank. ACH payments instead go through the Federal Reserve or a clearinghouse to secure payments.

Once the request passes through one of these organizations, the receiving depository financial institution (RDFI) posts the payment to the requestor’s account. Businesses save money and time making money transfers when using ACH instead of credit card authorization. They can accept or send payments of as much as $1 million each day, and the system recognizes revenue faster, so you can receive or send funds in as little as a few hours.

 

Are ACH Payments Safe?

As a government-established electronic payment method, ACH transactions must follow strict federal regulations for safety in money transfers. Nacha, a non-profit organization, also regulates and runs this money transfer network. CSG Forte is a Nacha Preferred Partner. These controls make fraud rare, though not completely unlikely.

Here are a few additional ways your business can reduce the risk of fraud:

  • Choose a trusted payment provider: Ensure your provider complies with Nacha rules. You can look for Nacha-preferred partners for the most security.
  • Use microdeposits: The best payment providers offer microdeposits to verify recipient identity. These are two small deposits made to an account before formal transactions begin.
  • Seek information protection: Your provider should utilize tokenization and encryption to disguise sensitive data. These controls ensure only the intended recipient can interpret the data you send.

 

Benefits of ACH Payments for Businesses

Many businesses adopt ACH payments for ease, security and speed. This electronic money transfer method continues to grow in popularity, with companies carrying out 5.94 billion transactions using this method in 2022. Businesses compare these transactions to previous payment methods like paper checks and see distinct ACH payment benefits, leading them to adopt the system.

  • Lower Costs: Compared to electronic and paper payment methods, ACH transactions are one of the most cost-effective money transfer options. Credit card companies require network fees for processing transactions. These fees range from 1.5% to 3.5%. Checks also cost $2.01 for internal expenses like financial institution fees and $4 for external costs like personnel. Paper checks are often mailed, which is an additional expense when you factor in materials and postage. In comparison, ACH has a median internal spending of $0.15 and an external cost of $0.25.
  • Speed: ACH payments have faster processing times. Like all electronic processing methods, ACH is faster than payments like checks, which must be mailed and manually entered. Checks might also get lost, extending the time before the recipient receives money in their account.
    ACH transactions also process faster than many electronic transfer methods, sometimes within a few hours on the same business day. You can also schedule transactions for one or two business days away. With same-day transfers, you can ensure that payments settle the day your business sends them out.
  • Minimal Human Error: Human error can cause payment delays and impact organizations’ cash flow. With computer-automated payment through ACH processing, you reduce mistakes like incorrect payment amounts or errors in recipients’ account numbers. You can set recurring payments up once, ensure the information is correct and let the transaction repeat each billing cycle without needing adjustment.
  • Customer Convenience: ACH payments also have many benefits for customers, including the convenience of a one-time setup. For recurring expenses like rent or a subscription service, your business can request authorization once, then continue to take payments as needed. Customers like this method because it is convenient and they will always pay on time, avoiding late fees or lapses in service. Business-to-business transactions also work well with ACH because many companies are switching to digital money management tools.
  • Expense Tracking: With ACH, your business can record all income electronically, and the information is more easily accessible to bookkeepers. With ACH payments you can easily view transactions online and connect them to money received or disbursed.

 

Collect ACH Payments With CSG Forte

With CSG Forte’s complete payments solution with ACH processing, we make it easy for your business to send and receive digital payments. Learn how you can start accepting ACH payments and Get Started with CSG Forte today.

How to Improve and Future-Proof Your Authorization Rates

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Every time a customer’s payment fails, you don’t just lose revenue—you risk losing the customer entirely. That’s the hidden cost of low authorization rates, and for businesses from small and mid-size to legacy enterprise, those costs add up. U.S. firms lose out on as much as $157 billion in revenue every year. And chasing owed payments costs money, too. In fact, nearly 60% of businesses say resolving failed payments is expensive and time-consuming. That means businesses are spending time and money reprocessing payments, handling customer service complaints and chasing payments on outstanding bills—while revenue walks out the door.

Whether you’re managing utility payments, tax collections or subscription billing, failed transactions can lead to late fees, churn and costly customer service overhead. While that’s all bad news, the good news is most of it is preventable.

We’ll explain the ins and outs of a fact you might already suspect: Payment authorization rates are more critical than ever, and it just might be your payment platform that’s dragging them down. Fortunately, there are several steps your team can take to start improving authorization rates and enhancing your company’s performance today. You can start by accessing simple tools that protect revenue and future-proof your billing system.

 

The Hidden Impacts of Failed Authorizations

Failed payments aren’t just a momentary hiccup—they create ripple effects across revenue, operations and customer trust. At scale, the damage adds up quickly.

Authorization rate refers to the percentage of payment attempts that are approved by your customer’s bank. It’s a critical metric for any organization that processes electronic payments, whether for services, subscriptions or government fees. When a transaction is declined, you not only lose the payment—you may also lose the customer.

Consumers today expect fast, seamless payment flows. If a payment fails and the system offers no explanation or recovery option, customers often abandon the transaction—and sometimes the provider. In public-facing sectors like government and utilities, the impact can be immediate. A failed payment might mean delayed water service or mounting fines, and for staff, more time on the phone with confused or frustrated constituents. In one customer example, Dimmit County, Texas reduced call volume and shortened call times after implementing Forte’s text-to-pay solution—directly increasing authorization rates and collections, as well as employee and constituent satisfaction.

Recurring billing models—whether for accepting rent payments or monthly membership dues—are particularly vulnerable. A single failed renewal can lead to a cascade of late fees, service disruptions and unnecessary customer outreach. And because many systems don’t surface why a transaction failed, teams are left reacting to instead of preventing the problem.

In short: your authorization rate isn’t just a number. It’s a signal of how well your payment stack is performing—and how much money and trust you might be losing without even realizing it.

 

Common Authorization Decline Causes

If failed payments are costing businesses millions, what’s behind the drop-offs?

While insufficient funds are one obvious culprit, most failed transactions aren’t due to someone running out of money—they’re due to preventable issues with data, fraud controls or infrastructure. And, unfortunately, card holders don’t have much patience for declines—35% say they’ll abandon a merchant after they’re declined even one time.

Here are the biggest offenders:

  • Outdated or incorrect card data: Cards expire, get lost or are reissued after fraud alerts. If your system isn’t keeping up, the next recurring payment attempt will fail. Subscription businesses are particularly vulnerable—especially those without account updater services to refresh card credentials automatically.
  • Incomplete or mismatched data fields: Typos, missing address fields and mistyped account details can trigger issuer rejections. Rigid or outdated front-end forms often exacerbate the issue, especially when data validation is limited.
  • Overly sensitive fraud settings: Fraud filters are essential—but when they’re too aggressive or misaligned, they reject legitimate transactions. False positives hurt more than just the immediate sale—they frustrate loyal customers and undermine trust.
  • No retry logic: Even legitimate transactions sometimes fail due to transient issues—like brief network outages or issuer timeouts. Without built-in retry logic or fallback routing, those recoverable declines become permanent revenue loss.

Fortunately there are several ways to decrease your decline rates and boost your payment acceptance rates. For example, Lucas County, Ohio, improved reliability and reduced late payments by modernizing its payment stack to accept digital payments via multiple channels. The county didn’t have to foot the bill for an expensive overhaul to their entire infrastructure—it just added payment channel options and better account handling.

Each of these issues alone may seem minor. Together, they form a systemic drag on payment performance. And worse, they’re often invisible—buried in spreadsheets or issuer decline codes no one reviews.

Knowing what’s dragging down your authorization rate is the first step toward fixing it. In the next section, we’ll walk through proven tactics that high-performing teams use to keep their approvals—and their revenue—flowing.

 

Smart Fixes for Smarter Payments

Understanding the root problems is crucial—but it’s just the start. High-performing teams take proactive steps to fix the leaks through layered strategies: data validation, lifecycle hygiene, intelligent validation and authentication. These aren’t pie-in-the-sky solutions—they’re proven, and can lift authorization rates significantly. For example, Hall’s Culligan Water completed more than 4,000 cardholder updates without manual intervention.

Validate payment data upfront. Catch bad card numbers, expired dates, mismatched billing info, and typos before they reach the processor. Real-time validation reduces avoidable declines—plus it boosts customer experience by eliminating embarrassing failures.

Onboard account updating services. Recurring payments (think utilities or subscriptions) suffer when cards are replaced or expire. Account updater tools automatically refresh credentials with networks like Visa and Mastercard, seamlessly maintaining continuity.

Deploy smart routing and retry logic. Rather than sending every payment to the same processor, smart routing analyzes card brand, issuer, and transaction type for optimal routing. If a decline is “soft” (due to timeout or temporary issuer hold), retry logic automatically reattempts via a backup route.

By combining these tactics, companies ranging from insurance to retail to healthcare and several subscription-based business models can recover lost revenue, reduce involuntary churn and strengthen payment reliability.

 

It’s Time to Stop Losing Revenue You’ve Already Earned

Authorization rates aren’t just a technical metric—they’re a revenue multiplier. Every failed payment represents marketing dollars wasted, customer relationships damaged, and revenue delayed or lost entirely. Whether you’re a city utility department trying to reduce delinquencies or a subscription-based software platform fighting churn, your payment stack has a direct impact on business outcomes.

The good news? You don’t have to rebuild from scratch to make meaningful gains. Just a few small upgrades—like Account Updater or better retry logic—can lift approval rates by 10–15%. And that can translate to millions in recovered revenue.

Not sure where to begin? We’ve mapped it out for you. Start optimizing your payments today with CSG Forte and future-proof your revenue engine by building a smarter, stronger payments stack. Talk to an expert today.

What to Do During a Card Processing Outage at Your Business

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Whether you run an online store or a brick-and-mortar business, you depend on non-cash revenue. Debit and credit cards have become Americans’ preferred payment method, with an estimated 69% of us using cash for “few (if any) purchases” in the last year, according to research from CapitalOne.

So what happens when you experience a card processing outage or your system goes down? You can’t accept card payments, and your customers can’t pay. It’s an unfortunate situation, but card outages happen. Here’s what you can do if your card readers go down to reduce the financial and reputational impact on your business.

 

You’re Down, But Not Out

Most payment card transactions happen instantly. From the customer viewpoint, it’s just seconds from the time they tap or swipe their card until they get an acceptance message. Anything longer than a few seconds can frustrate customers. And while the transaction appears fast and smooth to the buyer, a lot is going on behind the scenes during those few moment.

You’re Down, But Not Out graphic

When credit card machines are down or there’s a credit card outage, that usually seamless process can’t happen. An outage can stem from several sources.

  • The merchant’s equipment could be to blame.
  • The Wi-Fi router might be acting up, making it difficult to connect to the internet. Refreshing your router or switching to a wired connection may clear up the issue.
  • The credit card processor itself is down. A Visa debit card outage may happen when Visa’s having connectivity issues, for example.
  • The software a business uses to process card payments may be experiencing a glitch or outage.

An outage, no matter its cause, can disrupt your business and lead to a drop in customer satisfaction.

 

How Does a Card Outage Affect Your Business?

Because card outages can have a tangible impact on your company, you should do what you can to make these issues as rare as possible. Some negative effects can include:

  • Loss of business: A credit card outage can cause an immediate loss of business. The customers who planned on paying with their debit or credit card are stuck. If you operate a physical store, some of those customers can switch to cash payments. If your sales are primarily online, your customers most likely can’t complete their purchases until the outage is resolved. You may notice a dip in sales on the day of the outage.
  • Unhappy customers: Cards offer convenience and security that cash can’t match, and many shoppers primarily carry cards because of that safety. If someone loses a debit or credit card, they can report the loss to their bank, pause and cancel the card so they don’t have to worry about losing actual money. If someone drops $20 on the street, that money is gone for good. When customers can’t use their preferred payment methods, they might take their business elsewhere.
  • Negative reputation: Frequent outages can adversely affect your business’s reputation. Customers may start to assume that your card machines won’t be working and may be more likely to visit your competitors. Faulty payment card equipment can also cause customers to question your business’s trustworthiness.

 

What Causes Card Outages?

Card outages can happen for a few reasons. Some issues are widespread and may affect multiple merchants and businesses simultaneously, while others occur only with your business.

  • Power outage: During a power outage, everything will be down. Your business’s point-of-sale (POS) system may not operate, and your computers won’t power on. If your customers are shopping online, they may get cut off from shopping if their own power goes out. First contact your electric company. Inform them of the outage so they can send out a crew to investigate and fix the issue. The electric company can also give you an estimate of when you can expect them to restore power. Some brick-and-mortar stores choose to add generators and backup power to their premises to keep their POS systems running if the power does go off.
  • Internet issues: Card payment processing needs an internet connection to work. If the connection gets interrupted, the payment can’t go through. Internet issues can take multiple forms and have different sources, such as a weak or blocked Wi-Fi signal. Also, check to ensure your router is functioning properly. Sometimes, moving the router or switching to a wired connection is all you need to do to solve the problem.
  • Provider outage: An outage may stem from the provider. Storms and severe weather may affect your internet service provider’s ability to establish a connection. Many service providers have outage maps online and keep their customers in the loop if there’s an issue in the area. In this case, all you can do is wait for the connection to be restored.
  • Hardware troubles: The hardware you use to process sales and read payment cards may have issues, which can look like a credit card outage. For example, the card reader may wear out or become unable to detect contactless payments. If the hardware isn’t updated, it can also stop working. Sometimes, the ports that connect your register to the card reader can become worn out. In that case, you may need to replace your hardware to get your system up and running again.
  • Software issues: In rare cases, the payment processor’s software may cause a card outage. If the payment processor goes down, your business and numerous others will be affected. It can also be the case that one of the major card companies, such as Visa or Mastercard, is experiencing an outage.

 

What to Do During a Credit Card Outage

During a card outage, you don’t have to wait for the issue to be resolved. Being proactive can help protect your reputation, get to the root of the issue and keep your customers happy.
Take these steps if your credit card system is down:

  1. Tell your customers: As soon as you detect a problem, tell your customers about it. Email people to inform them of the issue, put a message on your website or social media and post a sign on the door of your physical location. Explain what’s happening and how you’re working to fix it.
  2. Accept other forms of payment: The more payment options customers have, the more likely they are to complete their purchase. If you can’t accept credit or debit cards now, let people know which payment methods are working, whether it’s cash, e-Checks or alternative payment options like PayPal or Venmo.
  3. Troubleshoot: Try to find the source of the problem. It could be something you can fix on your own. Fix Wi-Fi issues by restarting the router or look for loose cables in your POS system. Check for updates on your software and hardware, as well.
  4. Ask around: If you can’t find an immediately obvious source of the problem, find out if other businesses are experiencing the same issue. Once you know the problem is bigger than your company, you can monitor the situation and inform the parties who are most likely going to resolve it.
  5. Offer a discount: Your customers may be inconvenienced during a card outage. One way to smooth over the situation and encourage them to shop with you again is to offer a discount code or coupon to use on a future purchase.
  6. Take steps to prevent credit card outages in the future: Being proactive can help reduce the chance of a credit card outage in the future. Purchasing a backup generator, switching internet providers and preparing for bad weather are helpful steps to take.

Another option is to address the issue before an outage occurs. You can do this by keeping your hardware and software up to date to reduce the chance of malfunctions. It’s also worthwhile to find a payment platform with a proven track record and stellar reputation.

 

Choose CSG Forte as Your Payment Platform

You need to have a payment platform that will have your back during a card outage and that will provide the flexibility you need to respond to any outage issues. CSG Forte has decades of experience as a complete payment solution. We’ll help you accept all payments and keep your business online. Contact us today to get started.

Let Recurring Payments Increase Revenue Predictability

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From streaming binges to gym memberships, today’s consumers expect their favorite services to “just work”—and that includes payments. Recurring payment processing is the quiet engine that makes that always-on convenience possible, delivering friction-free checkouts for customers while fueling reliable, repeat revenue for the businesses that serve them.

 

What Is Recurring Payment Processing?

Recurring payments are pre-authorized, automatic charges for products or services that people use on a predictable cadence. Customers give the merchant permission to debit a stored payment method at set intervals—weekly, monthly, annually, or whenever a subscription renews—so no one has to re-enter card details or chase invoices.

Recurring charges fall into two buckets:

  • Fixed recurring payments: The billed amount stays the same each cycle, regardless of usage.
  • Variable recurring payments: The amount can change from cycle to cycle, reflecting actual consumption or metered use.

To accept these payments, a company needs both a payment service provider (PSP) and a merchant account that can handle card-on-file transactions.

Most recurring payment platforms charge a flat monthly platform fee plus a small percentage of each transaction volume; exact costs vary by feature set, industry demands and card network rules.

 

How Do Recurring Payments Work?

A recurring payment model takes several steps to set up:

  1. Enrollment – A customer signs up for a subscription or opts into automatic billing.
  2. Payment method selection – They choose the card or account they want charged.
  3. Consent to terms – By accepting the merchant’s terms and conditions, the customer authorizes secure storage of their credentials and future automated charges.
  4. Credential storage – The PSP tokenizes and stores card data within the payment gateway for successive transactions.
  5. Transaction approval – At each billing date, the card network, issuing bank and acquiring bank exchange authorizations and settle funds from the customer to the merchant account.
  6. Ongoing billing – Prior to the next cycle, the customer receives an invoice or reminder; once processed, they receive a receipt confirming payment.

This loop repeats automatically every period until the customer cancels, the merchant terminates service, or the stored credentials expire. Once the process is complete, your business can accept recurring payments from customers and receive payments within a few business days. The payment process repeats automatically every billing cycle, only stopping if the customer stops recurring payments or ends their subscription, or if the payment details are incorrect.

 

What Types of Businesses Use Recurring Payments?

Once limited to magazines and utilities, subscription-style billing now appears across nearly every sector where customers need continual access or replenishment.

Invoice-based, service-centric businesses benefit when:

  • Subscription and club services: Streaming media, curated wine clubs and print publications keep members active without manual renewals.
  • Membership organizations: Gyms, dance academies, tutoring centers and similar entities automate monthly dues.
  • Scheduled service providers: Child-care centers, lawn-care crews and housekeeping companies bill for standing appointments.
  • Government and municipal offices: Agencies can collect taxes, license fees and utility bills on deadline.
  • Installment-plan services: Dentists, mechanics, or contractors break a large expense into budget-friendly, scheduled payments.

Online and digital businesses tap recurring billing when:

  • SaaS and digital platforms: Cloud software, mobile apps and virtual tools monetize ongoing access.
  • Subscription boxes: Goods are shipped after the platform automatically captures the customer’s renewal payment.
  • Paid content publishers: News outlets, Patreon creators and educational sites grant entry to exclusive content behind a paywall.
  • E-learning providers: Virtual schools and course marketplaces collect tuition in consistent increments.

 

What Are the Benefits of Accepting Recurring Payments?

Organizations that shift to automated, card-on-file payments quickly discover a range of upsides:

  • Predictable cash flow: Consistent billing cycles smooth revenue forecasting and reduce the shock of late or missed payments.
  • Flexible payment experiences: Customers pick the frequency and tender that best align with their budgets, boosting satisfaction.
  • Operational efficiency: Automation reduces the need for manual invoicing, reconciliation and collections, freeing staff for higher-value work.
  • Superior customer convenience: “Set it and forget it” payments keep services active without additional effort, reducing churn.
  • Higher retention: Frictionless renewals encourage ongoing relationships and foster stickiness.
  • Lower fraud exposure: Secure tokenization and gateway vaults safeguard sensitive data, cutting the risk of compromise.

 

How Can CSG Forte Help You Get Started Accepting Recurring Payments?

A payment gateway is one of many ways to process a recurring payment. Payment gateways are part of the recurring payment process by storing the customer’s card details for future charges. Companies can work with a payment gateway to support transactions.

Accept and process recurring payments with the payments platform by CSG Forte. With this platform, you can schedule recurring payments with your customers and manage these payments through account verification, returns management and more. You’ll also benefit from high gateway availability and minimal downtime with our enhanced payment gateway performance.

Contact CSG Forte for more information, or sign up for your recurring payment system today.

How Online Payments Processing Can Help Healthcare Providers Improve Efficiency and Patient Satisfaction

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The healthcare payment landscape is shifting. With high-deductible insurance plans on the rise, patients are now footing more—or even all—of the bill. This increased cost to patients often means collecting patient payments is more difficult. To maximize collections, healthcare providers must reduce payment barriers and friction by offering a variety of flexible, convenient online payment options.

Patients expect paying their medical bill to be as easy and convenient as shopping on Amazon, and many prefer to pay online. One survey found that most patients (62%) are now using online portals to pay their medical bills. Healthcare consumers in the United States ranked availability (i.e., the freedom to use all types of payment methods) as the most important factor in the medical bill payment process, according to Statista.

Many healthcare payment systems don’t create effortless experiences. Instead, medical bill payment processes are painful for patients. A survey found that 54% of U.S. consumers experienced at least one problem during the payment process when paying for healthcare-related services, and 21% had difficulty navigating the payment process. Limited payment options and burdensome payment processes frustrate patients and may lead to churn. More than half (63%) of patients consider switching healthcare providers if they are not satisfied with how they pay.

Many healthcare organizations also struggle with cumbersome payment processes. Managing multiple payment methods and providers across offices and facilities is challenging. Healthcare payment processing is often manual, inefficient and prone to errors, increasing costs and creating cash flow problems. Payment failures that lead to unpaid balances can delay care, ultimately harming both the patient’s well-being and the healthcare organization’s financial health. A recent survey found that more than half of healthcare payment leaders describe payment and claims processing delays as a threat to operations, and 80% are convinced that improving the efficiency of these processes is vital to the success of their organizations. Yet only 53% of leaders report adequately automating payment workflows. Implementing automated payment processing eliminates repetitive manual tasks, reducing human error and giving office staff more time to focus on higher-value activities.

Payment orchestration solutions bring all your healthcare payment processes together on one platform, streamlining operations and simplifying patient payments. Automated payment processing increases efficiency, patient satisfaction and revenue.

 

What Is Healthcare Payment Orchestration?

Payment orchestration streamlines healthcare payment operations, simplifying patient payment processing for medical practices, health systems and strategic health partners. Orchestration allows healthcare providers to easily manage different payment methods across facilities.

A payment orchestration platform is a technology solution that acts as a central hub for managing and automating payment operations. Payment orchestration integrates an organization’s payment gateways, processors, banks and acquirers into a single platform. This platform then intelligently routes and manages transactions across these various payment service providers (PSPs). A payment orchestration platform acts like the conductor of a payment symphony, harmonizing various payment methods, gateways and processors to facilitate smooth and efficient transactions.

 

How Payment Orchestration Works

  • Initiation: A patient selects a payment method from the available options, such as credit or debit cards, digital wallets, eChecks or Automated Clearing House (ACH), and initiates the payment.
  • Routing: The payment orchestration system routes transactions to the best-performing payment processor based on factors like transaction type and cost, currency, customer location, response times and success rates.
  • Processing: The payment services provider (PSP) or acquirer processes the payment, which may be approved or denied due to errors, outages or declines of authorization. If the payment fails, the payment orchestration platform automatically re-routes the payment to an alternative gateway or acquirer. Once the payment is approved, the transaction is confirmed and completed.
  • Clearing and reconciliation: The funds are transferred between PSPs/acquirers and the payment orchestration platform, which automatically reconciles the transaction.
  • Reporting/data analysis: The platform collects and analyzes transaction data to uncover insights in payment trends, customer behavior and operational performance—enabling smarter decisions and more effective payment strategies.

 

Benefits of Payment Orchestration for Healthcare Providers

Payment orchestration optimizes collections and enhances the patient experience by offering flexible payment options and quicker transactions, ultimately increasing provider revenue. Payment orchestration supports:

  • Operational efficiency: Payment orchestration streamlines payment processing by automating tasks like routing, reconciliation and reporting. Automated payment processing saves time, minimizes errors, speeds up transactions, reduces administrative costs and allows back-office teams to focus on higher-value activities.
  • Better customer experience: Payment orchestration enables faster, more dependable transactions while supporting a variety of payment methods to accommodate patient preferences. Payment orchestration platforms remove friction and complexity from the healthcare payment process, delivering a more convenient, flexible, transparent and secure payment experience.
  • Increased revenue: Healthcare providers can improve collections by offering a variety of payment methods, making it easier and more convenient to pay. A study found that 23% of Millennials will pay bills with the least payment friction first, prioritizing easier-to-pay bills. Furthermore, by maximizing payment acceptance rates and minimizing declines, payment orchestration helps businesses boost revenue.
  • Higher transaction success rates: By working with multiple payment service providers, businesses can optimize routing so transactions are processed through the most dependable channels—boosting transaction success rates and reducing payment failures. Rerouting failed transactions to another PSP means that a single PSP outage (resulting in payment failure) doesn’t prevent patients from accessing care from telehealth or other subscription service.
  • Lower costs: Orchestration significantly reduces payment processing fees by intelligently routing transactions. Analyzing factors like transaction size and provider fees to determine the most cost-effective route results in substantial savings over time. Payment orchestration also saves money by reducing integration costs with processors.
  • Scalability: Payment orchestration allows healthcare organizations to quickly and easily add or switch payment options and PSPs, scaling faster.
  • Fraud prevention and security: Payment orchestration platforms often include advanced tools for detecting fraud and protecting data. By centralizing payment data, businesses can apply machine learning and analytics to identify and prevent fraudulent activity.

 

What to Look for in a Payment Orchestration Platform

Choose a payment orchestration platform/vendor that provides:

  • Security and compliance: Security shouldn’t add friction to the customer experience by requiring manual card entry or extra authentication steps. Choose a payment solutions provider that uses tokenization, reducing the risk of data breaches while eliminating the need to repeatedly enter sensitive card details.
  • The right vendor should also help minimize payment card industry (PCI) compliance scope. By reducing or removing payment data stored on your healthcare payment systems, you lower the risk of data breaches and ease the burden of PCI compliance. Look for features like tokenization and hosted payment pages that shift compliance liability to the vendor.
  • Personalized customer experiences: Choose a payment solution that can offer customized payment options. Does the platform enable patients to easily use their most recent payment methods?
  • Training and support: Comprehensive training and reliable support are essential when choosing a payment orchestration provider. Effective training equips your team to confidently navigate and maximize the platform, accelerating onboarding and minimizing errors. Be sure to review available resources—such as online tutorials, documentation and access to dedicated customer success representatives. Dependable support services are important for prompt resolution of technical issues to minimize system downtime. Clarify details around support hours, engineer expertise and service level agreements (SLAs) to set clear expectations.

 

Simplify Healthcare Payment Processing with CSG Forte

Payment orchestration streamlines healthcare payment processing, increasing operational efficiency and enhancing patient experience and revenue.

CSG Forte offers a suite of payment solutions that manage the entire payment lifecycle on a single platform, from payments and security to support and self-service. Forte processes online and mobile payments, including credit/debit, ACH and digital wallet. Forte’s payment solutions process $164B+ in payments annually, simplifying payments and boosting revenue for more than 150,000 merchants.

Why choose Forte for your healthcare payment processing?

Security and compliance. Protect sensitive data across the entire platform with built-in Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance and the highest security standards in the industry.

  • Tokenization
  • Point-to-point encryption (P2PE)
  • Hosted payment pages reduce PCI scope
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant

Connects with your favorite tools. With a vast suite of application programming interfaces (APIs), our payment solutions integrate smoothly with your existing website, payment applications, processes and software architecture. Easily integrate Forte with your electronic health record or patient engagement systems.

Only pay for what you use. With our platform-as-a-service model, you can activate capabilities and deactivate them as needed. You won’t pay for what you don’t use.

Learn more about Forte’s payment solutions for healthcare providers—and how we can help optimize your healthcare payment processing.

When “Good Enough” Costs More Than You Think: The Hidden Costs of Medical Manual Payment Processing

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It starts with a clipboard.

One front desk associate prints the day’s patient balances. Another manually logs a card payment into the billing system while fielding a call from a confused patient who’s trying to pay over the phone. A third staff member stays late to reconcile the day’s transactions—only to discover that two payments were misapplied, and one was never recorded at all.

These aren’t just minor inefficiencies. They’re signs of a larger problem: the hidden cost of manual payment processing.

While many healthcare practices have adopted electronic health records and patient portals, their payment workflows often remain stuck in the past. Paper-based systems, fragmented tools and disjointed workflows might seem manageable on the surface—but behind the scenes, they’re quietly draining revenue, increasing staff burden and frustrating patients.

In this blog, we’ll explore the true cost of manual payment processing in medical practices—from administrative overhead to compliance risks and missed payments—and show how modernizing with a partner like Forte can help your team reclaim both time and revenue.

 

The Administrative Drain: Labor Costs + Human Error

Manual payment processing may seem like a small operational detail—but it adds up quickly in both time and dollars. For healthcare staff, tasks like printing and mailing invoices, logging payments by hand, chasing down balances by phone and manually reconciling records can consume hours of the workweek.

According to the JAMA Network, administrative costs account for between 25% and 31% of total healthcare spending in the U.S., much of it tied to inefficient processes like manual billing and collections (source). For a busy outpatient practice, even just a few minutes per transaction can translate into dozens of hours lost per month.

Beyond time, the margin for error increases with every manual touchpoint. A typo in a patient’s account number. A misapplied payment. A billing code written incorrectly. These small mistakes can snowball into compliance issues, delays in reimbursement or incorrect balances being sent to collections—damaging both revenue and patient trust.

And when multiple systems are in play—billing software, card readers, spreadsheets, etc.—the burden on staff only grows. Instead of focusing on patient care or front-desk service, staff are stuck acting as human bridges between disconnected tools.

Here are just a few of the most common manual payment tasks that cost practices time and money:

  • Printing and mailing paper statements
  • Taking payments over the phone or in person
  • Manually keying in credit card numbers
  • Cross-referencing EHR and payment systems for accuracy
  • Reconciling mismatched payments at day’s end
  • Following up on past-due accounts via phone or email

These processes might seem routine, but they quietly chip away at staff efficiency and operational profitability. In a field where time is money—and burnout is high—manual payments are one cost center many practices can’t afford to ignore.

 

The Patient Experience Gap: Inconvenience = Unpaid Bills

Today’s healthcare consumers expect the same convenience from their doctor’s office that they get from their favorite retailers and streaming services. When it comes to billing, clunky processes—like paper statements, limited hours for payment, or phone-only options—don’t just frustrate patients. They reduce the chances of getting paid at all.

Globally, the healthcare market is predicted to reach $54.8 billion by 2030, and a 2023 survey indicated that 62% of healthcare consumers prefer patient portals for settling medical bills. The high cost of many modern medical procedures means that patients who can’t pay immediately—or who forget once they leave the office—are more likely to let a bill lapse.

Manual systems also create unnecessary friction. Patients may be unsure of what they owe, when they owe it, or how to pay. Without automated reminders, flexible options, or user-friendly payment channels, even well-intentioned patients can fall behind.

Offering digital-first, patient-centric options in your healthcare organization, such as CSG Forte BillPay, can dramatically increase payment speed and satisfaction. These include:

  • Text-to-pay: Patients receive a secure link by SMS and pay in seconds
  • Online portals: Clear, centralized access to bills and payment history
  • Auto-pay: Reduce churn and improve on-time collections

CSG Forte’s Engage payments platform, for example, allows providers to offer installment payment options tailored to patient needs—without burdening staff with manual setup or tracking. That flexibility improves not only collections, but also patient loyalty.

In an era where patients are choosing providers based on ease of experience—not just clinical care—billing is part of your brand. Making payments simple isn’t just good service; it’s good business.

 

The Revenue Leakage You Can’t See: Delays, Denials and Write-Offs

Revenue loss doesn’t always come with a flashing warning sign. In many practices, it trickles out slowly—through payment delays, missed follow-ups, and balances that quietly slip into write-off territory. The culprit is often hiding in plain sight: manual processes.

When staff are managing payments across multiple systems—or tracking balances in spreadsheets and paper files—it’s easy for critical steps to fall through the cracks. A balance that isn’t collected at the time of service. A reminder that was never sent. A patient who intended to pay but got tired of navigating a clunky process.

These small lapses compound over time. A 2023 report from the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) found that the average medical practice collects just 55% of patient balances after a visit—down from 70% a decade ago. The decline is largely attributed to rising out-of-pocket costs and outdated billing methods that don’t match patient expectations or behavior. (source)

Even when patients do want to pay, the friction of manual workflows can be enough to cause delays. And delayed payments mean increased days in A/R, higher write-off rates, and less predictable cash flow—all of which put pressure on both finance teams and patient experience teams.

By automating billing, reminders, and payment options, healthcare practices can:

  • Reduce the number of balances that slip through the cracks
  • Accelerate revenue collection
  • Minimize administrative rework
  • Improve overall financial visibility

With Forte’s unified payments platform, providers gain access to real-time reporting, automated follow-ups, and flexible payment options—all designed to improve collections without adding complexity.

When payments run on autopilot, staff are freed up, patients are more likely to pay, and revenue becomes more predictable. The result? Less leakage, more lift.

 

Modernize Your Workflow. Maximize Your Results

The challenges of manual payment processing aren’t just about inefficiency—they’re about what your practice could be gaining if those inefficiencies were eliminated.

That’s where Forte comes in.

Our healthcare payment solutions are built to help providers streamline revenue operations without sacrificing flexibility or compliance. Whether you’re a specialty clinic, a multi-location provider, or a community health center, Forte can help you take payments off the clipboard and into the cloud.

With Forte, you can:

  • Offer flexible installment plans, helping patients manage out-of-pocket costs while improving collections.
  • Automate recurring billing and ACH payments, reducing administrative workload and ensuring steady cash flow.
  • Strengthen compliance and security with PCI DSS–compliant tools that tokenize and encrypt payment data.
  • Integrate seamlessly with your billing system, minimizing double entry and reducing errors.

Our platform combines reliability (99.99% uptime), deep industry experience, and white-glove support to ensure that implementation is smooth—and impact is immediate.

Manual payment systems may seem “good enough” until you see the real cost in wasted time, lost revenue, and patient dissatisfaction. The good news? You don’t have to settle for outdated processes. With Forte, you can future-proof your payment workflows and refocus on what matters most: delivering excellent care.

Don’t let outdated payment processes hold your practice back. Let’s talk about how Forte’s payments platform for healthcare providers can help you reduce costs, improve patient satisfaction, and simplify your payment operations—securely and seamlessly. Contact our experts to schedule a personalized demo to see what modern healthcare payments can do for you.

 How Your Business Can Start Accepting ACH Payments

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Checks get lost. Cards expire. Customers find making in-person and cash payments a pain. Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, also called eCheck payments, offer a smarter, more stable way to move money—one that reduces fees, increases reliability and simplifies the entire payment process. For organizations looking to cut overhead and improve cash flow, it’s quickly becoming the go-to option. That’s especially true in sectors like property management, healthcare and utilities, where recurring payments and high transaction volumes make efficiency non-negotiable. If you’re ready to modernize and improve your overall processing cost, here’s what you need to know to get started.

The ACH network oversees transfers from one financial institution to another. When you accept ACH payments as a business, you allow your customers to transfer funds from their accounts to yours. Leveraging online ACH payments can be a valuable practice for several types of businesses. Read on to learn more.

 

How to Receive ACH Payments

To begin processing ACH payments, follow these simple steps:

 

Step 1: Set Up an ACH Merchant Account

The ACH network oversees electronic transfers from one bank account to another. To process these transactions, you must have an account with the ACH network to identify your business and access customer bank accounts for withdrawals. Typically, you’ll create this account through an e-payment platform.

When you set up your account, you must provide various information to prove your identity as a merchant. This information can include, among other items:

  • Certificate of incorporation
  • Federal tax ID
  • Proof of company address
  • Valid ID for company owners

Additionally, you’ll have to provide an estimated processing volume of your electronic fund transfers.

 

Step 2: Request Customer Authorization

After verifying your company through the ACH network, you can request customer authorization, which is essential to receive ACH payments. Authorization requirements exist to protect consumers from unwarranted account withdrawals from businesses. You have a few options to retrieve valid authorization from a customer. You can:

  • Receive verbal agreement over a recorded phone message.
  • Ask your customers to submit an online payment authorization form.
  • Have your customers sign a physical confirmation form.

Online authorization forms should include specific language that clearly states that the consumer assents to the transaction terms. CSG Forte can help simplify the authorization process with an online authorization process on our platform. This allows you to send the authorization form to your customers to complete the process in a few minutes.

 

Step 3: Create the Payment

With your merchant account and customer authorization, you’re ready to set up the payment with your customer. During the authorization process, your customer will provide the following information:

  • Account number
  • Bank Routing number
  • Customer name

You’ll use this information alongside your merchant details to set up the payment. You’ll also set the amount required for transfer. In the case of recurring payments, you will only need authorization and bank account information for your initial transaction.

 

Step 4: Submit Details to ACH Network

Your final step is inputting all information into the ACH system for the transfer to take place. You’ll rely on processing software to handle this last step. When you input the payment information, the ACH network alerts both banks involved in the transfer. From there, the customer’s bank will provide the funds requested by you, the merchant.

 

How Long Does It Take to Receive an eCheck Payment?

ACH payments take about three to five business days to process through the network and appear in your bank account. The process takes a few days because the ACH network needs to verify the transaction. ACH batches only operate during the business week and close at 5 p.m. EST, so consider the payment timing when determining when it should show up in your account.

You can use Same Day ACH payments if you need a faster payment option. In these cases, ACH transactions are sent and received the same day the request is made , considering cutoff times and the time-zone of origination. You can expect these payments to be settled the next business day after submitting them.

 

The Benefits of Accepting ACH and eChecks for Your Business

When you accept eCheck payments, your business and consumers can enjoy the benefits.

Convenience: The initial authorization process for ACH payments can take as little as a few minutes for you and your customers. Once authorization is complete, your customers can send payments to you with the press of a button. These payments’ convenience is undeniable, especially for e-commerce businesses handling all transactions online. By offering convenient digital payment methods, you’ll improve the consumer experience for all types of products and services. While you can enjoy the convenience of eliminating paper checks, your customers can skip writing them out and mailing them to you. Happier customers lead to more business and a positive reputation all around.

Cost: Processing physical checks and counting out cash can be an expensive process with the manual labor involved. Additionally, credit and debit card charges can be on the pricier side. ACH payments typically come with low, flat rates per transaction, allowing your business to offer convenient payments without overextending your financial resources. You can reinvest the money you save on administrative overhead into your business and its growth. The reduced manual labor can also decrease the need for more internal team members, saving money on payroll—even as you grow.

Protection: The ACH network is highly regulated and secure to keep money safe as it transfers from one bank account to another. While many layers of security protect financial data as it moves from institution to institution, there are also clear reasons for disputing charges. Consumers want to know their bank account information is safe during authorization, and your third-party ACH provider should have that covered. With CSG Forte, tokenization replaces sensitive data with a token that is generated randomly and has no intrinsic value. Our end-to-end encryption and compliance with financial regulations provide the trust and data protection you and your consumers are looking for.

Efficiency: Online payments through the ACH network lend themselves to automation. Integrate your payments platform with financial management software to keep track of all money coming in and going out via ACH transfers. With the help of automation, your team can greatly reduce administrative responsibilities. Additionally, eChecks or ACH payments are among the most common payment types used for recurring billing. Consumers can also enjoy the efficiency of money automatically taken from their accounts each month, reducing their payment responsibilities and eliminating late fees.

 

What Types of Businesses Can Use ACH Payment Processing?

Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Many small and mid-sized businesses understand the importance of offering convenient payment options for their customers. However, these businesses also have fewer resources than larger enterprises and wonder if they can afford the fees associated with electronic payments processing. ACH payments have relatively low fees compared to credit card processing and far less administrative overhead than processing checks. When you’re looking for convenient payment options at a reasonable price, ACH payments are the way to go.

Integrated Software Vendors

Integrated software vendors (ISVs) provide software as a service (SaaS) that depends on a subscription model. These businesses are ideal for ACH payments because recurring payments are simple to set up.

When ISVs collect payments from several sources in multiple formats, managing finances can be complex. These businesses also often operate with projected income rather than actual income, so staying organized and tracking the money coming in is essential. Online payments with ACH transfers unify payments from clients and make financial tracking easy.

Enterprises

Larger companies often have significant customer bases to match. With payments coming from many different sources, tracking cash flow and reconciling payments can become complex. ACH payments provide the efficiency of automation, allowing enterprises to manage their incoming payment volume.

Government Agencies

Donors, constituents and more send money to government organizations. Whether an organization is municipal, state or federal, accepting payments from multiple sources can be challenging. With ACH transfers, organizations can securely house their payments under a single system while reducing administrative strain on internal teams.

 

How Can CSG Forte Help You?

CSG Forte offers a complete, end-to-end payments solution with Dex. Our platform allows you to seamlessly and securely accept transfers from your customers, empowering your business with payment flexibility and reduced administrative responsibilities. See what CSG Forte can do for you, and get started with us today.

How Much Revenue Is Expired Data Costing Your Business?

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Every time a payment fails due to outdated customer data, it’s more than just an inconvenience—it’s a missed opportunity.

For businesses that rely on recurring revenue, especially those with subscription models, expired credit card information and incorrect details directly impact revenue. Failed payments lead to frustrated customers, wasted resources and a growing administrative headache. Even worse, those missed payments can snowball into increased churn, lost trust and long-term damage to customer relationships. If your business hasn’t adopted a solution to proactively update this information, you’re likely leaving money on the table.

With CSG Forte’s Account Updater, businesses know their payment data is always current—helping eliminate payment failures and maximize revenue. Let’s take a closer look at how expired customer data might be quietly draining your profits, and how automating updates can stop the leak.

 

The Problem: Expired Customer Data Is Costing You More Than You Think

When a customer’s credit card expires, their payment information is no longer valid, which means failed payment attempts are inevitable. This is a frequent issue in businesses that rely on subscriptions, recurring services, or membership fees. According to a 2021 report by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, failed payments cost the global economy around $118 billion. If your business isn’t actively updating payment information, you could be contributing to this massive revenue gap.

The effects of expired customer data go beyond just revenue loss. Failed payment attempts often lead to customer frustration. The more times a payment fails, the more likely customers are to cancel their subscriptions or switch to a competitor. Additionally, businesses are forced to expend valuable resources trying to chase down updated payment details or contacting customers for manual updates. This increases operational costs and takes time away from more strategic tasks.

 

The Solution: CSG Forte’s Account Updater for Seamless Payment Continuity

CSG Forte’s Account Updater solution is a game-changer for businesses dealing with expired or incorrect customer data. By automatically updating payment methods when credit card information changes, Account Updater ensures that payments go through seamlessly. With our solution, you’re automatically notified whenever a customer’s payment data is updated, whether it’s a new expiration date, a change in account number or any other modification.

Take Hall’s Culligan Water, for example. By integrating Forte’s Account Updater to its existing Forte bill payment solution, the company was able to drastically reduce the number of failed transactions, ensuring that their customers’ services continued uninterrupted. The company also saw immediate profits: In one month of using Account Updater, Hall’s Culligan increased its collection rate by 3%, processing $258,000 more in payments than the month before.

This not only helped the company maintain consistent revenue flow, but it also led to improved customer satisfaction. Account Updater completed 4,000 cardholder updates without any Hall’s Culligan employee intervention, locating $193,000 from cards on file that simply needed their expiration date updated. With fewer payment failures and less staff time spent on collections, Hall’s Culligan was able to focus on delivering high-quality service rather than tracking down payment issues.

By using Account Updater, businesses can avoid the need for manual payment updates, ensuring that payments are processed smoothly and efficiently, meaning fewer interruptions, reduced customer friction and a more predictable revenue stream.

 

The Benefits: Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore Expired Customer Data

  • Reduced revenue loss: Expired or outdated payment data is one of the leading causes of failed payments, directly impacting your bottom line. Using Forte’s Account Updater ensures that payments go through without interruption, preserving revenue and reducing churn.
  • Improved customer retention: Customers hate dealing with payment failures. Each failed transaction increases the likelihood that customers will cancel their service or switch providers. By automating the update process, Forte’s Account Updater removes this point of friction, creating a better experience for customers and encouraging long-term retention.
  • Operational efficiency: Chasing down customers to get updated payment details takes employee time and resources that could be spent on more important tasks. With Account Updater, the process is automated, freeing up your team to focus on improving customer experience and driving growth instead of resolving payment issues.
  • Better customer experience: A seamless, hassle-free payment process is one of the easiest ways to improve customer satisfaction. When customers don’t have to worry about updating their payment details or dealing with payment failures, they’re more likely to stay engaged with your business. This leads to higher satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value.

 

Don’t Let Expired Customer Data Impact Your Bottom Line

Expired customer data is a hidden drain on your business revenue. While it may seem like a minor issue, the impact of missed payments, lost customers and wasted time can add up quickly.

With CSG Forte’s Account Updater solution, businesses can eliminate the risks posed by outdated payment data, ensuring that payments go through smoothly, improving retention and ultimately boosting revenue.

Ready to stop letting expired customer data cost you money? Talk to an expert today and discover how CSG Forte’s Account Updater can help streamline your payment processing, reduce churn and unlock your business’s full revenue potential. Get in touch with one of our payments experts.