Cash Flow Tools and Financial Services

Time and time again, in our dealings with businesses the major factor we find holding businesses back is cash flow.

It seems today that a great product and business plan does not necessarily translate into a successful business.   The missing component is often capital – the money needed to put these plans into action.  Whether it’s a start up in need of money to get up and running, or an established business whose payables keep coming up due before their receivables are in, the problem is universal.

With the general lack of credit available to small and medium sized businesses these days, more companies are finding themselves in a position where they are forced to finance themselves.  Tools that have been in place for generations, such as net terms, receivable financing and even business credit cards are becoming scarcer ever day.  Banks are often unwilling to lend to businesses, and private investment capital is as well often difficult to come by.

At Merchant Solutions, we offer a variety of cash flow tools that will assist you in getting the money you need in order to maintain and grow your business.  Whether it’s faster funding of your credit card and check transactions, faster receivables from your customers, or cash in hand for your expansion and growth projects, we offer a variety of solutions to meet your need.

Difficulty collecting receivables?  Try PAY FAST!

With today’s economic conditions, many companies that do still provide net terms on their receivables are often finding themselves “strung out” for payment.  As business slows, so too does your customer or tenant’s ability to generate the cash needed to cover their payables.   The result is that you, the vendor, is often stuck awaiting payment on overdue invoices.

The solution?  PAY FAST

Pay Fast is an exclusive feature from Merchant Solutions that allows you to create escrow accounts for your customers, tenants or other clients that pay you on net terms.  A fixed percentage of each of their credit or debit based transaction flows into an escrow account you can withdraw from to cover your invoices to them.  No more chasing down unpaid invoices!   This is particularly well suited to clients who have tenants consistently late on their rent, or to suppliers who have regular delivery or service contracts with.

For more information on our exclusive Pay Fast service, please .

Merchant Cash Advance

Need money to expand your business, FAST?   Or have you been turned down by traditional lending institutions?  Merchant cash advances may be the option for you.

Unlike personal cash advances, merchant cash advances are not designed to fund the daily operations of struggling companies.   Rather, they are targeted toward growth minded businesses that do not have the significant hard assets banks or traditional lending institutions require, or that need funding faster than traditional lenders can accommodate.  A cash advance is similar to the nearly bygone practice of receivable financing.  It differs in the sense that instead of requiring a specific receivable, such as purchase order, the merchant instead repays the advance by netting off a percentage of each credit card batch.  Thereby, the “receivable” is replaced by your daily credit card batch.  As well, the repayment is based on a PERCENTAGE of each batch as opposed to a fixed dollar amount like with a bank loan.  So if your sales decrease in a given month, the repayment amount decreases as well.

Think a merchant cash advance may be a viable option for your business?  If so, to learn more.

Overnight Payment Express – Turn today’s credit card batch into tomorrow’s available funds!

For many companies, the typical delay of 48-72 hours between batching out their credit card transactions and having the funds available in their company checking account can lead to financial nightmares.  Many restaurants and bars, for instance, like to do their ordering on Monday to allow enough lead time to get their stock in before the next weekend, but do not yet have settled in their bank account sales made over the previous weekend.   Or if you run an online retail shop and drop ship your items, and your supplier requires upfront payment prior to shipping. Or perhaps if you are a contractor, and subcontract a portion of your work on a given job.

In any of these situations, you are using YOUR working capital to finance your operations until your credit card transactions settle.   This means you have to hold cash in reserve to cover these items instead of putting it to work, or delay your ordering or payment in order to wait for the money you already made to settle.

Overnight Money Express may be the solution for you.  With Overnight Money Express, all Visa, MasterCard and Discover sales batched out by 8pm Eastern are available for withdrawal from your checking account next business day!  No more waiting for transactions to settle.   And with a monthly cost less than that of a single overdraft charge, it’s likely to actually SAVE your business money you would normally spend on overdraft charges, all the while keeping your customers happy and suppliers paid.

Interested in learning more about Overnight Money Express? to get in touch with a business specialist

Remote Check Deposit

If you are like many merchants today, most of your transactions are via cash, credit or debit.  However, you don’t want to turn away those who still prefer to pay by check.  The catch-22 is that this means you’ll have to make trips to the bank to deposit these checks.  And when it’s just a small odd check here and there, it’s easy for these to sit in the till, in your desk drawer, or in your bag for days before you make it to the bank to deposit them.  As well, there is the possibility that when you do deposit the check, it is returned due to insufficient funds.

What if you could effectively turn that check into a credit card processing transaction?  Just scan it, verify the funds are available, add it to your daily credit card batch, and deposit into your account at the end of the day?  With REMOTE CHECK DEPOSIT with CHECK GUARANTEE, you can do exactly that.   The check reader plugs right in to your credit card reader.   Once scanned you don’t even need to retain a copy of the check – just hand it back to the buyer and the funds are added to that day’s batch.

If you feel remote check deposit may be right for you, for more information.

Mobile Processing – With the usage of cell phones in business, we’ve all had this one happen to us before.  You’re out of the office when a client calls you to provide a credit card number on a long awaited sale.   You rush to find a pen and paper (or napkin, or back of an envelope, etc) to write down the card number, expiration date, CVV and address.   In doing so, however, you have effectively put your clients most guarded financial information on a slip of paper that can easily get lost, misplaced or stolen.  Even if the information does not fall into the wrong hands, simply having to call back to tell a client you LOST their credit card information prior to processing the charge is an almost certain a deal breaker.

The answer is Mobile Processing. Mobile Processing is a fast, convenient, and SECURE way to process cards from anywhere you have a phone signal, directly on your BlackBerry or I-phone.  It’s basically a virtual terminal application for your phone.  Not only do you have the peace of mind that your client’s sensitive info is out of your hands, but in addition it means the card is charged and settlement process begins RIGHT AWAY , not later on when you get back to your office or in front of a terminal.

For more information on adding Mobile Processing services to your merchant account,

Cash Management Tools

With the myriad of costs facing companies these days, it’s becoming more and more difficult to manage finances.  This is especially true for small and medium sized companies where the owner or general manager is stuck with, after a long day of managing all other aspects of the company, a pile of bills to sort out.

Account Payment Splits allows you to split a portion of each transaction to separate bank accounts – up to 100 separate accounts – to fund various aspects of your business.  You can use it to fund as few or as many accounts as you would like.   You can allocate a portion of each batch into a retirement fund / 401(k), a vacation fund or a “rainy day” account.  Or you can use it for basic operational costs, such as rent, utilities or inventory.  Whatever percentage you specify will automatically transfer out of each day’s batch to the account of your choice.  The remaining balance deposits into your business checking account.  Allocate funds to as few or as many accounts as you would like.

Interested in learning more about Account Payment Splits?   and we’ll be happy to discuss with you.