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Process Recurring Payments with Ease by Leveraging Payment Automation Tools

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Subscription services and products have become increasingly popular among consumers, giving rise to SaaS businesses that offer such services, like Netflix for individuals and QuickBooks for businesses. However, businesses like these need reliable and robust payment processing capabilities to process recurring payments in such a way that enables predictable incomes, optimized internal processes and an effortless customer experience.

Below we explore the ins and outs of recurring payments for SaaS businesses, the benefits and challenges that come with subscription payments, and how automated recurring billing solutions like those offered by CardChamp can help businesses process recurring payments effectively.

 

What are recurring payments and how do they work?

Recurring payments is a payment model that charges a business’ customers on a recurring basis, such as monthly or yearly, and can be in the form of on-going, repeat payments customers make as needed, or automatic subscription billing. This is particularly useful for businesses that offer subscription-based services, like SaaS companies

The recurring payments process typically involves a customer signing up for the subscription service and providing their payment information, like their credit card or banking details. Once their account has been successfully set up with the subscription service provider, their payments are processed on a regularly recurring basis according to the terms of their subscription, such as monthly, quarterly or yearly. 

Recurring payment technology allows businesses to make the processing automatic, along with also notifying customers when their accounts are charged and when payments have been processed, and businesses can process recurring payments through a number of payment methods, such as credit or debit cards and ACH bank transfers

 

Key benefits of recurring payments for SaaS businesses

Recurring payments offer a number of benefits for SaaS businesses that can help them build a stable and more streamlined revenue stream. Some of these benefits include:

 

Cash flow predictability and growth

Recurring payments enable businesses to better predict and manage their revenue streams, as they are able to accurately forecast what income will be coming into the business and when. With this information, SaaS businesses can manage their expenses more effectively and make more informed financial decisions, ultimately leading to increased revenue. 

 

Better payment convenience

With recurring payments, SaaS businesses can define their payment process requirements just once, and then all payments thereafter will automatically follow the process. This ‘plug-and-play’ approach makes payment processing more convenient for operations teams, but also gives customers the convenience of only needing to provide their payment information once initially, with the system then remembering their details and purchase information for all future payments they make.

 

Improved customer retention

Recurring payments make paying for SaaS services easy for customers, making them more likely to stick with the service provider for longer. This means a better customer experience for customers, reduced customer churn for the business, and lower customer acquisition costs overall. Greater customer retention can also lead to greater cross-sell and upsell opportunities for SaaS businesses. 

 

For more information on the benefits of recurring payments and the best practices to follow to make them work for your business, read our 4 Recurring Payment Processing Benefits & Best Practices blog. 

 

Challenges with processing recurring payments for SaaS businesses

While recurring payments can provide many benefits for SaaS businesses, there are also some challenges that businesses need to be aware of and plan for. Some of the main challenges with processing recurring payments include:

 

Security and compliance

To process recurring payments, SaaS businesses need to store and manage their customers’ payment information securely, while also putting measures in place to prevent fraud and possible data breaches. Additionally, businesses also need to comply with specific payment regulations, such as ensuring they are PCI compliant

 

Setting up processes

For efficient recurring payment processing, SaaS businesses need to integrate with a payment processor and set up a system to process their recurring payments. This setup process can take significant technical resources and time, and can be difficult to implement depending on your existing systems and the capabilities of the payment processors’ integrations. 

 

Modifying plans

Things can become even more challenging when changes need to be made to the recurring payment process, such as when a subscription plan changes or a customer’s payment details change. SaaS businesses need to have systems in place to handle process discrepancies like these, such as letting customers manage or cancel their own subscriptions. Additionally, customers may also have requests and queries, and your systems need to be able to handle these efficiently.

 

The benefits of leveraging payment automation tools for processing recurring payments

Payment automation tools automate various parts of the payment process and are helpful for optimizing recurring payments processing. SaaS businesses can benefit from automated recurring billing in the following ways:

 

Simplified revenue recognition and reporting

Payment automation can help SaaS businesses better monitor and manage recurring payment activities, like collecting and storing customer payment details, processing payment information and sending out notifications. This reduces the need for manual data entry, making revenue recognition and detailed reporting easy to achieve, leading to better revenue stream management. 

 

Increased accuracy and flexibility

Thanks to payment automation, challenges like updating plan prices, ensuring payment information accuracy and processing many recurring payments at once become much easier for SaaS businesses. The risks that come with manual payment processing are reduced, while giving businesses the flexibility to scale their recurring payment processing as they grow. 

 

Streamlined invoicing

Because payment automation tools integrate with other systems like ERPs and invoice generation, SaaS businesses can streamline their invoicing processes by effortlessly integrating their recurring payments and invoice generating processes. This frees up time and resources and helps ensure efficient and accurate invoicing and payment processing for the business and its customers alike. 

 

Greater payment processing efficiency

Because recurring payments automate much of the payment process, SaaS businesses are able to process payments more quickly, saving teams valuable time and effort that’s typically spent on manual billing and payment processing. This helps reduce missed or late payments, as well as debt collection.

All of these benefits of leveraging payment automation when processing recurring payments can help SaaS businesses enhance their customer experience and increase process efficiency and scalability. It can also help reduce costs, and as automation tools provide detailed insights into payment activity it can also help businesses identify opportunities to optimize their revenue growth.

 

Process recurring payments with ease with CardChamp

CardChamp’s innovative payment processing solutions provide businesses with dynamic features and robust API capabilities that enable them to process recurring payments better.

With CardChamp’s automated billing, businesses can set up the billing process for their customers in such a way that their subscription payments are automatically processed on a regular basis. This streamlines the billing process for businesses and reduces the need for manual intervention, while making it easy for customers to pay for their subscriptions.

We also support a variety of payment options, including credit and debit cards, ACH payments and online payment gateways, giving SaaS businesses the flexibility to accept a wider range of payments from more customers, regardless of their preferred payment method.

Thanks to our automated billing process capabilities and multiple payment option support, CardChamp helps SaaS businesses improve their cash flow and reduce the risk of late or missed payments. At the same time, our solutions support customer retention, promote customer loyalty, and reduce customer churn rates for businesses, ensuring a stable customer base that can only continue to grow.   

Finally, CardChamp can easily integrate with your SaaS business’ existing payment and billing systems, making us a seamless and hassle-free solution for processing recurring payments. So, if your business primarily processes card-not-present, recurring payments, Transax, our proprietary payment gateway, is the recurring payment process solution your SaaS business needs. 

 

Summary

Overall, automated recurring billing allows SaaS businesses to provide customers with an easy and convenient way to pay for their subscriptions on a regular basis, creating a predictable stream of revenue for businesses that is easy to manage. It allows businesses to not have to worry about manual invoicing or chasing payments, and can enhance the customer experience by giving customers control over their subscription.

By integrating your business’ payment systems with the right payment process provider, like CardChamp, you can start accepting and managing recurring payments (and optimizing your payment processing overall) sooner. 

Get in touch with our payment technology experts to learn more about how CardChamp can help your business process recurring payments more effectively. Or, if you’re unsure about how to choose the right payment gateway for your SaaS business, get a copy of our ebook for key considerations and questions to help make your decision easier.

choosing a payment solution

Jeff Sarault

Written by Jeff Sarault