If you’re a small business owner, you might be on the lookout for a payments platform. Of course, some solopreneurs and freelancers still insist on using physical checks. But many of us recoil at the idea of looking up each customer’s name and billing info by hand, printing out professional-looking letters with corresponding payment requests. How tedious, and not to mention time-consuming and costly.
Yet there are more reasons than stamps and envelopes to switch to a next-generation payments platform. For instance, how to stay on top of missing or late payments? For that matter, how to send notes of thanks or appreciation to clients who stay current? When tax season rolls around, how to keep track of income streams without hiring an accountant? And, speaking of income, how to keep transaction costs predictable and under control?
This article details some of the top features to consider when shopping for a next-gen payments platform. We’ll start with Finli’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, which allow small business owners to selectively reach out to overdue clients or reward those with steadier payment records. Next, we’ll discuss some of the ways Finli lets you track and store income stream data. Finally, we’ll conclude with Finli’s simple, no-nonsense pricing and how its transparent structure helps keep your expenses predictable.
Next-gen Customer Relationship Management Tools
Customer Relationship Management or CRM refers to technologies for tracking interactions with your clients. Whatever the size of your small business, keeping track of customer details can be challenging. How to know who’s been paying on time and who’s been lagging behind? That’s where CRM tools come in. They’re a set of technologies on the back end that let you manage and track your customers’ data. CRM tools can be integral to growing and sustaining your business.
Finli makes tracking customer data easy with CRM services provided directly through its payments interface. Access customer data and engage with clients based on specific info. Follow up based on specific criteria through Finli’s simple and secure payments system. Easily send on-time clients targeted promotions. Or, try sending special offers to longtime clients to encourage customer loyalty.
What to do about past-due accounts? Anyone can fall behind on payments. Most people just need a simple way to get back on track. Finli automatically follows up twice on unpaid invoices, saving you from that unpleasant task. But Finli’s CRM offers other tools for this task as well. Easily send any past-due clients a personal note along with a simple Pay By Link text message.
Altogether, these CRM tools let you grow and sustain your customer base while incentivizing steady payments.
Taxes and Privacy
Finli makes tax season simple. Want to get a bird’s eye view of your income streams for the year? Just export all transactions as a CSV (comma-separated value) file that you can open in Microsoft Excel or the tax software of your choice.
Finli believes in empowering small business owners to make their own financial decisions. We never share your financial data with any other organizations for taxes or any other reason. We also understand the importance of privacy and data security. That’s why we’re consistently recognized as a privacy leader in the digital payments industry.
Our platform uses the most advanced financial encryption protocols possible. Finli utilizes the Plaid platform which leverages the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES 256), along with multifactor authentication (MFA) for complete and unrivaled security. This means your financial data and transaction history remain 100% secure and private.
No-Nonsense Pricing
Ever notice how hidden fees of some payment apps pile up? Or have you wondered why other peer-to-peer apps suddenly increase ACH costs? Many small businesses today have asked similar questions. For small businesses everywhere, these unpredictable fees can be a mounting burden.
Just look at the most popular peer-to-peer apps. PayPal charges 1.5%, while Venmo requires a whole 1.9% + $0.10 for cards and ACH business payments. Those numbers may not seem huge, but the costs add up quickly. Add to that countless pages of virtually undecipherable fine print, and you almost want to give up trying. Such apps seem to have no shortage of ways to charge you more and more for simple payment features.
Finli offers a no-nonsense pricing structure at $39 per month including unlimited ACH transfers. No fine print!
What to Look for in a Next-gen Payments Platform
If you’re wondering what to expect from a digital payments platform, Finli’s feature list might be a good place to start. From CRM tools to robust privacy and tax tools to its simple, no-nonsense pricing structure, there are good reasons Finli has become the next-gen payments platform for small businesses everywhere.
