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QuickBooks Users: How a Best-in-Class Integration Boosts Your Cash Flow 

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Every business owner knows the struggle of chasing down payments from customers. It disrupts your workflow, creates unnecessary stress, and can even hinder your ability to operate smoothly. So, what can you do to eliminate the struggle? 

The answer is simple – leverage a best-in-class payment integration. A best-in-class payment integration for your QuickBooks accounting software can not only help manage your cash flow, but also help improve your business’ operations. In this blog, we discuss the top three benefits of choosing the right payment integration for QuickBooks. 

Benefit #1. Lower Your Costs: 

  • Reduced Fees: Forget those hefty processing fees that eat into your profits. Best-in-class integrations can secure you cheaper rates, including lower per-transaction costs. 
  • Surcharging Power: Offer customers the option to cover a small convenience fee for credit card payments. This allows you to offset processing costs and keep your margins healthy. 
  • Level Up Processing: Unlock the benefits of Level 2 and 3 processing by submitting additional data with each transaction. This can lead to even more significant reductions in processing fees. 

Benefit #2. Get Paid Faster with Streamlined Invoicing:

  • Digital Revolution: Ditch the paper chase! Modern integrations allow you to send invoices electronically via email or text message. This ensures faster delivery and eliminates the delays associated with snail mail. 
  • Autopay for the Win: Make life easier for your customers and yourself by offering them the option to set up automatic payments. This means you get paid on time, every time, with minimal effort. 
  • Transparent Communication: Clear and detailed invoices ensure your customers understand exactly what they owe, reducing confusion and encouraging prompt payment. 

Benefit #3. Embrace the Power of Payment Flexibility: 

  • Your customers have preferences. A best-in-class integration lets you safely accept a wide range of payment types, including credit cards, debit cards, ACH transfers and more. This allows customers to pay how they want, leading to a smoother checkout experience and higher sales conversions. 

QuickBooks Integration Made Easy: Streamline Your Business with Fortis 

Looking for a best-in-class integration that seamlessly connects with your accounting software? Look no further than Fortis! Our powerful solution integrates effortlessly with QuickBooks, allowing you to: 

  • Automate Tasks & Save Time: Say goodbye to manual data entry! Fortis automatically syncs transactions with QuickBooks, freeing you up to focus on strategic initiatives. 
  • Gain Real-time Insights: Access up-to-date financial data anytime, anywhere. This empowers you to make data-driven decisions and identify growth opportunities. 
  • Scale with Confidence: As your business grows, Fortis scales with you. Our robust platform can handle increasing transaction volumes without skipping a beat. 

Don’t just manage your cash flow, unlock your business’s full potential with Fortis and a seamless QuickBooks integration. For more information and to get started, visit our website. 

Fortis CEO Predicts ‘The Great Restoration’ for the FinTech and Payments Industry

Posted on by fortis2025

Embedded payments leader lays out the future for FinTech after a period of hypergrowth.

PLANO, Texas, May 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Fortis, a payment and commerce technology leader for software providers, marketplaces and scaling businesses, shares CEO Greg Cohen’s predictions on the future of payments and financial technology amid significant industry shifts with the beginning of what Cohen has coined “The Great Restoration”.

After a long period of rapid investment and growth, payment and financial technology companies must transition towards a more sustainable and profitable business model, leaving behind supersized valuations, irrational business models, and free-flowing investment funnels. According to E&Y, there are more than 50,000 existing VC-backed startups which need to sort out high valuations and low liquidity. Many businesses now find themselves ill-equipped to build lasting business models.

“The coming months will be crucial for the future of payments. Companies that are built on a solid foundation and embrace focus, discipline, and strategic growth will be well-positioned to weather the storm and emerge stronger; others will find these times a real challenge,” says Cohen.

Recent headlines confirm this trend. Valuations in the payments industry have dropped significantly, some by as much as 50%, with even established players experiencing depressed valuation multiples not seen since the post-financial crisis era. While experts don’t anticipate further interest rate hikes, a return to the low rates of 2021 is unlikely. Combined with increased regulatory scrutiny and a challenged fundraising environment, general investment sentiment in financial technology has soured. These challenges have already led to FinTech failures, M&A activities below capital raise levels, and depressed market valuations across a spectrum of segments.

Looking ahead
Akin to the aftermath of a natural disaster, the industry finds itself in a restoration period. The weaker homes and businesses are wiped away, but structures with solid foundations mend their fences and move forward with renewed respect for their infrastructure. Replacement homes are built to new, updated codes, and fortified to withstand the demands of the new world.

Similarly, scaled incumbents have shut down or shed non-core assets. The industry is seeing weaker businesses be filtered out while established players are doubling down on core competencies and building strong financial discipline.

“The Great Restoration” forecasts several trends to come:

  • More Cash Struggles – Thousands of cash-burning businesses will need capital, prompting a strong push from boards and investors to show profitability. These companies must carefully manage their operating expenses while exploring ways to improve margins from existing customers.

  • More Divestitures – Organizations will prioritize their core business operations and, due to limited equity or cash availability, will need to divest non-essential assets.
     
  • Rise in Mergers and Acquisitions – Strategic shifts within businesses will lead to softer valuations and discussions around relative value, creating opportunities for mergers and acquisitions among industry players.
     
  • More Failures – Cash-strapped organizations without a buyer or investor will result in a shutdown of business operations.

  • Emphasis on Sustainable Business Models – The “growth at all costs” or “grab some users to get the next funding round” models will no longer be tolerated by boards and investors. Companies will need to launch business lines with a hard look at break-even and ROI.

  • Increased Focus – Payments and fintech firms will concentrate on their core competencies and drive profitability from core operations before expanding into new areas. Gone are the days of pursuing multiple sub-scale ventures simultaneously for capital and resources.

“We’re just at the beginning of the Great Restoration – some will make it, some won’t. Be really wary of your partners, as great changes are ahead in the next year-to-year and a half,” says Cohen.

Silver Lining
Ultimately, the Great Restoration will create a more resilient payments and FinTech ecosystem. Businesses built on solid foundations with proper compliance and financial disciplines will remain strong. And opportunities will arise for established players and new entrants to find some strategic assets to acquire, foster long-term growth, and deliver outsized returns.

To stay up to date on ‘The Great Restoration’, visit us at fortispay.com and follow Greg on LinkedIn.

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Press Contact

Oliver Stephenson
Oliver.Stephenson@fortispay.com

Greg Cohen, Fortis CEO
Currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Fortis, Greg is a recognized payments and financial technology industry leader with a history of building high-performing teams and driving growth at numerous FinTech organizations. He is the past president of the Electronic Transactions Association and former member of MasterCard, Discover and NACHA advisory boards. As CEO of Fortis, he is responsible for the strategic direction and business operations of the embedded payments company. Fortis’ mission is to create amazing commerce experiences in partnership with software providers, and under Cohen’s leadership, the organization has grown over 10x.

About Fortis
Fortis delivers comprehensive payment solutions and commerce enablement to software partners and developers, processing billions of dollars annually. The company’s mission is to forge a holistic commerce experience, guiding businesses to reach uncharted growth and scale. As the solution of choice for the future of payments, Fortis moves commerce closer to invisible with a proprietary platform that supports and strengthens the commerce and payments capabilities of software partners. For more information, visit fortispay.com.

Building A Customer Experience: The Fortis Approach to Partner Success

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Your payment experience can make or break your business.

According to a recent PYMNTS study, 55% of shoppers get so frustrated with the checkout process that they abandon their purchase. Unsurprisingly, the outlook isn’t much better for B2B organizations. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), would be willing to pay up to an additional 1% per transaction for payment relief due to frustrating accounts receivable and payable experiences.   

End-to-end platforms like Fortis provide the solution enabling businesses to grow operations and reduce payment friction, thus improving the customer experience. In this blog, we discuss how poor payment experiences can affect your business and how to improve the process for your customers.

Poor Payment Processing = Bad Customer Experiences = Less Revenue

A subpar payment process can be lethal to your business. This experience often stems from disjointed legacy systems and a lack of control over the payment system.   

Legacy payment and ISV software systems that do not integrate with each other create significant friction for merchants. This disconnect obscures critical data from businesses while creating frustration for customers through a lengthy, complex, or even broken checkout process. Resulting in lost customers and income potential. Additionally, many businesses struggle with a lack of payment software customization.   

“Plug-and-play” platforms do not offer significant human support. The lack of a human relationship makes it more challenging for ISVs to develop a seamless and unique payment experience. This is why a customizable, seamlessly integrated payment processing platform is essential to your business’ growth and revenue.

Creating a Remarkable Payment Experience with Fortis

A frictionless payment process hinges on tailored solutions backed by cutting-edge technology. The right solution enables businesses to build a custom payment process and integrate it with current software and other financial systems. Such a system is rarely built in isolation or plug-and-play, and seldom addresses the human experience in a transaction .   

For truly optimized payments, it is helpful to work with a dedicated expert who understands the nuances of both your industry and your chosen payment solution. A best-in-class platform like Fortis will ensure you have an expert to work with when creating your payment workflow with proven strategies and a personalized approach 

Turnkey solutions offer industry-specific features and transparent payment data and pricing. Automation and security controls improve record-keeping and streamline business processes without slowing down or sacrificing data quality.

Partnerships, benefit ISVs and businesses looking to scale quickly. For example, the Fortis partnership program offers several services to streamline payment optimization and solution implementation, including:  

  • Access to dedicated and certified expert Guides  
  • Customized roadmap  
  • Go-to-market sales and marketing tools  
  • In-depth reports with real-time insights  
  • Underwriting and risk support  

  

A unique “Platform-to-Platform” model, such as Fortis’, enables ISVs and businesses to create personalized experiences based on their industry and unique requirements. With the help of dedicated professionals, businesses can leverage Fortis’ expertise to easily implement nuanced solutions without focusing on the technicalities internally. Known as Guides, these payment experts help organizations develop customized roadmaps, implement them, and answer additional questions or concerns related to the payment experience.

Turbocharge Your Payments

The Fortis platform is an end-to-end payment solution for businesses looking to scale. Its embedded payment features and ISV software integrations allow customers to experience a seamless payment process while improving transaction data accuracy. Businesses can leverage features like text-to-pay, loyalty programs, and alternative payments. Fortis’ award-winning APIs and extensive customization options ensure businesses and ISVs can develop an optimized and user-friendly payment workflow.   

Above all, the Fortis difference lies in its commitment to human relationships and its software partners. Our team of payment experts works with businesses and developers to design truly remarkable payment experiences. Through our platform and payment industry expertise, the dedicated professionals at Fortis collaborate with our partners to build a tailor-made payment experience roadmap.

Looking to start creating remarkable payment experiences? Learn more by contacting our expert Guides today.   

Transforming the Payments Industry: ETA TRANSACT 2024 

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At ETA TRANSACT 2024, Fortis had the privilege of sharing thoughts and insights gleaned from decades of industry experience. We greatly appreciated our time at this premier event as our team discussed the future of the payments ecosystem and how embedded payments have revolutionized the industry.

In case you couldn’t attend, here’s a recap of some of our sessions:

The Power of Embedded Payments and How to Maximize Value Greg Cohen, CEO

Fortis CEO Greg Cohen shared his expertise in payments and embedded commerce in two high-impact sessions.

  • In What is Embedded Commerce? More Than You May Think, Greg discussed the future of embedded commerce with Dan Williams, SVP of Embedded Banking at Key Bank. They discussed how merchants and ISVs often struggle to keep up with rapid changes in the payments landscape. They may even view embedded payments as the latest iteration of a new passing technology. But embedded payments are more than a passing trend—they have implications for the entire industry.
  • Greg also engaged with Jim Battista from MAPP Advisors and the Head of Corporate Development at Payroc, Marcus Dagenais, in The Anatomy of a Payments 2.0 Deal. In this session, Greg delved into the most recent acquisitions made by Fortis and how entrepreneurs can maximize their value in today’s market.
From left to right: Marcus Dagenais, Jim Battista, and Greg Cohen

How Embedded Payments are Transforming the Industry: Timmy Nafso, EVP

Fortis Executive Vice President, Timmy Nafso, is a Co-Founder with over a decade of experience in payments, He also hosts the Embedded podcast and interviewed many industry experts for the series at TRANSACT.

Timmy also did a deep dive on embedded payments in the session, The Evolution of Embedded Services. Together with Austin Talley, CEO of Everyware, he covered the history of embedded payments and how they are fundamentally changing society’s relationship with money and financial services.

Timmy Nafso on the left, and Austin Talley on the right

Practical Approaches to AI: Kevin Shamoun, SVP

Currently serving as the Senior Vice President of Product and Innovation at Fortis, and as the Vice Chair of the Artificial Intelligence Committee by ETA, Kevin Shamoun also founded Zeamster and has over 20 years of experience working with major Independent Service Organizations (ISOs) and financial institutions.

In a panel titled AI & Payments: Real-World Use Cases, the Hype & What’s Ahead, Kevin explored new advancements in AI models and how they have transformed the payments industry. He discussed this topic alongside Donald Riddick, the Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary of Featurespace; Rebecca Alter, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift; and Russel Moore, Director of Corporate Strategy and Development at Global Payments.

From left to right: Donald Riddick, Kevin Shamoun, Russell Moore, and Rebecca Alter

Work with the Experts! Transform Your Payment Processing with Fortis

Embedded payments is more than a buzzword—it represents a milestone in payment technology. As a leader in embedded payment solutions, Fortis has developed a transparent, custom, and high-powered payment process for merchants and ISVs. Through their sessions, Greg, Timmy, and Kevin, offered a holistic view of the industry landscape—from embedded technology to acquisitions.

Let us help transform your payments experience into something remarkable. Discover the Fortis difference for yourself with our award-winning embedded payments API, today