4 Benefits of a Payment Processing Partner for Franchises

Payment processing and settlements are inherently complex processes, and franchisee environments can add additional layers of complexity to the payment and settlement process. When funds for multiple franchisees are aggregated into a single ACH that is sent daily to the businesses’ corporate bank account, those funds must then be adequately accounted for and sent to each franchisee operator’s bank account. Franchisees need an integrated payment solution that improves operational efficiency and increases the visibility of payment transactions.

At OLS Payments, we believe receiving and processing payment data shouldn’t be so complicated, time-consuming, and expensive. Although OLS is known for transaction processing, those services can be supplemented with a tailored settlements process. As a payments orchestration provider, OLS can simplify and streamline payment processing by unifying various systems, including reconciliation, settlements, and reporting, under one flexible, efficient, and cost-effective solution.

What is the best payment processing for franchises? 

Merchants that operate in a franchise environment need a payment processing solution that offers increased payment visibility, can provide system-wide support and treat every franchisee equally, prioritizes transaction security from the beginning, and has the experience to handle this complexity.

Increased Payment Visibility for Franchisees

Payments involve more than simply the exchange of money: they also affect data exchange. However, disparate pieced-together or siloed systems can cause limited visibility into payment data. The franchisee environment can result in additional workflows that complicate the payments environment. For a business, this limited visibility may mean increased risk. Specifically, they may find themselves vulnerable to returned payments due to insufficient funds or inaccurate account details, which can mean financial losses and a poor customer experience.

Franchisees need a payment processing partner that can provide them with an integrated solution capable of managing multiple variables. The OLS platform can accept transactions from various inputs, transform the messages as the merchant or processor requires, and deliver payment messages to multiple endpoints.

System-Wide Payment Support

A positive customer experience is vital for franchise success, including the payment experience, where customers are looking for a convenient and consistent interaction. To ensure a consistent payment experience, franchisees need a payment processing solution that can provide broad support and treat each franchisee equally.

Working with a major fast-food chain, OLS helped franchisees by providing a self-service user interface portal where the appropriate personnel could log in and generate transaction and deposit reports for each location as needed. Reports such as:

• ACH set up 
• Merchant and organization configuration
• Audit logs
• User configurations
• Transaction viewing 

Data from these reports could also be exported and loaded into other financial reconciliation tools, allowing the users to utilize the data most beneficially for their business.

Prioritized Transaction Security in Payment Processing

Increased payment system complexity, such as what is often seen within franchisee environments, can lead to higher security risks and vulnerabilities. In any payment environment, security risks can occur all along the transaction process, with the potential for data to be exposed several times through the payment process.

Merchants need a way to secure payments and protect cardholder data, ensuring that the data is never captured or transmitted within the systems in a human-readable format, no matter the payment method. At OLS, our solutions are built with a security-first approach, utilizing highly secure encryption and tokenization methodologies to provide the utmost transaction security.

Merchants Need a Payments Orchestration Partner with Franchisee Experience

The franchise environment is unique, with specific challenges that must be addressed. Managing these complex payment systems can be frustrating, but the costs of disjointed applications, data security management, and scale can also quickly add up to hit the business’ bottom line. A payments orchestration partner that understands the franchise environment is best positioned to serve these unique merchants.

Developed through years of helping our partners overcome complex electronic processing challenges, OLS Payments has built a settlement and funding solution that can be configured to handle nearly any disbursement and fee assessment scenario. We include developing a cost-effective plan to simplify the payment settlement process for a major fast-food chain.

At OLS, our solutions can handle the most complex scenarios, including franchisee funds disbursement and fee assessments, without increasing the burden on your already taxed payments or accounting resources. With OLS Payments, you get a best-in-class payments partner who lets you improve functionality and shift the management of payments complexity to us. Contact us today to learn how OLS Payments can help simplify payments for merchants in a distributor or franchisee model.

Key Takeaways

• Franchisee environments can add additional complexity to the payment and settlement process.
• Franchise or distributor model merchants need a payments partner that can provide them with an integrated solution capable of managing multiple variables.
• Increased payment system complexity, such as what is often seen within franchisee environments, can lead to higher security risks and vulnerabilities.
• OLS can simplify and streamline payment processing by unifying various systems under one flexible, efficient, and cost-effective solution.
• OLS Payments has built a settlement and funding solution that can be configured to handle nearly any disbursement and fee assessment scenario