Should small businesses accept both credit cards and ACH?

Yes. To offer flexibility in your small business payment options, your company should offer credit card and ACH payments. Both options are encouraged to give customers more choice when they pay. And while credit cards are popular with consumers, ACH merchant fees are considerably lower, creating a savings opportunity for your company.

Which payment method is fastest for small businesses?

Card payment options for small business usually have a faster funding time than ACH. While same-day ACH funding is an option, it can come with some restrictions: Must maintain a low chargeback rate. Cannot qualify if your company belongs to a high-risk industry like collections. May be asked to provide an 8%-10% hold of daily processing funds.

Why is an online payment portal important?

An online payment portal is an important online payment option for small businesses because it gives customers a fast, convenient way to pay without interacting with an employee. Online portals are central to taking self-serve payments from customers 24/7. If your company isn’t offering online payments by now, you’re behind your competitors and losing out on revenue.

How do email payment links help businesses get paid faster?

Email links help businesses get paid faster because they deliver a payment link directly to the customer’s inbox. They are one of the most effective payment options for small business because they are: Fast: No waiting for a bill to get delivered by mail Convenient: Most customers prefer an email to a paper statement or phone call.

Can live chat help collect payments?

Yes. If your company uses live web chats to talk to customers, you should have a plan for getting paid through chat, too. By providing a secure, in-chat payment link, you make it quick and easy for customers to pay as soon as they are ready.

What are the most common ways to take payments over the phone?

The most common methods for how to take a card payment over the phone are: Virtual terminal Physical terminal Payment links IVR

How to reduce risk in agent-assisted phone payments?

When taking credit card payments over the phone, regulations like PCI DSS help companies reduce risk and stay secure. Here are some tips to stay compliant and keep data safe: Take payments via secure link: Customers can type their card number, and agents don’t need to be exposed to sensitive information. Pause recordings: If you must have customers read card numbers, pause call recordings to prevent payment data from being recorded or stored in audio files. Strict access controls: Limit access to sensitive information to authorized personnel only.

Can businesses legally take credit card payments over the phone?

Yes. It is legal to take card payments over the phone. However, card-not-present transactions may be subject to higher processing fees and still require merchants to follow PCI compliance.

Is it PCI compliant to accept card payments over the phone?

Yes. It is PCI compliant to take card payments over the phone as long as your business follows PCI compliance standards.

How can businesses reduce fraud when taking payments over the phone?

Companies can reduce fraud in payments over the phone through these measures: Secure email and SMS: Use PDCflow secure requests to capture payments. Card Verify and ACH Verify technology: Verify payment data through a payment gateway like PDCflow before processing a payment.

Case Study | Real Estate Transactions

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Real Estate Transaction Company Increases Efficiency and Client Satisfaction with PDCflow eSignatures

Real estate transaction companies handle a wide range of deals, from home purchases and refinances to investor and bulk transactions involving thousands of properties.

We interviewed PDCflow customer Melanie Miller, Senior Operations Manager of a real estate transaction company, to better understand her organization's challenges.

She oversees all transaction operations from order entry through post-closing. Her role includes managing title curative, scheduling, examinations, and closings, with department managers reporting directly to her.

PRODUCTS USED

eSignatures

INDUSTRY

Real Estate

Number of PDCflow Users

30-35

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The Challenge

Miller’s company previously used a closing platform with esignature, which only allowed her team to send one document per transaction.

This process limited what the company could accomplish in a message and hurt their customer experience.

When software costs began to rise, the real estate transaction company started looking for a more flexible and cost-effective way to send multiple documents.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“The fees were going to dramatically increase, and the ability of what we were able to do... was one document per transaction. So it was very limited.”

Competing solutions focused heavily on Remote Online Notarization (RON), when many documents didn’t need to be notarized.

Other companies offered integration only, which would have added $30,000 to $40,000 in IT costs.

Miller’s company needed a simple esignature alternative that supported multiple documents per transaction, without the high integration costs.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“You guys actually listened to what we needed and had a solution that already worked... we didn’t want to waste time trying to get something that ‘might work down the line.”

The Solution

After evaluating several providers, the real estate transaction company selected PDCflow for our ease of use, responsiveness, low costs, and ability to send multiple documents without integration.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“A lot of [esignature providers] wanted us to just go the route of having a notary sign all these documents. But for what we need—simple, after-the-fact esignatures—it just didn’t make sense. Some of the companies, their pricing didn’t even remotely make sense. Some of the companies, their process didn’t make any sense. Everything led up to PDCflow as our main choice.”

The company uses PDCflow as a standalone esignature platform for after-closing documentation. The user-friendly features simplified document management for staff and customers.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“I don’t have three hours to spend training someone on a system that crashes and ultimately doesn’t do what we want it to. With PDCflow, it’s simple. Drag and drop, click send.”

Now, their team enters a signer’s name, phone number, email, and PIN, then uploads documents and uses drag-and-drop tools to add signature fields, dates, or initials.

Once the customer receives the documents, it’s a fast, easy-to-follow process that saves everyone time.

By choosing PDCflow, Miller’s company eliminated RON fees, significantly reducing costs.

PDCflow’s flexible pricing model allows the team to affordably manage esignatures, especially for after-the-fact signings, which are the company’s primary use case.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“You have to make it simple enough that the customers are not getting frustrated…If they're not happy, you have the ability to lose a client.”

The Results

Since implementing PDCflow, the company has seen major improvements in cost and time savings, efficiency, onboarding, and customer satisfaction:

Saved Thousands in Integration Costs and Nearly $100 Per Signature

PDCflow eliminated the need for integration costs with our flexible user interface and offered a more affordable esignature alternative to RON signings.

PDCflow’s multiple signer and multiple document capabilities enable the real estate transaction company to send everything in one request, eliminating the high costs of notary software they don’t need.

PDCflow saved them thousands of dollars in integration fees and nearly $100 per document that other companies charge.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“With RON, a lot of times it's $30, $35, $45 per sign-on session. If a husband and wife have to sign, and can't join at the same time…by the time you're done, it's almost $100 just to get them to sign a document that doesn't need a notary.”

Improved Signing Experience Through Easy Workflows

Many of the team’s workflows were creating issues because they were inconvenient for borrowers to complete. This caused many situations where a lender needed to get involved to finish a workflow.

PDCflow eliminated back-and-forth processes between lenders, Miller’s company, and borrowers with our easy, secure workflows.

The company has improved its signing experience with PIN verification and created a reliable way for customers to sign paperwork with minimal intervention.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“The ease of use has really been the number one impact for us. Not just for my staff, but for our customers too. PDCflow makes esignatures better for us because we can handle our own business.”

Saved Nearly 30 Minutes Per Borrower Interaction

PDCflow is easy for end users to navigate, so signing a document isn’t a chore. Even tech-challenged customers can complete signatures quickly, avoiding delays and cancellations.

Miller’s team used to spend nearly half an hour on the phone troubleshooting signing issues because their tools were hard to use. Now, clients can finish paperwork on their own or with a five-minute walkthrough.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“Now, instead of spending 30 minutes trying to troubleshoot with a client, it’s a quick 5-minute walkthrough, if they need help at all. We don’t want to lose a loan because a customer got frustrated trying to sign a document.”

Saved Office Time on Training

PDCflow is intuitive, so training new employees takes minutes, not hours. Miller’s team has saved significant training time with our quick, user-friendly setup.

They have created a fast, 5-step training process so staff can quickly get up to speed using PDCflow. This saves management hours they would have spent teaching employees how to send documents and get esignatures.

Melanie Miller
Senior Operations Manager

“I think people take for granted how much work managers put into training. Especially when you have new employees or employees who are transferring positions all the time. To be able to say ‘follow this five-step process,’ it takes a lot off my plate to know that we have a system that everyone can easily use.”

Summary

PDCflow helped the real estate transaction company move from a rigid, high-cost esignature tool to our flexible, cost-efficient, user-friendly solution.

With time-saving workflows, faster training, and fewer signer issues, the company can close transactions more efficiently and maintain a high level of service.