ISV Talks
ISV Talks
Innovative B2B Payment Solutions for Acumatica: Carol Livingston Interviews Danny Hosea of Paystand
🚀 Exciting news from ISV Talks! Join me as I sit down with Danny Hosea, Channel Manager at Paystand, to discuss their innovative payment solutions and AR solution for Acumatica.
🏦 Paystand is transforming B2B payments with their proprietary Payment Bank Network, enabling businesses to process transactions faster, reduce costs, and improve cash flow efficiency. Discover the unique value Paystand brings to Acumatica users by leveraging blockchain technology to eliminate transaction fees and automate manual processes.
Don’t miss out on this informative session and see how Paystand can streamline your business operations.
Company Website: www.paystand.com
All right, well, welcome to this episode of ISV Talks. I'm Carol Livingston, the owner of Dynamics Connections and your host of ISV Talks, and on this episode I have Dani Hosey from PayStan. Welcome, Dani.
Speaker 2:Hi Carol, Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 1:So, dani, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us how long you've been with PayStan?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've been with PayStan for about three years now. It was my first job out of college and I started in the sales development side of the house for the first couple years and eventually moved my way into the partner channel. So I'm now managing our Acumatica and Microsoft partner relationships and have been in the Acumatica channel for about a year now. Partner relationships and have been in the Acumatica channel for about a year now so kind of a new kid on the block, but I love meeting new people and relationships and I'm learning to apply that to my work and this channel. So I'm really excited to embed more in this community and understand what's important to Acumatica end users and the partner channel and really drive home the value of PayStand and how we're helping Acumatica merchants with revenue collection.
Speaker 1:So it's a little bit. Yeah. So, Dani, I know you're working with both Microsoft and Acumatica, but today we're going to kind of focus on the Acumatica community, so maybe just start with just to introduce to the Acumatica community how did PayStand get started? Kind of what's a little bit about the PayStand get started. What's a little bit about the PayStand?
Speaker 2:history? Yeah, that's a great question. So our CEO, jeremy Allman. He cares a lot about financial decentralization and that interest came from his life experience after having lived through a devastating period during the 2008 financial crisis, and I think he realized that there were significant inefficiencies in the credit card model and in traditional payment processes, particularly in how businesses handle invoicing and payment collections. He felt that credit card companies have too much power and they're taking a piece of the pie of a business's hard-earned money.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, today, that's kind of seen as the cost of doing business, which is why Paystand has built the only free B2B payment network in the market today, really to and he likes to say drive radically better economics for your business. So Paystand was born in 2013 with the idea to break the expectation that as a business grows their revenue, the more their costs to receive that revenue also grows. So we wanted to create a better way for merchants not to be penalized for growth. So that's really the story and why we're doing things different from traditional payment companies in the space. So Paystand is really helping change that payer behavior and offer a way for B2B transactions to happen at zero cost. So it's pretty cool. It's a cool model.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really is unique. I know when I talk with partners about PayStand it is a very unique model versus kind of traditional credit card transaction fees and so forth, Sort of that whole concept of a bank network is kind of new to partners in that B2B environment.
Speaker 2:Definitely new. Definitely a lot of conversations around understanding why we do things differently. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So could you go over the basic description of the solutions you have for Acumatica and kind of what are your unique features?
Speaker 2:So overall, paystan is an all-in-one accounts receivable automation and B2B payment solution that integrates natively with Acumatica. We all know that AR is a really crowded space, but I'd say the three main differentiators of our solution consist of a few concepts. So that first concept is getting your revenue in the door as quickly as possible. So by offering click-to-pay links on invoices, offering more digital payment options, enrolling your payers in auto pay or collections plans, we can really help you speed up that time to cash and get those payments in the door faster. So that's kind of the concept number one.
Speaker 2:Number two is that second concept is fee mitigation. So typically when a merchant is trying to present a credit card fee to their payer, you want to have an alternative option. That way they're not reverting back to a check, because that slows down your revenue collection and increases your day sales outstanding or DSO, and it also requires merchants to do that manual reconciliation on the back end. So PaySan really is the only AR solution in the market today that is actively trying to move your payers away from credit cards onto our free network For credit card payments. We encourage our customers to pass a convenience fee to their payers if they choose to pay by credit card. But the cool thing is, if they don't want to pay that fee, they have our free B2B payment network option to use instead. So you have these kind of different levers you can pull to drive the profitability of your company and a way for them to mitigate fees without kind of burdening your payers with them.
Speaker 2:And then that third concept is our automation that happens downstream of invoice creation. So we like to say Dan picks up the baton at invoice creation. Then we automate both the cash application as well as the deposit reconciliation, while traditional AR solutions end their process after the cash is applied. So deposit reconciliations are another really painful manual process in the cash cycle. So our customers love when we mention we can automate that portion too. Yeah, this is all super high level, but I'd say that those are the three main features that differentiate us from traditional solutions in the space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean just a kind of a personal aside. I did recently get to use the PayStand network to pay for a sponsorship and I thought it was super cool. I got an invoice with a link to pay. I had different choices If I wanted to pay the fee, I could, or I could join the bank network, and it was really clean. Link to pay I had different choices. If I wanted to pay the fee, I could, or I could join the bank network, and it was really clean, easy to use and I'm sure it makes it a lot easier to pay. People are going to pay you faster, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the idea. I mean make it as frictionless to pay as possible and have a good experience for the payers so they are willing to make a payment faster and just help that business out by getting their cash.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, by the way, maybe they should get it too right If they're a business.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. If they use us, they sell us off. Yeah, no, that's cool. I'm really glad you had a chance to use the payment experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really fun. So I know we're going to talk about Acumatica today, but what other ERP products are you compatible with?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we started in the NetSuite ecosystem in 2018. From there, we dove into the Sage world so Sage Intact, and we've been in the Sage ecosystem for about three years now. After that, we entered into Microsoft Business Central in 2022. And then, about a year ago, we launched our Acumatica integration. So, again, we are newer in Acumatica, but not really new at what we do, and, at the end of the day, it's the same technology as well, and it's all driven by our network and the features and functionality that we offer. So, yeah, we're across several ecosystems and it's been a journey through all of them. So Acumatica is just getting started, but we're really excited to be a part of the community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a good point. So somebody might have heard of PaySan if they've been in that intact space or not, suite. So yeah, I like that. You're not new, but you're new to this Acumatica and Dynamics of years, especially with there's a lot of challenges on the economy and customers and partners are trying to be efficient. Tell us a little bit about what changes you've seen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, like I mentioned before, I am relatively newer in this channel, but I'd say that payments are changing and the technology buying process is always changing and ERP functionality is improving always, while ISVs like PayStan add a lot of value and bridge a lot of those gaps that ERPs can't offer. So there's so much that can be uncovered and solved through having partnerships with third-party integrations, and we're seeing a lot with other ERP ecosystems. They're moving into Matica and there's probably several reasons for that, but I'm sure it's because it's a strong partner ecosystem. They're really client-centric. It's a really robust and awesome tool and we're seeing more and more partners picking up Acumatica, and many of them we're already working with in their other ERP ecosystem. So it's great for that ever-growing partnership and serving their entire client base. So that's really cool, I'd say. Acumetix is also releasing a lot more functionality and they have a ton of vertical expertise. They're really focused on manufacturing, distribution, construction, retail, all those great verticals, so these are great vertical fits for Paystand. So that makes us gel really well with this ecosystem.
Speaker 1:And one thing I'll say about kind of back to your comment about the partners and the channel. We are seeing other partners coming from other ecosystems into the Acumatica space. So it's great to have them because Acumatica is working through their partner channel to help customers. So it definitely is a good partnership between Acumatica, the software publisher and the partner community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's cool too, and I mean every community is kind of different in these ecosystems, but we can kind of mesh them together. There's a lot of cool ideas and innovation that can happen through kind of meshing the communities together. So I think that's pretty cool too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely Kind of the same. Challenges are probably everywhere. Everyone needs to get paid faster, lower their cost. Yeah exactly, yeah. So tell us a story about a customer, maybe a scenario or a success story of where a customer was successful using your products and why.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually I was thinking of two stories that I have two completely different use cases. But we have a customer in the agriculture industry and they sell seeds to farmers. A lot of their customer base wasn't super tech savvy and they relied on legacy payment systems. So credit card and legacy. Initially the merchant wasn't expecting a ton of adoption but was looking to offer digital payment options to their customer. What they saw year one was a 60% adoption away from paper checks onto digital payments and by leveraging convenience fees it helped their transaction costs lower while significantly driving down their DSO. So that adoption, I think within year one in this industry is pretty incredible. So I love this story. I think if the agriculture industry can see adoption from their payer base, so can any industry. So that's a really cool story and I love to tell that one to our partners.
Speaker 2:But I'd say the other story I was thinking of they were doing $84 million in credit card and absorbing just under $3 million in credit card fees. They decided to take a significant absorption of fees per year so they took a phased approach rolling it out to their customers. They started rolling out convenience fees really slowly. They didn't get any pushback on those convenience fees. And so they flipped the switch to pass it off across their entire customer base six months in because everything was going so well. So within five months of flipping that switch, they saved $1.2 million. Yeah, that's a lot of money. So it's a really compelling story and it's really how we're kind of flipping the model on its head. So two very different use cases that really kind of show what Paysan can help businesses achieve if they believe in our model.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and just to kind of reiterate so how does PayStand get paid for this kind of zero cost platform?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a common question Like how do you guys make your money? So we make our money off of fixed monthly subscription cost. So we're trying to create that predictable spend where, year over year, exactly how much it's going to cost you to collect AR. So ideally that would be the Paystand subscription costs and then whoever's on your accounting team. So we really try and create that predictable operating expense through that subscription-based model. And you find that we're a little higher than traditional companies, payment providers, but it's really because we're driving away we're driving payers away from transaction costs and applying really robust automation to your cash cycle. So there's quite a few varying things that go into our pricing model, but, yeah, subscription costs is how we make money, so it's a subscription cost.
Speaker 1:I kind of have that payment as a service model or subscription model, which I really love. That it makes it easy to figure out what's going to cost this year's budget. Right, you're not penalized because you're growing and having higher transactions. Now the other question I had for you and I know it's probably a little bit off our list but how do you get the customer or the vendors and customers to use the platform? Do you guys help with like onboarding those vendors, and how does that work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. So after 100 days, our customers receive a dedicated customer success manager where they kind of help you on that journey to moving your payers towards. They're taking a ton of paper checks, they're helping those payers adopt digital payment methods, and so they kind of help you along through that journey. So that is definitely a big, big value add to what we bring to our customers is you're not really you're not calling into a support line. You have someone dedicated to your, to your business, and helping you on that journey to the cloud. So that's kind of where their value comes in from PayStand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome, so you can get customers kind of onboarded and get their ecosystem and their vendors and their payers onboard and their customers, yeah, exactly. So what are some of the new things you're looking to introduce to add value as customers are moving to the cloud?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we're about to celebrate a year of being available for Acumatica. So it's really exciting and we find when we work with Acumatica partners early in the buying cycle we can help customers in their ERP migration from, say, quickbooks to Acumatica. We can help them through the savings that we can bring to our customers. So think again about that fee mitigation, because we're able to unlock budget for them to put back into those projects with their partner. It can make that purchase of an ERP a lot easier of a conversation with that, with those funds that we're able to kind of liberate for that customer. So I think that is a bit of value we can bring along in that journey.
Speaker 2:In terms of product features and functionality we're working to release, we'll have new announcements coming up at Summit in January, so can't really talk about those features now but we're really excited to show everyone when we see everybody at Summit. But I'd say it's also worth noting that with Acumatica's recent announcement of them no longer supporting Authorizenet, with Acumatica's recent announcement of them no longer supporting Authorizenet, there's going to be an increase in the demand for payment solutions in the space. So we can of course be there to support as well.
Speaker 1:So that's how we're kind of helping them move along through that journey. Okay, I can't wait to hear about some of the new things you're going to be introducing. I guess, how do you determine? I know Acumenica offers kind of out of the box payment solution, but how do you that's on like you really need a paystand solution.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd say any business that has back office billing, back office invoicing to their B2B customers. There is often a lot of pain that's typically surrounding this process. So that pain is typically around cash flow and collections management, transaction fees. So if a merchant wants to use convenience fees versus surcharges, for example so the way we're able to call it a convenience fee is because we're offering a free alternative option for them to pay. A convenience fee is legal in all 50 states, while surcharging is not legal in every state. So again, it's talking about giving the merchant those levers to drive their profitability. We're finding a lot of QuickBooks Online customers moving to Acumatica and they typically already have a PayNow link on their invoices, so they expect to have that in Acumatica. But there's a gap there. So we're here to fill those gaps and help our partners be more successful in there in mapping out that ERP journey for that customer.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's kind of nice, Nice to have options too, right? Maybe the out of the box doesn't make it far enough or doesn't have the complete cash and waste to cash cycle covered, so there's definitely things to consider, okay good Well any perspective you have to share about the marketplace, really how customers are trying to improve their operational efficiency.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd say the cost of running a business is increasing every day. We're all seeing that Buyers want to lower their cost to operate. They want to put automation tools in place to reduce manual labor and them to collect revenue. And once we uncover that pain point, they realize they need to do something different. So a lot of businesses' payment issues could just be solved by offering customers more payment options, for example. So I'd say we're really helping them improve that efficiency through uncovering these types of pains that a lot of businesses don't even realize that they have efficiency through uncovering these types of pains that a lot of businesses don't even realize that they have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sometimes the businesses don't, they're like, oh, I have a way to handle that. But then when you kind of point out the cost or the savings that they can realize, it might be kind of a surprise to them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. Yeah, we're uncovering stuff like that in our discovery calls and these conversations we're having with our. It's pretty cool when we can get them to realize that there is a lot that can be improved, and this is how we can help you guys.
Speaker 1:Help you guys improve that process and I think, with the concerns that people have about inflation and just like some margins, maybe costs are increasing everywhere, right, so you gotta find ways to save money and to reduce those fees that aren't necessary, right that's absolutely top of mind for, I'd say, any business, especially in these crazy times that we're living in.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Sure, Absolutely Well, Dani. In conclusion, I'd like to ask you one last question here. So what's one trend that you're seeing that's driving customers or partners to come talk to?
Speaker 2:PayStan and I mentioned before, merchants are really focused on being extremely efficient and improving their cash flow, keeping their teams really lean, so they're looking to automate really manual work and reduce costs overall in any way they can, and so I think our model absolutely drives all of those ideas home. We're uncovering these real ROIs for our merchants and our partners see that we're bringing that value for their clients. So I think, in terms of a business wanting to reduce their costs to collect revenue and move their payers off paper checks and really just modernize the way you're collecting payments, I think that's kind of what is driving customers and partners to come to PayStand Right.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, Dani, for being part of ISV Talks today. It was fun to have you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, carol. This was really fun. I'm super happy I was able to do this with you. I have a lot of contact information up here. If anyone wants to reach out, maybe schedule a demo, learn more about our tool and a little bit more about what we're doing here at PayStand. There is a QR code here for you to scan. Take you to our website. My phone number is here as well. Feel free to give me a call text If you have any questions. My email is here as well. But, yeah, I really appreciate being here and thank you so much, carol. Thank you.
Speaker 1:So, Dani, you want to spell out your email.
Speaker 2:My email is dhoseastancom. Dhoseastancom.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, friends, thank you for joining me and Dani on this conversation today about how businesses can improve their operational processes and lower costs too, which is awesome. We'll see you guys on the next episode of ISV Talks, thank you. Thank you, outro Music.