Businesses in the manufacturing sector have increased over the past few years. According to industry statistics, there are about 718,595 manufacturing businesses across the U.S. as of 2023, an increase of 3.7% from 2022. Like in other sectors, companies in this industry invest in powerful technologies for all their departments.
One of the key areas of focus is streamlining the company’s payment process. As a small manufacturing business owner, you need to give your customers an easier way to pay their sales orders and invoices. You need an integrated payment processor that accepts ACH payments and effectively works with your existing business software.
This blog post will examine how you can achieve efficiency and security by accepting ACH online payments in your manufacturing business.
Automated Clearing House or ACH payments are a type of electronic fund transfer. Organizations use ACH technology to process recurring payments because it has lower processing fees.
While ACH payments are sent from one bank to another via the ACH Network, credit card payments rely on the EFT Network to complete transactions. In addition, wire transfers also use the EFT Network to transfer large sums of money, especially across international borders. However, ACH saves businesses money, is highly secure, and has faster processing times than wire transfers and credit card transactions.
The ACH Network processed about 7.3 billion payments in Q1 of 2022. Most business owners are switching to digital payments to take advantage of the benefits. Here are just some of the advantages of using an ACH payment processor in your manufacturing business:
Learn more about the benefits of ACH payment processing.
Large manufacturing companies generate a massive volume of B2B invoices. Additionally, they process orders from individual customers. While most of them now accept ACH payments, some challenges may still come up.
To manage payments, most manufacturing companies use accounting software to manage financial data, project planning, and monitor the company’s financial situation. Therefore, business owners must find a payment processor that integrates with their current invoicing software. Fortunately, there are payment gateways that provide integrated tools for ACH processing.
As digital payments become more popular, there’s increased risk. Fraudulent transactions can cost your manufacturing business, especially when fraudsters access sensitive financial information. This is why choosing a reliable PCI-Compliant ACH payment processor that provides advanced security features for your small business is important.
ACH payment solutions were known to be slower than wire transfers and credit card payments. This can inconvenience your business, especially if you need to process invoices. However, with technological advancements, ACH processing can now happen within the same day.
Businesses lose about 2-4% per transaction for credit card processing. However, implementing a Cash Discount Program saves merchants fees and offers customers better discounts.
If you plan to choose the best ACH payment processor for your manufacturing business, here are some of the things to consider.
Here’s how to set up ACH payments for your business.
To accept ACH payments in your manufacturing business, you need to open a separate bank account to hold the cash.
Whether you have a commercial, enterprise, or custom accounting software, you need to integrate it with the ACH Network for easier payment processing. You can also integrate your payments page with your website via a hosted payment portal – that incorporates all your branding elements.
Once you set up the account, you need to choose a reliable third-party ACH processor for your manufacturing business. This will get you:
Like other online payment methods, ACH solutions have some risk of fraud. However, Nacha, the U.S. governing body of the ACH Network, has taken measures to reduce the risk. ACH payments are encrypted to protect sensitive financial information with features like tokenization, BIN filtering, iFrame, and end-to-end encryption.
Your manufacturing business can achieve efficiency and security with ACH payments. However, to ensure that your payments are safe, you need to partner with a PCI-Compliant payment processor like iCG. Get in touch with our experts for more information.