This article is relevant if you are looking for a way to use NetSuite to collect Credit Card payments from customers without using a web site and you seek to add a convenience charge.
Background
My firm, Prolecto Resouces, has always accepted checks, wires, and ACHs for payment of its professional services invoices. Since 2013, we have also offered a discount of 5% for payments using Bitcoin (please see our platform, BTC4ERP for those that are interested). Many times, when we have prospective new customers who wish to work with us, they would like to get engaged with us as soon as possible. All of our leadership and care is offered via retainer and we do not schedule services until payment is in hand.
While Bitcoin operates immediately and is our preferred method of payment, most organizations still do not possess this form of money (I patiently wait). Many would like to pay with credit cards. As I contemplated this request for accepting credit cards, we have historically avoided credit cards because our business model does not warrant it. We offer professional services, not products. Yet, I understand the desire to “expedite” the start of services to our new clients.
Discussions with Solupay Payment Processor
More recently, I was introduced to the folks at Solupay as they solved some challenges that one of our clients had faced relative to recurring charges. For that client, we created a recurring charge generator that leverages the NetSuite SuiteCloud platform. See this article, Learn How To Recurrently Accept NetSuite Customer Payments and Deposits.
I was pleased with the way Solupay was thinking about all kinds of payment situations and their use of the SuitePayments API. Because we are a NetSuite Systems Integrator, we build on NetSuite and the payment provider conforms with the SuitePayments API. Under this technology approach, we are able to trigger power business logic without the worries for payment gateway particulars.
Adding Credit Card Convenience Charges
First, I must say that there are some laws and regulations about the legality of adding a surcharge to credit card charges. The laws vary by US State and thus, anyone contemplating this subject should consultant with their legal counsel before embarking on this business transaction processing journey. I am providing a Visa and Mastercard reference here — but in NO WAY am I or my firm authority on this subject matter.
Yet, I can think about how we could implement such a mechanism in the NetSuite platform. I have seen some clients modify their existing invoices to add charges and yet others create new invoices to represent the charges. However, given we have a tool that we give to our clients without a license charge, I worked with Matthew M., a Senior Consultant on our team, to add functionality.
Here are the key features:
- Select Customers to Present Convenience Charge: Since an extra fee is an optional consideration, make it so that we have some choice when we charge the fee.
- Calculate the Fee Dynamically: We only want to charge the fee if the customer actually pays the invoice(s). We are not really sure which invoices will be paid ahead of time. Thus, calculate the fee once the customer demonstrates which amounts they will pay.
- Auto Generate Convenience Fee Invoice: accept the amounts to pay plus the fee. This amount will be greater than the sum of the earned invoices paid. Apply the collected funds first to the invoices in question. The payment record will then have a portion unapplied. Subsequently, generate a new convenience fee invoice for the portion that represents the fee. Apply the unapplied funds to the new invoice. Done: no extra bookkeeping required.
Video Demonstration (2:48) for NetSuite Credit Card Convenience Charge
In the following video, I demonstrate how this convenience charge mechanism has been set up in our Prolecto Resources NetSuite account.
Getting More Credit Card Processing from NetSuite
The great thing that I love about the NetSuite platform is our ability to extend the built-in capacities with automation, presentation, and control. The SuitePayments program has been great for NetSuite to gain more payments capacities for all of its customers using NetSuite. Here, we leverage this because we illustrate our ability to work with the NetSuite platform to stay very close to the business logic and be completely shielded from credit card gateway complexities.
If you found this article meaningful, feel free to get an email notification for future articles. If you would like to get in front of your credit card processing challenges, let’s have a conversation.
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Marty Zigman
Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.
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The recurring cc feature seems to be very functional, but not very applicable to our retail/ wholesale business. Would there be a way to charge cards in bulk in Netsuite?
Let us say, for instance we have about 300 sales order to fulfill, but we want to make sure that we receive payment for them before they ship (these are customers with CC terms). Although we can bulk fulfill and bulk invoice, I do not see a way except to manually go into each invoice and accept payment?
We easily solve those kinds of problems with all of our tools. Have a look at these articles:
https://blog.prolecto.com/2020/10/11/see-how-to-craft-fast-and-flexible-netsuite-bulk-record-generators/
https://blog.prolecto.com/2017/12/17/learn-how-to-recurrently-accept-netsuite-customer-payments-and-deposits/
Marty
Greetings, since the rules around surcharging have changed and are allowed under certain circumstances, would the process be the same to add a surcharge to the payment URL? How would the customer add say 2% surcharge fee in Netsuite? thanks!
Our model works well. Only if the user elects to pay do you produce the charge. In the payment algorithm, we constitute another invoice to account for those fees and to line it up with target earned invoice to account for the overall gross payment.
Marty
Hello, what payment gateway is being used for this? Is it a bundle, or how did you get the “Accept CC Info” tab on the customer record with the payment link? Is that page that the link brings you to a custom scripted page?
Hello Michael,
This works against any SuitePayments Certified payment gateway. We do not charge for the IP. Feel free to reach out with your specific questions here: https://www.prolecto.com/contact-us/
Marty