Digital Payments: A Guide

Collecting payments is a necessary for businesses. But it’s not as simple as it was 20 year ago. Online payments and digital payments rely on other tools to collect payment.

Having the best software ensures you get paid quickly. And, ideally, that it's easy for your customers.

Traditional cash and check payments aren’t the norm any more. Online or digital payments are.

In this guide, we’re exploring:

• An overview into digital payments
• What digital and online payments are
• Why you should be collecting payments online
• Benefits of payment software
• Some examples of payment processors and their fees
• A quick overview of Roofr Payments

What is “digital payments”?

Digital payments occur when any kind of payment is completed with a digital or online tool. A hand-to-hand transfer of money does not take place. Tapping a card on a debit machine or a card reader, for example, is a form of digital payment.

Online payments

Online payments represent one subset of digital payments: A payment completed and processed online. This could include a credit card payment, or ACH.

ACH stands for Automated Clearing House network, which is an electronic transfer of funds between banks and/or credit unions. In Canada, it’s the same as e-transfers.

To put it simply, digital payments is any kind of payment that does not involve cash money or cheques. Online payments aren’t made in person to a business, but through an online tool. Uber Eats payments, Amazon Payments, or payments for your Netflix account are examples of online payments.

Why cash and check payments don’t cut it

People used to be paid in cash, and would have cash on hand. Today, people are usually paid through electronic methods, keeping their money in banks in the digital space.

Credit cards have taken over checks as a way to pay upfront for large sums of money. People can set up automatic payments instead of dating cheques. In fact, only 4% of US transactions in 2022 were made with checks.

Basically, the way we pay for goods in our daily lives has evolved with the digital revolution of the 21st century.

This has a number of benefits – and disadvantages. It’s easier to keep track of your money, less likely to lose a check or be robbed. But there are arguments against keeping all your money in banks, the challenge of having easy-access to your funds, concerns if banks were to go under, or the inability to access money in the event of internet outages, power outages, etc.

Whatever your personal beliefs are in the world of cash vs digital payment, the reality is that digital payment methods are the preferred and easiest way for homeowners to make large-sum payments for services like roofing.

Why roofers should process payments online

There’s one main reason that you, as a roofing company, should allow homeowners to pay for their roofs online:

Homeowners want to pay for their roof online.

43% of Americans have not written a check in the last year. This number will only go up year over year. If you want homeowners to pay with checks, they’ll probably have to go to the bank and buy checks. No one wants to do that.

Make it easy for homeowners to pay you

Making it as easy as possible for homeowners to pay for their roof…

• Will help you get paid quicker
• Will set you apart from other roofers who don’t allow online payments
• Will improve your customer experience
• Will drive more referrals

It’s a win for them — and therefore it’s a win for you.

Software to enable digital payments for roofers

If you want to start collecting roof payments online, then you'll need an online payment processing software. The software is what lets homeowners put in their card information and processes the transaction from them into your bank account. Any online payment includes some kind of third-party processing tool.

Payment processing software will take care of…

• All the technical aspects of how money gets moved so you can just get paid.
• Ensuring quick processing speed between you and your customers.
• Security and protecting customer payment information.
• Payment experience for customers.

The good news is that there are plenty of digital payment processing for small businesses. Unfortunately, that can make it hard to know which one to go with.

When looking for the best software for  your business, you’ll want to look at:

• Security
• Processing fees
• Customer experience
• Support
• Integration

Read our full guide on what to look for in processing software here.

What are processing fees?

Whatever processing software you use for online payments, you will have to pay specific fees. Different providers will have different fees, so feel free to shop around and compare rates.

Processing fees are additional charges that businesses pay every time a payment is made via credit card, or through an online service. It’s what businesses pay in order for the service to process the payment.

Think of it as paying the middle man for their service.

Average processing fees can range from 1.5% - 3.5% — all depending.

Common payment processors and their fees

There are dozens of different payment processors out there that businesses work with. This is a very small list, and their payment processing fees. You can find Roofr Payment's fees below, too.

Stripe

Established in 2010, Stripe is one of the larger payment processors, used by many major names like Mariott, Google, shopify, salesforce, and Amazon.

Major credit cards (Visa, American Express, Mastercard, etc), and digital payments (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, etc): 2.9% + C$0.30 per successful charge for domestic cards, and additional charges for manually entered payments, international cards, and currency conversion.

ACH: 1.2% (and potentially more depending on plan)

Payline

Payline is a browser-based application that can be used to process credit card fees manually online.

There are a number of other fees associated with Payline depending on how you use it. These fees include including terminal prices, monthly fees, potential annual fees, and a slight delay in despot.

Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American express: 0.75% + $0.20 per transaction up to $20 per month. Additional interchange rates vary for

Merchant One

Merchant One has been around since 2002 and started off as a credit card processing company. Now, they do allow for online processing of card payments, although they are more specialized for retail or POS system payments.

A monthly fee is charged to use Merchant One. Specific fees range from 0.29% - 1.99% for online transactions, depending on the card. The monthly fee is around $14.

QuickBooks

Quickbooks is an accounting software that does invoices, online payments, inventory, time tracking, bookkeeping, contractor payment, etc.

ACH transactions: 1%

Cards and digital wallets like Apple Wallet or Google Pay: 2.99%

Chase Merchant Services

Chase, also know as JPMorgan Chase Bank, is a North American bank headquartered in New York City. They provide payment services to businesses.

Cards for manually keyed transitions: 3.5% + $0.10

Ayden

Ayden is a finance management software  with a focus on online payments. Although, companies can take in-person payments as well. All of their payment processing fees have a fixed processing fee added on top.

ACH: $0.27 + $0.13 fixed fee.

Amex: 3.3% + $0.10, plus the $0.13 fixed fee.

Discover: 3.95% + $0.13 fixed fee.

Mastercard and Visa: Interchange + 0.60%, + $0.13 fixed fee.

Roofr Payments

If you’re a roofing company and are looking for a small business payment processing partner, then Roofr Payments could be for you.

Our payment features integrate with our entire CRM. This means that satellite measurements that convert to proposals and jobs are directly converted into invoices that your homeowners can pay online — all through the Roofr.

Roofr has some of the lowest processing fees out there.

No hidden fees, no minimums. There is no additional cost to use payments, just the regular subscription fee for Roofr.

Credit Card Fees (Visa, Mastercard, Discover): 2.8% & 30 cent transaction fee

Amex:  3.25% (can be disabled)

ACH / EFTs Fees: 0.5% for processing with a cap of $40 transaction maximum

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Want to learn more about Roofr Payments? Book a call with our team now and see Roofr in action.