Sage News and Discussion

Since SPS came up in couple of discussions today, thought I would share my experiences with it. (1) If you have not done so yet, have a discussion with your SPS rep about how you expect your customers to be treated. One of the first encounters I had was the SPS rep promising an off-maintenance MAS 90 customer they could get them the credit card module. I spoke with him and his supervisor and said ""When you talk to my customers, be a consultant, not a salesperson."" Much to my surprise, he not only listened, but the two of them are the only Sage people who actually take me out to lunch. At this point just about all my customers who take credit cards are on SPS (even the one who was lied to about the module - boy was she pissed at her previous processor), and they have all been very happy with the rates. (2) I hope the ""happy with the rates"" continues - I have (paranoid?) visions of them tripling once PCCharge is no longer an option. (Though disposing of PCCharge has definitely been a useful sales tool to get people to switch to SPS.) (3) Wish list for future development - here's what I hope to hear about on the webinar: - A credit card swipe terminal that integrates with MAS. - ability to take multiple cards on one SO - electronic check processing (not sure about the exact term, but it basically swipes the check to get instant verification that the check is good) (4) Convert people now, before 5.0 comes out and they are told they have to switch if they want integrated processing.

I think the SPS product should be selling like hotcakes. Most businesses are looking at taking credit cards. It's a great, quick sale that will pay dividends for quite a while. We use it in house ourselves.

@PhilMcIntosh - I have numerous clients using a USB card swiper with MAS. Works very well. www.idinnovations.com Call Jeff Zimmerman @ (817) 285-8772. They have a small program that loads at startup that parses the CC information into the appropriate field of cash receipts, SO and invoice entry. The bigger problem of the CC swipe is that SPS doesn't recognize the swipe as a swipe, only as a keyed entry. So the higher rates apply. Eirka is promising relief in v5 but the proof is in the pudding. One of my clients went from $3200 in swiped merchant fees in 2007 (pre SPS) to over 11K in SPS fees due in large part to the higher keyed rate experienced by using the MAS CC module. How much is the convenience worth? Plus they are paying higher maintenance for the CC module. As far as your other two items on your wish list, post them on the idea web site so we can vote for them.

And don't expect the SPS commissions to last long into the future as this will be the next Pascal tweak...

@JeffSchwenk - thanks for the info I will call him next week

I think swipe terminal has been promised for Sage Exchange - would not be surprised if the check processing was too.

@PhilMcIntosh - Feel free to contact me if you have questions on the swipe functionality.

@JeffSchwenk the main purpose of using swipe functionality is to get the reduced rates, no?? Yes, they don't have to key in the card info but what's the purpose?

Ease of use. More efficient, eliminate duplicate keying. Initially, charges weren't that much higher. Three years into it, we have to reanalyze. Have to admit I was quite surprised when I looked up the number today for this post.

Jeff there was an Erika post maybe three weeks ago about how swiping cards wasn't recognized as a swipe under pc charge for processor purposes. Wish I could find the link.

I know that! Known that from day one. Using the CC integration and SPS saves time and a money if the end user is already accepting credit cards via phone without the card present (non swipe). If the end user is a retail shop and has a swipe reader, SPS will save money IF you continue to swipe the cards via the CC machine. If you go with MAS CC integration and swipe the card via a usb reader into MAS, this counts as a keyed transaction with SPS. You will save time with the process but you WILL pay through the nose with higher fees. The question then becomes how much money is this time savings worth? For my client, I don't it is worth the $8K additional cost!

Sorry Socialcast bunched up your earlier post with a (more) link so I couldn't see that discussion