Most established businesses have used their credit card machine for years without thinking too much about it. Typically these machines run off of a business phone line, transmitting credit card information to a payment processor who can then apply the payment to the business’s merchant account. At the end of each month or quarter, the business gets a statement of their merchant account transactions, and payments are processed every couple of weeks.
Today, however, there are a lot faster ways to conduct payment processing, but most of them start with an equipment upgrade. Rather than relying on a machine that requires a phone line, carbon paper receipts, and long delays today’s technology allows a retailer to quickly swipe cards without a dedicated phone line and provide an instant receipt to the customer.
To start, most credit card processing machines today do not have to use a dedicated phone line. Instead, they rely on an internet connection. This allows the machines to process cards a lot faster, and the machines don’t tie up an additional phone line. In fact, most businesses can run multiple machines and computers off of the same internet connection.
These newer machines also do not rely on carbon paper receipts. A receipt is printed for the customer while a copy of the receipt can also be sent to the business’ e-mail account or a separate program that can process them into a sales report. These programs allow a business to keep track of sales on a day to day basis, and not waste time reconciling accounts and creating sales reports. Some of these programs are even capable of tracking inventory, saving a business owner a lot of time when it comes to reordering products.
Finally, many new machines today are not anchored to one location. In a lot of cases, new machines are able to work anywhere there is a connection to the internet. They can work over the networks provided by cell phone companies, allowing them to be taken to a customer’s place of business. Already many service-based businesses have found that they can accept customer credit cards without requiring customers to call into a central office, making it a lot easier to get paid immediately.