Sage Pay has completed the integration of its transaction gateway with Sage South Africa’s HR, payroll and accounting solutions, clearing the way for small to medium-sized businesses to automate payments and collections from end to end.
The Sage Pay service has been connected to other group software products such as Sage Pastel, Sage Pastel Payroll & HR, and Sage VIP. Thanks to its tight integration with those products, Sage Pay can automate the full transaction cycle from the point an invoice is issued or a bill received, through to payment and reconciliation. The result is that SMEs can enjoy dramatic efficiency gains and cost savings.
Sage Pay – formerly known as Netcash – was acquired by Sage South Africa in 2010. The company provides transaction and payment solutions that allow businesses to pay salaries and creditors, collect debit orders, and access credit data from major credit bureaus, all through one service and one interface.
Says Sage Pay managing director Charles Pittaway: “The integration of our platform with other Sage software solutions closes the loop between the SMEs accounting and payroll software, and its payment and collection processes.”
“This fabric of connected services makes SMEs more effective by allowing them to save time by improving their efficiency. The solution is a game changer for SMEs since it is the first time that they can enjoy a level of integration and automation that larger businesses with high-end ERP systems take for granted.”
Pittaway says that the offering benefits SMEs by speeding up their business processes and removing opportunities for human error or fraud to creep in during manual capture or payment of statements, invoices, and other data.
For example, bank account numbers and ID numbers can be validated before payment, credit checks can be conducted from within the accounting or payroll software, and payment details can be loaded directly from within the accounting and payroll suite.
In addition, financial staff only need to learn one interface and work through one system, rather than needing to log into multiple applications for billing, payments and reconciliation.
“Our aim has always been to make life simpler for SMEs by connecting them to over 20 payment services through one Sage Pay account,” adds Pittway.
“Now, by connecting this payment solution to the software they use every day, we are offering them even more value. There is no extra cost for the integration of our solution with other Sage software – it is simply another way we try to help customers save time and money by allowing them to carry out a range of processes through one solution.”