The Ultimate Guide to SaaS Payment Processing

Finding a SaaS payment solution that works synergistically with your SaaS payment processing is essential for customer stickiness and long-term success. 

The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform model has evolved considerably over the past few years. SaaS platforms are now leveraging embedded payments to fully realize the potential of their payment models and structures. This technology allows SaaS platforms to provide their customers with a payment system that their customers can use to collect payments from their own customers. It allows for the platform to build an ecosystem on trust and reliability and to white-label the payment technology so that customers feel they are secured within the brand.

What’s the difference between SaaS payments and embedded payments?

SaaS payment processing is essentially how a platform manages its payments and facilitates subscriptions, recurrent payments and more.

Embedded payments are the tools used by the platform to facilitate SaaS payments and other forms of payment to ensure customers can make payments easily.

Both these capabilities combine to allow for platforms to offer SaaS products and services, improve customer experiences, increase revenue, reduce costs and open up new revenue streams.

Fintech in SaaS platforms has made the SaaS payment processing market highly competitive. Platforms are always looking for intelligent tools and solutions that can help them make payments easier, faster, and more secure. This is because they want their customers to stay with them for longer. When customers have a positive experience with payments, they are more likely to stick with the platform. 

Fortunately, embedded finance solutions have stepped in to fill the gaps and overcome challenges platforms face, allowing them to increase revenue and expand into new markets while ensuring their customers are always delighted. 

What is SaaS payment processing?

SaaS payment processing solutions help your platform manage payments and subscriptions easily. They can be used for easy one-off payments, subscriptions, ongoing and repeat payments, trial periods, and other payment options you would like to introduce to your customers. SaaS payment processing solutions can be customised to suit specific customer and platform needs. 

SaaS payment processing manages different payment methods to ensure that subscriptions, recurring bills and ongoing service plans are smooth and painless for your platform and customers. 

Why is an effective payment processing solution critical for a SaaS platform?

Why is it important to have an effective payment solution? There are so many reasons, but here are a few of the most important:

• It offers your platform plenty of unique benefits. An effective payment processing solution makes it easier for you to handle your billing, and, because it can be customised, it ensures payments are more reliable. Customers find it easier to make payments and manage their financial admin and this goes a long way when it comes to increasing loyalty and reducing churn.
• If you embed a well-designed payment processing solution into your business, then you introduce more flexibility around payments, improved visibility and richer control.
• It is a whole new world of frictionless payments that simplifies your reconciliation and accounting. Staying on top of payments is time-consuming and frustrating. Imagine if your SaaS payment processing solution could give your customers absolute control and visibility. A solution that is automated and seamless? For your platform, the ability to offer all these benefits to your customers sets you apart.
• If it integrates perfectly with your existing SaaS platform infrastructure, you can customise your customer experiences and significantly reduce churn. This is a significant challenge for most platforms - customers jumping from one platform to another because they need a faster payment experience or better visibility or are tired of limited support. Plus, you can use the data provided by your SaaS payment solutions to find friction points in your business and remove these to enhance customer experiences further.
• You can white-label. Using a trusted service provider, like UNIPaaS, you can white-label a proven embedded payment solution within your own ecosystem so that your customers enjoy the benefits of a robust payments solution while remaining within your branded environment. This is immensely convenient and beneficial to customers as they are already familiar with your platform and trust it to handle their payments securely. It also helps to build customer loyalty as customers are more likely to do business with a company they trust. 

Gain control through your SaaS billing solution 

Platforms that use their own payment service to collect SaaS fees gain richer control over their payment ecosystem, make it more convenient for customers to connect within their ecosystem, and enjoy improved revenue collection and management. Using their own payment process, platforms also improve their compliance with regulations, set their own fees, and reduce risk. They can generate additional revenue by charging a fee per transaction processed through their service and garner customer stickiness by making these transactions easy, secure and accessible.

Platforms that make it easy to do business will hold onto business; it’s that simple. And that complex…

The complexities and challenges of SaaS payment solution requirements

You must manage several moving parts when working with payments on your SaaS platform. It’s like juggling a thousand balls or herding angry cats - it can be done, but easy it isn’t.

Some of the most common problems that platforms experience when it comes to payments are:

You have to manage different customers, requirements, expectations, and payment methods, which can complicate invoicing and billing. If your platform has subscriptions, regular billing cycles, or trial payment periods, this gets even more challenging. With a solid SaaS payment solution, you can say goodbye to the cast - your payments are automated and managed within a highly agile system that removes the pain and introduces reliability and efficiency.

Scale is complicated. Can you grow within your current infrastructure, or do you have to invest in more expensive technology just in case growth is a sudden reality? How can you balance the need for multiple payment options, different languages, and different currencies against the demand in those countries and currencies? When your platform is balancing growth with budgets, these are challenging questions. However, SaaS payment solutions remove all the complexity. Simply integrate the architecture and the technology does the rest without straining your budget or your infrastructure.

Compliance is overwhelming. This is a conversation around security, GDPR, PSD2, SCA and other mandates, regulations and expectations around payments on a global scale. In our recent post about custom payment gateways , we looked at how much it would cost to manage these expectations internally, and the bill was very high indeed. With a ready-made and reliable embedded payment solution, you can trust that compliance is there without the costs or the complications.

Visibility is important. You need to know how secure your system is, where your data resides, or why customers are leaving. You need to understand churn, have visibility into your numbers to manage your costs better, and know why customers aren’t happy (or why they are happy so you can keep on doing the right things). A SaaS payment processing solution will offer reporting, analytics, churn data, and more.  

The synergies between SaaS payments and embedded payments

SaaS payments and embedded finance payments work together to create a more seamless and secure payment experience for customers. SaaS payments provide a way for companies to collect payments from their customers, while embedded payments allow companies to accept payments directly on their websites or apps. Combined, SaaS payments and embedded payments offer up a number of benefits:

• Seamless customer experiences as customers can pay for their subscriptions in one place, whether on a website or using an app.
• Increased security as embedded payments protect customer data by keeping it within the company’s environment.
• Reduced costs as companies can use a single payment processor for both SaaS payments and embedded payments. 
• A symbiotic relationship - a company using its own payment service can offer customers a discount if they pay using their payment service. This drives loyalty and repeat business.

SaaS payments and embedded payments are two important concepts that benefit companies offering SaaS products and services. Combined, they improve the customer experience and revenue generation.

What to look for in SaaS billing software

Well, perhaps the first and most important thing to look for in your SaaS billing software is that it gives you every one of the benefits outlined above. And that it helps you overcome every one of your payment challenges as well.

However, at the very least, your SaaS billing software should include:

• Reconciliation and revenue management tools that help you automate systems, such as providing instant payouts, while gaining visibility into payments and richer control over accounting.
• Global relevance that ensures you can bill across countries, languages and currencies while remaining compliant and secure.
• Multiple payment methods that are easy to use, access and implement and make the entire payment journey as smooth and simple as possible.
• Analytics and data availability so you can assess sales, revenue, and customer behaviours and then use this information to optimise pricing strategies and improve customer experiences.
• The ability to unlock new revenue streams thanks to a trusted payment service that provides your customers with a reliable payment space and that you can leverage to expand their engagement.
• Pay-as-you-go, usage-based, or freemium pricing options to increase revenue per customer.
• It makes it easy for customers to purchase and renew subscriptions while providing more accurate and timeous billing.
• Multiple integration options using a universal API that can be integrated with any SaaS platform regardless of technical infrastructure.
• An easy-to-use dashboard that allows you to track revenue and customer data while identifying new revenue streams and areas of growth.
• Customisable and scalable solution that can be designed around your unique platform needs.

How UNIPaaS dominates the embedded payment market

UNIPaaS delivers all the benefits listed above and so much more. With UNIPaaS you get an embedded payment solution that understands precisely how to make your platform thrive and shine in a challenging market.

We ensure your compliance is extraordinary so your onboarding is exceptional. We allow you to white-label our solution so you can build your brand on trust. We ensure that your B2B SaaS payment solution is everything you need, every benefit you want, and much more.

Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Sign up with UNIPaaS today and see how we can help you succeed.