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COVID-19 Business Continuity, Preparedness & Support for Payment Processing

During this time, we understand that you may be experiencing unforeseen challenges at your business. We want you to know that Constellation Payments stands ready to support you, your staff, your customers, and your communities.

While we are taking every precaution to ensure the continued health and safety of our employees, we want you to know that we also have a tested business continuity plan in place to continue to serve your business and its payment processing needs without interruption.

With that in mind, here are a few important updates:

  •   Our staff is continuing to work normal business hours from secure remote locations. We are here to help and support you with keeping your business operational. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us using the support channels listed below.

  •   If you are on the Constellation Payments gateway, you will continue to receive payments on time and at your chosen frequency. At this time, we have received no indication from our payment processing partners that there will be any interruptions in service.

  •  Online payment alternatives are available for your business. Amid the spread of COVID-19, many businesses are reconsidering how they handle cash, checks, and credit cards. Contactless and digital payments are being encouraged as alternative payment methods as they require less physical interaction and are more secure.

We can help with online payment alternatives such as deploying hosted payment pages to enable your customers to pay securely online by credit card, debit card, and ACH/EFT. Please contact your software provider or call our Product Support Team at 888.248.7060 to discuss alternative digital payment methods.

  •  An after-hours emergency support line is available for true technical emergencies. Should you experience a technical issue, first check the status page where we post about scheduled maintenance, downtime, incidents, outages, and resolutions.

If the issue is a true technical emergency occurring between the hours of 5 pm ET and 8 am ET Monday through Friday, or over the weekend, please call the emergency support line at 844.9.CSIPAY or send an email to emergency@csipay.com.

We’ll continue to send updates if needed as the situation evolves. In the meantime, please continue to use the standard support channels noted below, and please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Thank you and stay safe,

The Team at Constellation Payments


 

Support Lines

(Monday through Friday: 9 am – 7 pm ET)

Channel Partner Support: 888.248.7060
Merchant Services Support: 888.244.2160

The Support Hub

Enter tickets, indicate priority, make updates, track status, view your own tickets, or all tickets from your organization at the Support Hub.

Payments Insider — Elavon’s Online Account Management Portal

Go to mypaymentsinsider.com, Elavon’s online account management portal, to manage your merchant account, get interactive statements, set up funding alerts, and access how-to videos.

If you don’t yet have a Payments Insider account, fill out the form here. A confirmation email will be sent to you with instructions to complete your account set-up. 

 

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay 

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How to Fast-Track Your New Year Business Planning

Do you feel it, too? That heavy weight on your shoulders to get your business plan in order? Pressure to plan for the new year, while meeting all the other work deadlines during the busy Holiday season?

We all feel it. Fortunately, there is a way to squash the stress and worry, and set your plan in motion — quickly.  

The answer? Your business management software and Payments Insider.

By running reports found in these two resources, you’ll gain important insights to guide your decision-making, and form key action steps that make up a solid business plan.

1. Start with the financial reporting in your business management software

Whether you’re using EZFacility, Member Solutions, Shortcuts, or another partner software integration, most software programs have dashboards and detailed financial reports that can be easily run and exported into Excel or PDF to review and share with your team at your planning meeting.

Start with the Accounts Receivable Report. Reviewing accounts receivable for this past year, and years prior, can shed light on both the flaws and opportunities in your accounting procedures, as well as in your sales and marketing processes, and general operations.

For example:

  • Maybe you find that you have too much cash tied up in unpaid invoices. This discovery could lead you to adjust your billing process in the new year, like activating automated recurring billing in your software.
  • Or, maybe you find that a seasonal sale drove a surge of paid-in-full membership packages. Knowing this confirms that you should repeat that same promotion in the coming year.

Whatever the case may be, this financial report — along with other financial reports like package sales, active members by programs, revenue report — tell the story of what actually happened during the year. From this data, you can gain insights to make solid, data-based decisions and create action items that make up your business plan.  

2. Review your merchant processing statements in Payments Insider

Not familiar with Payments Insider? It’s well worth taking a moment to set up your account. Payments Insider is the online portal that houses all your business’ payment information.

The portal makes it easy to access your merchant account credit card statements from the past 13 months. Statements can be filtered by date range, location, and statement type.

One of the best features of Payments Insider is that you can click on any of the values in the statement for greater detail.

Payment Insider also provides tables and graphs that break down transactions by sales, returns, chargebacks, card/dollar/transaction amounts, and average ticket price.

These visual representations of your payment activity can help you quickly identify areas of strength, and those that could use a little help.

For example:

  • Maybe you find that chargebacks have increased this year. This finding could lead you to take steps to prevent chargebacks, like making your charge description clearer on the customers’ credit card statement, or adding your phone number as part of the charge description.
  • Or, maybe you find that sales grew in the Spring and declined in the Summer, steering you in the direction of implementing a Summer special to draw in more business.

Taking Action is Crucial to Achieving Success

Remember that the financial reports in your business management software and merchant processing statements in Payments Insider is just the start.  

The key to achieving success in the new year is to take what you’ve learned and act. What good does it do if you simply know that something worked, or didn’t, and you don’t take action to repeat the success or take a step to improve a process or procedure?   

Implement a plan. Act. Assign action steps to staff. And, rest assured knowing your new business plan is now rooted in data-backed decisions to help your business grow and improve regularly.

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Mid-Year Financial Checkup: 5 Steps Every Business Owner Should Take

CSIPay photo

Remember back in January? Those goals you set for your business?

Like so many of us, your it’s-a-new-year-let’s-crush-it enthusiasm has probably faded a bit. And maybe, now at the halfway point of the year, your business’ fiscal fitness isn’t exactly where you’d like it to be.

Not to worry; mid-year is the perfect time to relax, re-center, and re-focus on those financial goals for a strong year-end finish.  

As a launchpad, we’ve gathered key pointers and considerations for you to add to your checkup to help your business get financially fit — and ready for the second half of the year:

Tip #1: Evaluate costs and ROI

Look at your expenditures and their return on investment. Are you paying a monthly subscription fee for a service, but maybe not getting much out of it? If it isn’t producing a solid return, consider stopping the service and re-purposing those dollars into something else that does more for your business.

Tip #2: Review your cash flow and billing strategy

Do you have cash tied up in unpaid invoices from customers? Many businesses do. And many businesses spend unnecessary time and energy trying to collect those payments.

Instead of repeatedly sending invoices and making phone calls, take a different approach. Consider setting up recurring billing through your business management software to automate invoices, and ensure reliable recurring revenue. This is an especially effective approach for membership-based businesses that have monthly membership fees like fitness clubs, yoga studios, and martial arts schools.

Tip #3: Utilize your software’s financial reporting to gain insight

You’re investing in a business management software, why not use it to its fullest capacity? Most software programs have dashboards and detailed financial reports to help you get a read on key business elements like revenue, sales and value, active members by program, and membership packages.

Utilizing these reports will provide important actionable insights and benchmarks that you can then use to take immediate action and improve business performance.

Tip #4:  Review your online merchant processing statements to get a good read on volume and trends

Take a moment to familiarize yourself with Payments Insider, a new, interactive, online portal that houses all your business’ payment information.

The portal gives you online access to your merchant account credit card statements from the past 13 months. All statements can be filtered by location, statement type, and date range — and you can click on any of the values within the statement for greater detail.

Be sure to pay attention to the tables and graphs provided that break down transactions by sales, returns, chargebacks, card/dollar/transaction amounts and average ticket price. These visual representations of your payment activity can help you quickly identify areas of strength, and those that could use a little help.

Tip #5: Readjust your goals

Remember, goal setting is an ongoing activity and a means for guidance and direction. You’ll likely need to readjust your goals based on your past 6-month’s business performance. And that’s OK! Most of us do. The key is to make smart goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound), get them in writing, make an action plan, and stick with them. And be sure to celebrate any and all progress!

Review Your Finances Regularly

Just like taking your car in for regular maintenance checkups, it’s important to take your business into the shoppe on a regular basis. Get under the hood, take a hard look at your business finances, and see what needs to be fine-tuned to improve performance.

Do that, and no doubt, you’ll thank yourself come December 31. You’ll smile hard as you reflect back on the year and how you helped your business achieve peak financial fitness.

Have a success tip of your own? Share it below.
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