Is It Time To Go Virtual?

“Virtual” is a word we often hear in today’s business world and the credit card processing industry in no exception. Since the inception of the Internet, payment processing companies have been working feverously to provide point-of sale solutions that function virtually. This article will cover the vast advantages of accepting credit cards virtually from a business owner’s perspective.

How the Virtual Terminal Works
The Virtual Terminal is accessible from any computer connected to the Internet using any standard web browser. As the actual backend functions reside on our secure servers no software is required to process credit cards. Click here for a screen shot of the Virtual Terminal.

For quick access to the Virtual Terminal we recommend saving it to your computer desktop or in your favorites. This way the Virtual Terminal can be activated with a click of the mouse. One major convenience of the Virtual Terminal is the ability to process credit cards remotely. Should you need to process credit card transactions away from your computer, you would simply login to your account, access the Virtual Terminal via our servers and process your credit card transactions. This feature allows for complete control over your businesses credit card processing needs. Once access to the Virtual Terminal is gained, simply enter the required credit card information into the appropriate fields, press "submit", and the status of the credit card order is returned in seconds.

The Virtual Terminal interface is also fully-customizable, meaning that your business is able to capture any information that is required for each transaction. For instance, if you wanted to add an operator number, sales representative’s name, promotion code, or any type of helpful data, it is easily added to the Virtual Terminal and the information is stored on the servers. This information can also be queried from the reports feature for 2-years!

Reporting Features
The Virtual Terminal also offers a robust menu of reporting features accessible through our interactive register. The interactive register is a secured area of the website where individual credit card transactions can be managed. Through the interactive register, business owners have the ability to settle, freeze, thaw, issue full, blind and partial credits, establish a recurring payment schedule, delete, reauthorize expired transactions, and view transaction detail. Additionally, your can customize your reports! The Virtual Terminal supports up to 30 user-definable fields that allow you to perform in-depth data mining. And with the ability to quickly export any report, you can use your customized reporting tool to analyze your business. The Virtual Terminal maintains complete transaction detail history that enables you to perform extensive historical reporting and to audit specific customer transactions. Up to two years' history is available online, and offline back-ups are available for prior years.

Email Notification
The Virtual Terminal supports the automatic sending of confirmation emails to your customers. These emails are fully-configurable, and can include whatever level of order detail is required. The email notification feature provides valuable information to both business owners and your customers. It is also a tool that merchants can use to send messages to your entire customer base! This feature has many advantages for the business owner even outside of credit card processing.

Recurring Payment Options
With the Virtual Terminal, business owners who are providing subscriptions or any service that requires credit card billing on a regular periodic schedule can automate their billing process with the Virtual Terminals recurring payment capability. Nine different recurring payment periods are supported (monthly, bi-monthly quarterly, etc). This feature eliminates the need for business owners to re-enter their customers' credit card number each time a recurring payment is required.

State-of-the- Security
The Virtual Terminal offers the highest levels of security in the industry. Credit card transactions are secured using SSL encryption between the Virtual Terminal interface and the gateway. Once stored on the system, each credit card transaction is individually encrypted (secured) using patent-pending security technology. Even in the unlikely event that one credit card transaction is compromised, all other transactions remain secured.

Other Benefits
• Improves customer service through real time credit card authorization • Improves control over individual credit card transactions • Reduces credit card transaction processing costs o No POS terminal fees o No Phone lines o No Long distance fees and personnel costs due to customer call-backs o No Manual entry of credit card data for Recurring Payments • Faster processing time than traditional POS terminals • Eliminates training time • No installation requirements means that you’re up and running fast! • Helps manage and increase your knowledge of your business through detailed web-accessible reporting • Reduces incidence of fraud (no-cost Address Verification Service for US cardholders) • Eliminates software installation, maintenance or obsolescence concerns • Reduces incidences of downtime that can occur with point-of-sale hardware

Is the Virtual Terminal Right for Your Business?
The Virtual Terminal clearly has its advantages over standard point-of-sale hardware and software. Should you make the switch? It really depends on whether the Virtual Terminal’s features help simplify your credit card processing needs and business functions. The Virtual Terminal was designed to be user friendly and easily accessible. The additional speed, reporting capabilities and reduced maintenance costs over point-of-sale hardware make it difficult to ignore. Without a doubt, the credit card processing industry is moving in this direction as are business owners. We feel the Virtual Terminal has arrived and should be seriously considered.

For more information please contact our sales office at 1-800-809-1989. For details on pricing
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