Intacct Cloud Ecosystem: Authorize.net and Paypal Integration

• April 7, 2016
• Kathy Jastrzebski

Are there any processes you are doing twice? (Maybe managing a payment gateway and accounting software separately?) Why should you be duplicating tasks in separate software when you can sync the two systems and allow the software to do the work?

These questions are precisely what triggered the start of our new series on Intacct integrations. As you may know, one of the pros of Intacct not being a full ERP package is being able to choose which software to integrate with. Whether you’re choosing an expense software, payroll, grant management, payment gateway, or CRM Intacct has a variety of choices. We’re here to help you create a happy, efficient cloud ecosystem. By spotlighting some key integrations, we’ll help your accounting and finance teams focus less on inefficient processes and more on driving your company’s business.

Today’s post is on Authorize.net/Paypal integrated payment services. (We’ll use Authorize.net as an example, however note that Paypal integration works just as well!)

What is Authorize.net and Paypal?

Authorize.net and Paypal are payment gateways which allows you to charge customers when they provide either a credit card or bank account. (Want more information on Authorize.net – you can find that here. More information on Paypal can be found here. Need more information on Intacct’s integration with Authorize.net or Paypal? Find it here: Authorize.net and Paypal.)

Imagine you currently have this workflow between Sales and Accounting:

Step 1: You receive a new order for a customer from your sales department. The contract includes the following details:

• Products/Services
• Pricing and Quantity
• Payment schedule negotiation (monthly billing, annual, quarterly, one time)
• Negotiation terms (free months, free add-on products).
• Payment method information

Step 2: Your accounting department uses your account software to record the invoice for the client as well as payment information.

Step 3: They then use Authorize.net to charge the amount due to the client’s credit card or bank account.

Step 4: Finally, they record the receipt of payment in the accounting software against the invoice.

What makes the process even more complicated? Let’s imagine you have recurring invoices set up to run in your accounting package and recurring payment set up in Authorize.net. Someone needs to go through those recurring invoices and record the payment against them from Authorize.net on a daily basis. Why have a person doing this job when we can sync the two systems?

Imagine if you could eliminate the need to go back and forth between the accounting software and payment gateway and instead you could consolidate the entire process within Intacct and reduce the amount of steps involved to two? That’s exactly what Intacct and Authorize.net’s integration does!

New and improved workflow within Intacct:

Step 1: You receive a new order for a customer from your sales department. The contract includes the following details:

• Products/Services
• Pricing and Quantity
• Payment schedule negotiation (monthly billing, annual, quarterly, one time)
• Negotiation terms (free months, free add-on products).
• Payment method information

Step 2: Your accounting department uses your account software to record the invoice for the client as well as payment information. They then charge the invoice in Intacct through Autorize.net (and provided that the card is not declined) the receipt of payment is recorded against the invoice.

What about if you have recurring invoices set up for a customer?

Well Intacct has a solution for that as well which will almost completely eliminate your old workflow of having to record payments against invoices manually:

Step 1: Create the recurring invoice in Intacct and attach a payment method to the recurring transaction.

Step 2: Each month (or whatever frequency the schedule is set for), Intacct will automatically create the Sales Invoice, charge the credit card, and record the receipt of payment against the invoice without you having to do anything besides the initial setup! (The only thing you really need to worry about is declined charges and following up with customer on those.) Other than that, how much more efficient is that?!

As always, the goal of our blog (and Intacct team as a whole) is to help you take a look at your current business processes and evaluate whether there may be a more efficient way of doing things. Hopefully by bringing light to these types of integrations we can help you not only make the most of your Intacct accounting software but also make your finance and accounting department more happy and efficient so you can spend more time focusing on tasks that drive your company’s business and mission.

Using Authorize.net or Paypal and Intacct separately and interested in seeing a demo or setting up the integration? We’re here to help feel free to reach out to our team!

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