Guides and Resources
How to Simplify Scheduling and Payments in One Step
The Everyday Headache of Service Businesses If you’ve ever started a Monday untangling missed voicemails, rescheduling last-minute cancellations, and chasing unpaid invoices, you know the stress all too well. For many service-based businesses, the challenge isn’t attracting customers, it’s managing them. Owners and staff spend hours each week juggling calendars,…
Why Integrated Payments Are Essential for Service Business Growth
The Problem With Disconnected Tools Running a small business has always meant wearing many hats. One moment you’re handling customers, the next you’re chasing invoices, and after that you’re trying to update your website or balance the books. For years, software tools promised to lighten the load, a booking app…
Keeping Card-on-File Payments Safe in 2025: A Merchant’s Guide to Security and Trust
A practical guide for merchants on tokenization, vaulting, PCI, and beyond. When a customer hands over their card, they’re not just trusting you with a purchase, they’re trusting you with their security. That trust is fragile. A single breach, stolen card, or compliance misstep can cost thousands in penalties, months…
Smarter Billing Starts Here: The Power of Pre-Authorized Payments
If you’ve ever found yourself chasing clients for overdue invoices, sending awkward “just following up” emails, or waiting weeks for cheques to clear, you’re not alone. Late and inconsistent payments are one of the biggest headaches for small and mid-sized businesses. That’s where pre-authorized payments come in. Simply put, they…
Cross-Border Payments for Canadian Businesses: Costs, Options, and How to Get It Right
For Canadian businesses, growth doesn’t stop at the border. Whether you’re selling to U.S. customers, sourcing materials overseas, or building global partnerships, the challenge is always the same: how to move money across borders without losing time and profit. Cross-border payments are essential in 2025, but they’re rarely simple. Between…
Integrated Payments: The Smarter Way to Reconcile, Report, and Grow
Picture this: it’s the end of the week and you’re ready to reconcile payments. You’ve got your accounting platform open in one tab, your payment processor in another, your POS system on your device, your booking platform on a fourth, and your online banking portal on a fifth. You spend…
Refund Fraud in 2025: What Every Merchant Should Know
Why it’s growing, what’s changing in payments, and the everyday habits that make the difference. Understanding Refund Fraud When merchants hear the word fraud, many think of cybercriminals, data breaches, or large-scale hacking. Refund fraud is much simpler, and in many ways, more relevant to everyday businesses. Refund fraud happens…
What to Do Once You Get a Chargeback: A Merchant’s Practical Guide
Chargebacks happen, even if you do everything right. While prevention is always the first line of defence, every merchant should be prepared to respond when one comes in. The good news? Acting quickly, staying organized, and following the right process greatly improves your chances of winning the dispute and protecting…
Card Present, Visa Debit, Amex: How Each Impacts Your Surcharge as a Canadian Merchant
Running a compliant surcharge program in Canada isn’t just about adding a fee – it’s about applying the right fee, only where allowed. Between card types, processing methods, and surcharge rules, it’s easy to get confused. This article breaks it all down: who you can surcharge, what rate you can…
Why “It Won’t Work in My Industry” Is the Most Common (and Costly) Myth About Pass the Fee
For many businesses, credit card processing is a cost they’ve just come to accept—even as fees eat into already-thin margins. Surcharge programs (also called “pass-the-fee” models) offer a straightforward way to offset those fees by passing the credit card cost to the customer, while keeping debit and cash options untouched.…
