What to do about Change of Service Fees

As you know, I am very much in favor of only using point of sale systems that allow you to pick, choose, and change which company handles your merchant services for debit and credit card processing.  As we all know how competitive merchant services companies can be, the worst thing we can do is lock ourselves in to a long term contract or commitment where our rates can be raised.

That being said, it is likely that changing who handles your merchant services may involve a fee and a service call to change the information in your point of sale software - plus you want to test the new settings to make sure that everything is functioning correctly.

Most point of sale companies charge $250 to $800 to perform a "change of service" related to changing the settings in your point of sale system so you can switch/change merchant services companies. I've found that it never hurts to ask the company that you are switching to for merchant services to cover that fee via a credit or series of monthly credits - just be sure to get in writing!

That way, you can make sure that you are always paying the lowest fees for debit and credit card processing.

Please visit my contact page for information on how to reach me.

Best Practices for Switching Point of Sale Systems

I've likely covered this before but it never hurts to keep the following in mind should you ever need to upgrade or switch point of sale systems.

1. Make sure that you have full access to all of your data (inventory information, customer information, history, vendor information, employee information).
2. Ensure that all the information is backed up and accurate (good time to perform a physical inventory if you haven't done one in awhile).
3. Ask what the options are related to importing all your inventory, customer, supplier, and vendor information in to the new system - usually this can be done for a nominal cost.
4. Depending on your situation, you may not be able to transfer any historical information. Don't panic!  What you need to do is make sure that you can run your old point of sale system for another year or so to access any historical information (eg: customer comes in and whats to buy exactly what they bought 8 months ago).
5. Make sure that you have all the financial data and reports needed to account for the last 7 years
6. Take time to learn and use the new system - there is likely a good reason why you upgraded or switched systems do get the most out of your hard earned dollars!

Those are the basics - Please visit my contact page for information on how to reach me.