Help CenterWe’ve been working tirelessly and passionately behind the scenes over the last 18 months to get to this point. All those coffee-fuelled nights and exacting days have led us here. Today, we officially kick off enrollment for Payments 2.0.
What is Payments 2.0 you ask? Well, it’s kind of in the name, but to be specific, we are evolving our payment processing capabilities. This is made possibly by changing our payment processing partner from Braintree Payments to Usio Payments.
You may wonder why we have put so much effort into this project and why do we feel the need to change. Simply put, USIO is a better partner and continously improving. They have the best features. Their customer service is topnotch. Finally, it turns out our plans were timely because Braintree have just recently announced that they will be sunsetting their marketplace platform at the end of this year.
There are many benefits coming and some that we have already started to release. Here is a short summary of the changes and improvements.
- Automated refunds
- Improved reporting
- New payment wallet
- POS/Mobile terminals
- ACH (Bank) payment capability at a lower cost
- Direct debit to your bank account for refunds, chargebacks, and fees (as opposed to a charge on your card)
- Gross settlement vs Net settlement with a monthly invoice
This is the biggest change we’ve made since the launch of the platform.
To get started, we will start inviting a few businesses to initiate enrollment as soon as next week. We are calling this the ‘Beta Enrollment’ group. Then, with success, we will then continue inviting larger and larger groups until we open up enrollment for everybody.
What does enrollment entail and what does it mean? Basically, its the first of two steps to complete the cutover from Braintree to Usio. We have tried to make it a simple, uncomplicated process involving a few clicks and confirmations to get you signed up with Usio. Because we and you are new to them, there may be some follow up involved as they open accounts. But it should be very straightforward.
If enrollment is the first step, what is the second step? After, you are enrolled, nothing will change immediately. You will still be processing on Braintree until the official cutover. We need to get everybody enrolled on Usio before we execute the cutover.
And what is the cutover? After everybody is enrolled, we will schedule a day and time to transfer all of the card data from Braintree to Usio. That is a very formal process which is done directly between those two entities with encrypted data. It is being meticulously planned such that you and your customers will hardly notice the change. One day you will be processing through Braintree. The next day you will be processing through Usio. The most notable change will be all the new functionality that is available.
We don’t have a date set in stone yet for the cutover due to the fact that it’s dependent on getting everybody enrolled with Usio. We are planning for an enrollment period of no more than 2 months which means we’d be targeting cutover around the first week of August at the latest. As we get closer, we will communicate updates on the timing.
So what happens next? Once you are selected for enrollment, the first thing you’ll see when you log in to your Fitli dashboard will be a window prompting you to enroll for the new payment processor (Don’t worry if you don’t see this window. You will receive it soon enough).
Note: Make sure to follow this GUIDE to ensure a quick and simple enrollment process.
Here’s what it will look like:
If you’re occupied at the moment, you may choose to do it later by clicking the ‘Later’ button on the left. It will be there the next time you log in until you complete enrollment.
Once you click ‘Continue’, you will be directed to the ‘Personal Contact Info’ section. Select or type out the relevant info. If you have already updated this info on Fitli, it will be pre-populated. Click ‘Continue’ again.
The next window will ask you for some key financial info required by the payment processor. Again, this may be pre-populated. If not, please update here. Make sure to use your business bank account information as well as the Tax ID (EIN or SSN) that you use with your business. Once you have, click ‘Continue’ again.
On the next window, click ‘Continue’ to move ahead with the enrollment and agreement process. At this point, all of your legal and financial information will be getting submitted to Usio Payments. At this point some of that data will not be editable on the Fitli screens any longer because Usio will require you to change any information directly with them. Once that happens on their system, we can help you change anything on our side.
At this point you will now be presented with the USIO Enrollment Form to review and update anything as needed. Check this information closely to make sure it’s accurate.
- Business Legal Name - Please note that your ‘Business Legal Name’ should match exactly with whatever is on your IRS EIN letter (or your Social Security Number card if you are a sole proprietor).
- DBA – Can be anything you like. In the Fitli system, the Business Profile is where you would typically use your DBA or anything other than the Business Legal Name.
- First and Last Name should match your ID - DO NOT input prefixes, suffixes, middle names, middle initials, or hyphens (ie: Dr., Jr., Ph.D., III)
- Business Structure - LLC, Corp, Sole Prop, etc. The Fitli Business Contact Info page has a dropdown with all the viable options. (If you are a Sole Proprietor, you should use your SSN in the Federal Tax ID field.
- The name on your Bank Account should match the Business’s Legal name. If you are a Sole Prop, this should be your First and Last Name as above.
Scroll down, and enter the last 4 digits of your SSN as required by USIO. This is required as it's an agreement between you, the principal business owner and USIO, the payment processor. For those of you with multiple owners, whichever of you is logged in when going through this process will show up as the primary principal in Usio’s Enrollment form. There is an option to add additional principals if you would like but you need to do it at this stage in this form.
Optionally, you can download the Credit Card and ACH Terms and Conditions to have for your records. Confirm that you agree to USIO's terms and conditions and hit the "Submit the Click To Agree Form" button. This will submit your application to Usio.
Congratulations! You’re done. Now we just wait for the cutover and you’ll be able to enjoy the new features and a much better overall experience.
If you have any questions, please refer to our enrollment faq. If you’re still not satisfied, please don’t hesitate to reach out to support@fitli.com or use our live chat.