Overview
Allterra Solar is a pioneer in both the renewable energy industry and Santa Cruz county. The company was founded in 2004 and has won numerous awards for Best Solar Company in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
With innovation and customer service at its core, Allterra Solar has also dedicated millions of dollars to local initiatives and sustainable living in Santa Cruz. Despite the company’s success, one area remained problematic and made scaling the business difficult: billing and payments.
Plagued By Inefficiency And High Fees
Allterra Solar originally used payments software designed for B2C payments to invoice their clients, but encountered frequent problems with chargebacks. “These other payment solution companies are not set up to protect merchants, only to protect consumers. There were zero protections for us, in cases where services had been rendered,” states an Allterra Solar finance manager in Accounts Receivable.
At the same time, Allterra Solar was paying substantial transaction fees on credit card payments. They needed a solution that allowed for flexible payment options for their customers but also offered merchant protection and lower transaction costs. Specifically, Allterra Solar’s goals were to reduce cost on credit card deposits, improve efficiency by eliminating paper checks, and redeploy large service bills to digital payments without incurring large fees.
Paystand Deployed To Speed Up Time-To-Cash
Paystand worked with Allterra Solar to understand their needs and deployed an end-to-end solution that modernized their payments infrastructure. Paystand suggested a fully digital Accounts Receivable flow that covered their payments lifecycle from eInvoice to Billing Portal to ePay through a single, easy to pay, digital portal.
Deploying this solution would also solve one of Allterra Solar’s key challenges: speeding up time to cash & reducing paper check processing. An added benefit of this solution would also come in the form of lower transaction costs through smart use of eCheck & wholesale card rails. This met another one of Allterra Solar’s key challenges: reducing costs on credit card deposits. Finally, the solution could be up and running in a matter of days.
Initially, it was Paystand’s ease of setup and maintenance that appealed to Allterra. “We found the system easy to use; their buttons were easy for the customer to figure out, especially since it didn’t require them to set up an account. So our clients and vendors were no longer confused at the critical moment when they’re ready to pay.”
It soon became clear that in addition to ease of use, Paystand met all of the company’s goals and would completely modernize payment processing for Allterra. And Paystand’s best-in-class customer service gave Allterra Solar the confidence that Paystand was a true partner in their journey.
Results
Thanks to the close collaboration between Allterra Solar and Paystand, the company has been able to experience something that gets passed down to their customer base; at the top of the list - peace of mind and convenience.
Meanwhile, Allterra Solar has been able to worry less about administrative tasks and focus on their core business, helping their customers minimize their carbon footprint and go green, one solar panel at a time.
