commonsku Payments for Distributors: 5 Reasons to Start Using It Today

You already know the payment came in. You just spent eleven minutes proving it to three different systems: the processor that took the money, commonsku where the invoice was issued, and your accounting software, which you now have to check for accuracy. Each of those systems is doing exactly what it was built to do, and now you’re responsible for making sure that they all tell the same story.

This article is a deep dive into what’s possible when Payments are brought directly into commonsku, and helps you handle just that.

Introducing commonsku Payments: A New Way to Check Your Balance

A single payment does more than create a single record: it causes chaos. This is because that payment has now created a record where any outstanding money must now arrive in either your processor, commonsku itself, or an accounting system that’s lost track. This isn’t a failure of any individual system; in fact, they’re doing what they were assigned to.

commonsku Payments is a payments processor that allows distributors to accept credit card and ACH payments and keep their books in sync without having to move between different systems. It automates the reconciliation and tax work that used to be done separately, by folding payment processing directly into commonsku itself.

→ Learn more: commonsku Payments

What This Means For Your Finance Team

Finance teams spend hours each week matching payments to invoices by hand. And every time a refund goes out, they have to adjust taxes in Avalara manually, too. commonsku Payments can help those teams gain control of that process.

Within commonsku Payments, there is an embedded dashboard showing transactions, fees, and payouts right inside commonsku. The purpose of this dashboard is to bring a layer of visibility and a dedicated view to track payments, including a place to manage disputes.

Instead of jumping between a processor’s dashboard and an accounting system to piece together what came in, those teams now have that transparency right inside commonsku.

5 Ways You Can Start Using commonsku Payments Today

We recognize that switching payment processors can feel like a big change, especially when your team has a process that already works. If you decide to make the switch, here is a list of five ways distributors are using commonsku Payments today:

1. Collect payments upfront on deposits and sales orders

Problem: You invoice in commonsku, but you charge your client in a separate processor. At the same time, you collect your client’s payment details by email or phone, which can put yours and your client’s data at risk.

Solution: Your client can pay by credit card or ACH directly on a Deposit or Sales Order. This process doesn’t change; you just have a better way of keeping track of every transaction in a single view.

2. Taking payments at a Shops Checkout

Problem: Shops orders paid through an outside processor must be matched to your books.

Solution: Like usual, your client uses their credit card at their Shops Checkout. From there, these transactions sync, along with other payments, directly into QuickBooks or Xero.

3. Daily Reconciliation in QuickBooks or Xero

Solution: Your gross settlement means a $1000 invoice puts exactly that: $1000 in your account, fees withdrawn separately. Both are then pushed into QuickBooks nightly, and an outstanding invoice is paid automatically when your client pays. In addition, your fees are mapped against a global cost, not product-by-product.

4. Issuing a refund

Problem: Every refund used to mean a manual update in QuickBooks, including a manual tax adjustment in Avalara. Payments data is sensitive, so this opens the door to potential error.

Solution: You issue the refund in your commonsku Payments portal, and it gets pushed to QuickBooks and Avalara automatically, where refunds are issued in full.

5. Passing a processing fee to your client

Problem: You want to forward a fee to your client, but you’re unclear as to whether that is allowed in the state or location the purchaser is buying from.

Solution: commonsku checks whether fee forwarding is allowed in your client’s location and the differences between the payment types, whether it is a credit card or a debit card.

Payments, With Less Work

Count your steps: The most useful thing you can do with this article takes about ten minutes. The next time someone on your team reconciles a payment, write down every step between the money arriving and the money being fully recorded.

Every step on that list is valid on one condition: every system must agree. The list is not a measure of how well your team works. It is a measure of the distance between your processor and your platform, and it is the most honest number you will get about what your current setup costs you.

If you’re interested in exploring how commonsku Payments can work for you and your business, connect with us: