Anchor Group Podcast: Episode 12
Podcast Episode Transcript
Michael (00:13)
Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in to episode 12 of the Anchor Group Podcast. Today we're going to be focusing on payments. We're speaking with a company called Paystand, and if you're running a business and paying an absurd amount in credit card fees, then today's conversation is for you. Stay tuned—let's learn how Paystand can help.
Today we have a couple of guests joining us: Max and Todd, along with co-host Caleb. We're going to talk about payment options in the NetSuite ecosystem, along with some e-commerce topics. Max and Todd, welcome to the podcast.
Max (00:54)
Glad to be here. Excited for it.
Todd (00:56)
Happy to be here.
Michael (00:56)
Before we dive in, here at Anchor Group we have a couple of office locations. Caleb is based in Wisconsin, and I’m based in Minnesota. Max, I know you’re also based in Minnesota, right?
Now, this time of year is a good one to be a sports fan. We’ve got the Timberwolves making a little run in the NBA playoffs. Max, have you been keeping up with that?
Max (01:10)
Yes, I’m up in the Twin Cities. I was actually in San Francisco for game one, unfortunately. But yes, I’ve been following closely. The trash talk between headquarters out in Santa Cruz—since we’ve got Warriors vs. Wolves in the playoffs—has been next level. But I’ve been excited to see the Wolves catch some fire here. Hopefully we can keep it going.
Michael (01:29)
For those listening who aren’t familiar with Minnesota sports culture, it’s a pretty sad history—not going to lie. So, the Timberwolves doing well gives us all something to get excited about. It’s nice to puff up our chests a bit.
Anyway, like I said, we’re talking about payments today. Max and Todd both work for a company called Paystand. Anchor Group has—
Todd (01:55)
—worked with you.
Michael (02:15)
Yeah, we’ve worked with you on a couple of things in the past. I know Caleb is going to shed some light on those solutions, because payments can get complex.
So Max, can you talk to us about Paystand? What is it, and how does it fit into the overall ecosystem of payments?
Max (02:34)
Great question. The way I usually describe it is by first breaking down B2C vs. B2B. Paystand is focused on the B2B sector within the payments ecosystem.
The most straightforward example of how we fit into B2B is providing a payment link on an invoice that allows a customer to pay digitally. Going deeper, in B2B payments, you’ve got a mix of paper checks, some credit cards, and direct ACH transfers.
Our mantra is helping customers move away from credit cards, so merchants can save on processing fees. Every time you swipe a credit card, there’s a 3% fee that has to be paid by someone. Paystand gives B2B merchants more control over which payment methods they accept and what processing costs they absorb.
So again, we’re in the B2B space, focused on digital payments and helping our customers—merchants—encourage their customers to stop using credit cards.
Michael (04:02)
So it's really a B2B play specifically because of those credit card fees?
Max (04:10)
Exactly. If you think about a B2C transaction—shopping online or in-person—it’s pretty common to take credit cards, especially if you don’t know the customer well.
But in B2B, we’ve got terms and long-standing business relationships. You typically know the customer’s good for it, so you give them 30 days to pay. Our view is: if you’ve already floated them for 30 days, you shouldn’t also lose 3% on credit card processing.
Michael (04:50)
Yeah, and for B2B companies with orders in the thousands of dollars, that 3% becomes much more meaningful than it does for B2C merchants.
Caleb (05:04)
I’ve had clients paying half a million or even a million dollars a year in transaction fees, depending on their size. So those fees really add up. That’s why I like bringing in Paystand as an option for B2B clients—there are real, often hidden costs in transaction fees that people don’t measure. But once they do, they realize how much they could save. It’s a pretty interesting space.
Michael (05:50)
For sure.
Caleb (05:50)
So, diving into the ecosystem—what types of environments do you typically work in? I know we work in NetSuite, SuiteCommerce, and BigCommerce. Which of those do you integrate with?
Max (06:09)
Out of those three—NetSuite, SuiteCommerce, and BigCommerce—we have direct integrations with the first two.
So, if you think about a payment link on an invoice emailed through NetSuite, or in SuiteCommerce, an order placement workflow or a My Account application, Paystand can natively provide payment links or let customers save payment methods there.
In BigCommerce, we don’t yet have a direct integration. So to answer your question: NetSuite and SuiteCommerce are where we can natively embed today.
Caleb (06:52)
Got it. We’ll table the BigCommerce discussion.
And what are the typical flows within SuiteCommerce or NetSuite? Can you give some examples of how that information moves? Is it just a payment link?
Max (07:16)
That’s a great question. One workflow that’s a good example—especially for retail merchants—is when you have a smaller customer, like a mom-and-pop shop or specialty store. You often want them to have some skin in the game.
So maybe it’s a deposit upfront, with the remaining 50% invoiced later. That’s a pretty common use case, and we can let a customer save a payment method when placing the order. That card can then be charged according to the merchant’s preferences.
The most common setup is charging 50% upon order placement. Then, when the order ships and the sales order is converted to an invoice in NetSuite, we automatically charge the saved payment method for the remaining balance.
Caleb (08:18)
What about revenue recognition? If you charge a card, there can be a delay before funds hit the account, which makes it seem like there’s more in the bank than there actually is. Especially if the customer deposit is marked as created but hasn’t been deposited yet. Is there any handling for that?
Max (08:47)
Yes. On the deposit reconciliation side, we notify the merchant not just when a payment is made, but also when the funds hit their account.
There’s a difference between a promise of funds and having good funds actually in the bank. That’s where we help.
Caleb (09:18)
So for a customer deposit, it's first created as a promise and probably marked undeposited. Then when the money hits the bank, Paystand updates that same customer deposit to reflect that it's now deposited?
Max (09:40)
Exactly. The same goes for payments to invoices. When the batch deposit hits the merchant’s account, Paystand updates all related payment records from “not deposited” to “deposited” to reflect that the funds are truly in the account.
Caleb (10:00)
So when a payment record is created, it triggers the promise. Then later, it’s flipped to “deposited” for reconciliation?
Max (10:15)
Spot on.
Caleb (10:17)
Got it. You mentioned email reminders—I think on customer deposits. What about reminders for invoices?
Max (10:25)
Yeah, the same principles really apply. Paystand’s goal—especially as a SuiteApp in NetSuite—is to have merchants operating within NetSuite as much as possible. We don’t want separate dashboards or to pull merchants into external platforms to manage controls or automation.
Any of our automated email reminder workflows are native NetSuite workflows. They update statuses directly in NetSuite. What typically comes standard in most of our statements of work would be reminders sent five days before the invoice due date, on the due date, and then maybe 10, 15, or 30 days after. The language may become a bit more direct after each reminder if the customer still hasn’t paid. But again, these are all native to NetSuite. When an invoice is paid and marked from "Open" to "Paid in Full," the reminders will automatically stop.
Caleb (11:34)
Let’s think about when I want to send an invoice. We talked about payment links before, but we didn’t go into detail on how it works. In NetSuite, there’s an invoice record. From there, I can deliver the invoice in a couple of ways. One is a PDF template that I can print, attach, and send. Another is an email template, where the invoice info appears in the body of the email instead of as an attachment.
How does Paystand insert the link, and how does that work overall?
Max (12:12)
Another great question. Most of our merchant partners prefer the payment link to be in the body of the email template because it’s easier to access and reduces the number of clicks it takes for the customer to pay.
Paystand can insert payment links into either an email template or, if you’re generating ("baking") your NetSuite PDF invoices directly in NetSuite, our payment links can be embedded there too.
Some merchants prefer to email their PDF invoices through Outlook, Gmail, or another system. In those cases, Paystand can still insert the payment link while the PDF is being generated in NetSuite, and then it’s up to the merchant how they send it.
So to recap, Paystand can insert payment links into both email and PDF templates in NetSuite.
Caleb (13:20)
Let’s say the customer clicks that PDF or email link. It opens a Paystand window. They choose a payment method—what options are available?
Max (13:34)
The three main options are bank login, credit card, and ACH. This is actually a live example from a Paystand customer, Melbourne Golf. Their use case is wholesale B2B—think golf courses and pro shops.
Our core approach is prioritizing digital payments that aren’t credit card. So, our primary option is bank login. This allows a customer to log in to their existing bank account to pay the invoice.
This is our pride and joy at Paystand because there are zero transaction fees for payments executed through the bank network. Without going too far into the weeds, we also offer a legacy ACH experience, where the customer enters their account and routing numbers manually.
Lastly, credit card is still an option, but as you can see, there’s a 3% convenience fee automatically added if the customer selects that method. So in this case, a $2,500 invoice would show an additional $75 fee for using a credit card.
We make it clear that they can save $75 by using one of the other two methods—but if they want the SkyMiles, we won’t stop them. We just ask that they shoulder the processing fee.
Todd (15:23)
Max, I’m curious—since we have listeners who can’t see the visual—can this be configured by customer record in NetSuite? Or is it a one-size-fits-all solution?
Max (15:40)
Good question. Merchants have full control over two things.
First is which payment methods are available. Some B2B merchants don’t even want to offer credit card, so they only allow bank login and ACH.
Second is the convenience fee. If you think of it as a carrot-and-stick approach, this is the "stick." A 3% fee is added if they choose credit card. But we also offer the carrot: merchants can give a 1% discount for using bank login or ACH.
So instead of losing 3–3.5% to a credit card fee, the merchant is only giving up 1% for the discount.
Caleb (16:39)
And the percentages—can they be adjusted? Like, what if I want to offer a 2% discount or fee?
Max (16:48)
Yep, absolutely. It can be a percentage or a fixed dollar amount. Some merchants just add $10 or $20 for credit card usage.
And to your earlier point—it’s all configurable by customer record. It’s not one-size-fits-all. If a merchant has legacy customers they’ve worked with for 15 or 20 years, they might be okay covering the credit card fees for them. So yes—percentages, flat fees, surcharges, discounts—all configurable in NetSuite at the customer level.
Caleb (17:31)
So for instance, I could set an attribute that says: for all customers with net 15 or net 5 terms—those who pay quickly—I’ll cover the convenience fee as a benefit. But for net 60 customers, I’ll always add the 3% fee. I can create unique rules per customer.
Max (18:02)
Yep, absolutely.
Caleb (18:05)
Very interesting. So after the customer pays, what happens in NetSuite?
Max (18:16)
Every Paystand payment link references a specific object in NetSuite. So in the case of an invoice, once the payment is executed, we immediately write a payment record to that invoice in NetSuite. That updates the invoice status from "Open" to "Paid in Full."
That’s just step one of reconciliation. Step two is when the funds actually hit the merchant’s bank account. A lot of AR solutions stop after marking the invoice as paid, but Paystand goes further.
When the funds are deposited, we create a native NetSuite deposit record with detailed line items. For example, we’ll say, “We deposited $100K into your account today—here’s a breakdown of which payments to which invoices made up that total.”
The result is a fully reconciled NetSuite deposit record at the end of each business day.
Caleb (19:25)
Okay, so we just walked through the full invoice flow—PDF or email template with a payment link, payment method options, payment record creation, and the full end-to-end process in NetSuite. Let’s pivot real quick to SuiteCommerce or SuiteCommerce My Account. How does it work differently there?
Max (19:51)
I like to think of SuiteCommerce as another medium for merchants to request payment. From Paystand’s perspective, we’re just referencing the NetSuite invoices that already exist in the ERP.
When it comes to something like SuiteCommerce My Account, I see it as a portal where you can provide payment links to your customers. I know Anchor Group works with a lot of My Account users and has done a lot of customization around invoice presentment.
Paystand just plugs in and adds the payment link on the invoice view in My Account, so the customer can pay directly while reviewing their outstanding or historical invoices.
Caleb (20:50)
The main benefit is that everything’s in one portal. The customer can see all open invoices, instead of just one isolated invoice they got via email.
Max (21:01)
Yeah, and I think the biggest thing is invoice history. That’s why a lot of merchants lean toward SuiteCommerce My Account—because of the visibility it offers. If a customer has paid 1,000 or 3,000 invoices over time, they can go back and review that history in the portal. That’s a big benefit for NetSuite users, and one of the reasons I send people Anchor Group’s way.
Caleb (21:29)
So if you’re trying to get more people to use ACH or bank payments instead of credit cards—how are you making money?
Max (21:38)
Great question. I’ll try to keep it short.
The end goal for Paystand is to make money on our subscription. When you think about the different revenue streams for AR solutions or payment processors, there are really a few ways they charge: subscription, transaction processing fees, and one-time implementations.
At Paystand, since we offer a payment rail like bank login that has zero transaction fees, our business model doesn’t rely on per-transaction revenue. Our goal is to get more customers to use ACH or bank login.
We do have a processing tier that’s largely dictated by the volume of revenue flowing through Paystand, and that’s where we aim to earn. This provides a more predictable cost-to-collect model instead of relying on variable percentage-based transaction fees, which have long been the norm in digital payments.
Todd (22:55)
So, Max, wouldn’t that lead to a more predictable operating expense? Since it’s no longer a variable cost, it switches over to a fixed cost?
Max (23:08)
Exactly. Especially when you think about a merchant that historically only accepted credit cards. Credit card rates have never really gone down, so they often plan for the cost to increase as they grow.
Paystand is trying to change that—by helping customers move away from cards and toward more predictable operating expenses. This is especially valuable in the wholesale side of a retail business, for example.
Caleb (23:52)
Interesting. Okay. That was a really good explanation of how Paystand’s revenue model differs from the norm.
Let’s say you’re trying to get someone started with Paystand—what’s the overall strategy to guide their account?
Max (24:13)
I might pass this to Todd. He’s talked with a lot of partners and merchants at the top of the funnel and may have more insight.
Todd (24:26)
Yeah, absolutely.
One thing that’s unique to Paystand is that every client has a one-to-one relationship with a customer success manager. Because this is really a story of adoption. The default expectation for businesses has always been receiving money via credit card or legacy ACH. The idea of a fee-free payment rail that works as fast as a credit card is still new to many.
That’s why we have what we call the “Journey to Zero.” We believe the cost to collect your revenue should ultimately be zero. The customer success manager works with each merchant to roll that out gradually.
Maybe you start with a subset of customers, or tie the rollout to a particular product. It’s flexible and depends on the business, the market, and other variables. But the overall strategy is to move as many customers as possible toward more cost-effective payment methods.
Caleb (25:45)
That makes sense. You're trying to create a strategy to phase out credit cards over time. But you still allow them since you need time to train customer behavior—and in some cases, you won’t be able to change it at all. You still have to accommodate those customers.
Michael (26:09)
There’ve been times here at Anchor Group where we’ve worked with you at Paystand. Caleb, can you walk us through a real-life example of a NetSuite client who became a mutual client and where it worked really well?
Caleb (26:34)
Sure—I’ll start with us, since we use Paystand too. We're in the B2B space, and it’s a very easy process. Installation is simple, implementation is straightforward, and reconciliation is clean. The payment link and payment portal are smooth and fast, which is really useful.
We have several customers on SuiteCommerce and SuiteCommerce My Account, as well as NetSuite services clients. My Account, which is part of SuiteCommerce, is often where users go to pay invoices.
Now, natively in SuiteCommerce or My Account, logged-in users can see invoices, but not necessarily for sub-customers. Also, if you have the multi-subsidiary customer feature enabled in NetSuite, you must assign a primary subsidiary to the customer record. That means when they log in, they’ll only see invoices for that one subsidiary—not across all of them.
That’s one area where we’ve paired with Paystand. If a customer wants to display sub-customer invoices—say, for a business with hundreds of locations—we’ve created extensions in My Account to show all of that. Then Paystand handles the payment process from there.
We’ve also done this for multi-subsidiary customers, where we surface invoices from all subsidiaries in a single checkout experience. The system groups them, but it allows one flow to trigger separate payment records for each invoice.
A lot of our work with Paystand revolves around ensuring clients have access to the full invoice data set before Paystand takes over. My Account is used by many businesses, and with so many customer record structures and ERP setups, the payment experience needs to be tailored accordingly.
Michael (29:30)
Todd and Max, outside of that example, when is the ideal time for a merchant to reach out to you? What needs or conditions make Paystand a great fit?
Max (29:46)
Caleb touched on one great use case: NetSuite OneWorld with multiple subsidiaries. You may have a customer with open invoices tied to several subsidiaries, and from the merchant's perspective, you want to make payment as easy and fast as possible.
You don’t want customers juggling multiple links from different subsidiaries. Another ideal use case is recurring B2B invoicing—like SaaS platforms or manufacturers doing maintenance contracts.
There’s an assumption that auto-pay means saving a credit card on file. That mindset spans B2C and B2B, but Paystand changes that. Let’s say you’ve been doing millions a month in subscriptions with saved credit cards. Paystand allows you to switch to a new payment platform and give customers multiple options to save payment info—like bank login or ACH.
Then, when a new NetSuite invoice is created, Paystand can automatically charge that saved method. That’s a major value-add for recurring billing in the B2B space.
Michael (31:47)
Very real-life use cases. As we wrap up, quick question—tariffs have been a big topic in the news lately. How has that affected your business or your merchants?
Max (32:13)
In terms of daily conversations with merchants, a couple of things come to mind. First, as B2B buyers, there’s been a lot of hesitancy. One day it’s one tariff percentage, the next day it’s another. There are extensions, pauses, and general uncertainty. As a result, many merchants are pausing big investments or decisions until there’s more clarity on the long-term direction.
One specific thing Todd’s talked about is our new Smart Controls feature. Just like we can add a 3% offset to cover credit card fees, Smart Controls let you apply percentage offsets to all payments to help absorb tariff costs.
With some tariffs as high as 100%, merchants can’t just raise prices by 100%—especially if their competitors aren’t doing the same. Smart Controls allow flexibility: different plans for different customer records, or different time periods. You can reflect fluctuating tariffs in how you request payment and share the burden more equitably.
Todd (34:20)
Exactly. The goal is to restore gross margins to pre-tariff levels.
You want to be aware of what competitors are doing and not over- or under-react. Smart Controls give our merchant partners the tools to handle these scenarios intelligently.
Caleb (34:24)
On the topic of tariffs, I’ve been having some different types of conversations with clients. One area they’re looking at is how to either increase sales to offset reduced margins or reduce operational costs.
I think Paystand is well positioned for businesses that are paying a lot in transaction fees. That’s a quick way to reduce overall costs and regain margin. Beyond just passing fees to customers, as you mentioned, switching from a traditional transaction model to a more B2B-focused approach to handle payments is a faster way to recover margin.
Clients, prospects, and customers are really analyzing their balance sheets right now. They’re asking: where can we reduce operational costs? That process takes some consulting, development, and swapping out systems, but there are often easy wins. The ROI can be quick once they begin critiquing their operations and business processes.
Todd (36:20)
Absolutely, absolutely.
Max (36:20)
For sure. One number Todd and I like to reference is this: for every $1 million you accept via credit card, you’re likely losing $30,000 to processing fees—assuming a 3% rate. So if you accept $10 million, that’s $300,000 lost to credit card fees.
As merchants start asking how they can recoup some of those margins, credit card processing fees often become low-hanging fruit—especially when evaluated by customer base.
Caleb (36:57)
That’s really great. Thank you both for sharing your insights and helping us understand what Paystand does. You broke down the value proposition in a really helpful, technical way—not just the high-level fluff. It was great to hear what this actually looks like inside NetSuite, and what it means for the accountant or operator using it. Thanks again.
Max (37:32)
Absolutely.
Todd (37:34)
Yeah, and I was just going to add one more thing real quick.
Caleb (37:34)
Awesome.
Todd (37:36)
Another thing that—on the record—we’ve been working on is a tool that allows merchants to evaluate what their average sale price, buy cost, and unit sales would need to be.
Caleb (37:44)
By the way, you can’t say “off the record” on a podcast—it’s all on the record, just to be clear.
Max (37:46)
[Laughs]
Todd (37:47)
All right, not off the record—on the record. Yeah, obviously.
Michael (37:50)
Yeah.
Todd (37:53)
So, this completely on-the-record tool basically helps merchants determine where they need to be to maintain pre-tariff margins. It’s a toggle-style tool that calculates target sales metrics based on margin restoration goals. That’s something we’re actively developing.
Caleb (38:23)
Okay.
Michael (38:24)
Glad to hear it. Well, Todd and Max, thank you very much for joining us on the Anchor Group Podcast. If someone’s listening and wants to learn more about you or Paystand, where can they go?
Todd (38:39)
Absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn—I’m pretty active on there. It’s Todd Kibisu—T-O-D-D K-I-B-I-S-U.
Caleb (39:01)
Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Max (39:03)
Thank you.
Where to Listen to the Podcast
Find more episodes of the Anchor Group podcast!
Oracle NetSuite Alliance Partner, BigCommerce Certified Partner
As both a BigCommerce Certified Partner and an Oracle NetSuite Alliance Partner, Anchor Group is ready to handle BigCommerce and NetSuite projects alike! Whether you already have one platform and are looking to integrate the other, are considering a full-scale implementation of both platforms, or simply need support with ongoing customizations, our team is ready to help answer any questions you might have! Get in touch!
