Our ongoing Intuit Developer Spotlight series is dedicated to highlighting apps designed for QuickBooks users. These solutions increase the efficiency and profitability of small to midsize businesses using the Intuit Developer Platform and support to help them succeed.
Today, we’re putting the spotlight on Payments Powered by Bolt. We spoke with their Chief Marketing Officer Nick Dunse about the app, which was one of the top 10 finalists in the 2018 $100K Small Business App Showdown during QuickBooks Connect in San Jose, CA this past November.
The Genesis of Payments Powered by Bolt
Nick explains that Payments Powered by Bolt “enables users to get their invoices paid online using their preferred payment provider across the world.” His first experience with the company was as a customer himself.
“I was actually a customer and thought the product was great and the people even better, so I joined the team,” he says.
Payments Powered by Bolt works with App developers and merchants in the QuickBooks ecosystem to make getting invoices paid online a reality.
The company, founded in 2014, gives users and Software as a Service (SaaS) companies the ability to connect to the major payment providers so customers can pay online. “Our app enables online payments for QuickBooks invoices by connecting QuickBooks to some of the major payment providers around the world. We record payments back into QuickBooks for easy reconciliation, allow partial payments, and the ability to save cards for quicker processing in the future.”
He goes on to say that users don’t need to use another system as they can insert a payment link in their invoices or emails. From improving cash flow to increasing bookkeeping efficiencies, Payments Powered by Bolt was a definite contender for the App Showdown, where Nick said he and his team learned “simplicity and down-right usefulness go a long way.”
And though they didn’t win, the innovative app provides winning benefits:
- Any app developer in the Intuit ecosystem can embed Payments Powered by Bolt in their software to enable payments
- The app can be used for free
- They’re PCI DSS Level 1 compliant (highest standard for card security)
- Users can get paid from other platforms, such as SalesForce and Zendesk
- QuickBooks Online can be connected to Authorize.net, Braintree, PayPal Business, PayPal Business Pro, SagePay, Stripe, USAePAY, and WorldPay
- Users are notified by email when a payment is made
One five-star reviewer on the apps’ QuickBooks App Store link wrote, “As we are getting busier and trying to run our business, collecting payment is not always easy. We’ve started using Pay with Bolt, which links up with Stripe and QuickBooks Online, and it has taken the stress away from us and is less time consuming. 100% recommend this product. Our clients are happy to pay using their card details without us getting involved. It’s also great for PCI DSS compliance.”
Enable Payments in your application with the Payments by Bolt API
Payments Powered by Bolt makes collecting payment easy, and they’re also committed to making the Bolt integration as simple as possible. App developers need only one API connection to access all of the payment providers. From there, they can then use any of Bolt’s gateways or features without needing to maintain many integrations. They pledge to:
- Make all the gateways present themselves in the same way within your brand
- Provide a consistent feature set from their API
- Give access to all users’ payment gateways
They estimate it will take users approximately 4-20 hours using Bolt’s SaaS Checkout product to embed a PCI DSS compliance payment process into their software product, providing clear and easy-to-follow API documentation to do so.
And they’ve even laid down a challenge based on their ease-of-use: if you can publish your integration within one week, they’ll send you a bottle of champagne.
Integrating with QuickBooks a Priority
A main goal for Payments Powered by Bolt is to help QuickBooks customers get their invoices paid online using QuickBooks, the number one accounting software.
“QuickBooks payments only exists in North America We wanted to enable merchants to be able to connect all other major payment providers around the world to QuickBooks so that they could get their invoices paid online and record their payment automatically back into QuickBooks,” Nick says.
“We also connect QuickBooks to other software and enable invoices to get paid from within those platforms. For example, if your sales team uses a major CRM, they can view their customers’ invoice status and take a payment immediately within that CRM, then update the QuickBooks invoice automatically.”
Throughout the process, Nick says they found working with the Intuit Development team to be a positive experience. “The Intuit team has been extremely supportive and welcoming. They really do see our success as their success. They walk you through the process of getting your app into the marketplace.”
Looking to the Future and QuickBooks’ Role
As they continue to develop their app—using customer feedback as part of their roadmap—Nick shares some of their plans.
“We’d like to be as closely integrated with QuickBooks Online and Desktop as we can so that the experience is a good as possible for merchants and end customers. We are about to release support for QuickBooks Desktop. We will increase the number of payment methods, including ACH, Direct Debit and SEPA, so that merchants can enjoy the lower payment fees these methods allow.”
Continuing their partnership with QuickBooks and the Intuit Developer Ecosystem is a ‘no-brainer’ for the app. Nick feels it’s a strong community and hopes to “become the trusted standard in the ecosystem.”
Emerging Technology Trends for the Payments Business
For those in the payments business, there are some trends Nick says app developers should be paying attention to. He points out that “big data is enabling smarter decisions,” such as assessing the credit score of end customers up front. He also says that statistics show customers are sticking with their preferred payment methods and that new ones are coming on the scene (e.g. crypto-currencies, ‘instant payments’, ‘faster payments’, digital loans). He feels it’s a good idea to be ready and enabled for these payment options.
Blockchain, automation, and chatbots are technology he notes as helping with business efficiency and says the time saved through these tools should be used to improve the customer experience. “Use the time saved to improve the human connections and relationships—which is ultimately what makes business effective.”
Nick and Payments Powered by Bolt take this need for personal connection seriously, as shown in this five-star review, “I’ve used the apps for a few times. It is really easy to set up and convenient to collect payment. There was a technical issue because the invoice contains other language. But the technical supports are very efficient. They solved the problem within 24 hours. They have excellent customer service. I’m thinking about upgrading to a paid account.”
My colleague, Ketaki Gupta, Senior Program Manager at Intuit Developer, shares how we’re excited to be partnering more closely with the team at Payments Powered by Bolt in the coming months: “We recognize that payments are a top need for small businesses. Online Invoice Payments by Bolt launched on Apps.com at the start of 2018, and the app has seen steady user growth ever since. In looking at their user reviews on Apps.com, “great product support” was a big recurring theme, showcasing that they nurture their relationships with their customers and go the extra mile to deliver a fantastic app and service. I am excited about working closely with them and unlocking more success on the Intuit Developer platform.”
The Intuit Developer ecosystem is growing, and we hope you’ll consider being a part of it. Feel free to contact our team with any questions. In the meantime, our next blog in the Intuit Developer Spotlight series will be coming soon.
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