SmartBill Pro
An uninterrupted, smooth billing
experience awaits.
Overview
Why SmartBill Pro?
Let SmartBill Pro do the heavy lifting: It gathers your customers’ latest Card details, authorizes charges, and processes them for settlement – all in one step.
SmartBill Pro also has Cardrefresher capabilities to help ensure transactions use the latest Card details, reducing the chance of declines due to outdated information.
SmartBill Pro benefits
at a glance:
- Direct-connect processing
Lowers operation inefficiencies by streamlining costs associated with tracking Card information. - Uninterrupted billing
Helps reduce declined payments and maintain a more predictable cash flow over time. - Data Security
Eliminates the need to store sensitive Card data with customer account numbers when you bill your customers. - Simplified operations
Lowers admin time with a single step instead of engaging in complicated Card updates and tasks.
How it works
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Send us your customer list with Card information of Amex customers that have established recurring-billing relationships with your business. - Amex will keep the list up to date for you with the most current information.*
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When it’s time to bill, send us a single batch file to authorize and settle. We will send a response file once the transactions are processed. -
Send us a revised customer list when needed to update our system.
*SmartBill Pro processes payments using updated account information when a Card Member agrees for you: 1) to charge his/her account at regular intervals and/or 2) to store his/her account number and charge the account when the Card Member requests a product or service (i.e., “card-on-file”). Card information updates are only available for American Express proprietary issued cards.
SmartBill Pro at work
The scenario
A clothing subscription service faced challenges with late payments, which consumed significant time and disrupted cash flow.
The solution
With SmartBill Pro, the shop improved cash flow and operational efficiency, allowing the owners to focus more on growing their business.
How to get started
Explore the brochure for simple steps on implementing SmartBill Pro.
FAQs
Subscription and “card-on-file” businesses who want to process using batch will benefit from SmartBill Pro. Additionally, any business with long-lived customer lifecycles will benefit from the SmartBill Pro solution – because Card details have a higher probability of changing over time. Key industries include but are not limited to: utilities, insurance, service subscription, gym/club membership, telecommunications, toll booths, B2B suppliers.
SmartBill Pro processes charges in batch format – so this solution is more suited to MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) transactions, subscription or “card-on-file” models which do not require real-time approval for service/product delivery at point-of-sale.
Subscription business models rely on cards-on-file for payment but over time these Card details on file may become “stale” due to expiry date changes, Card number changes and other reasons. If a recurring payment is declined due to card-on-file changes, you will need to contact your customer to get the updated Card details. SmartBill Pro reduces the need to chase down Card details and helps reduce lost revenue because the integrated Card update capability will provide updated Card details in order to improve payment processing.
Recurring transactions often take three separate steps (Card updates, authorization, and submission) to process. American Express SmartBill Pro combines all three steps into one solution which can help optimize your recurring payment processing.
Rather than sending each individual transactions for processing, with SmartBill Pro you use a batch file to send multiple or mass transactions all at once – again improving efficiency for subscription and card-on-file businesses.
SmartBill Pro batch files are uploaded directly to the American Express Secure File Transfer (SFT) portal for processing. There is also the option to integrate server-to-server file transfers to automate processing. By directly submitting to American Express, you bypass third-party intermediaries which may reduce gateway/processing costs and complicated processing technology.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
All products and services may not be available to all merchants.