Frequently Asked Questions

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Why should I use Sage Payment Solutions?

Why should I pay fees to Sage Payment Solutions?

Can I use my merchant account with RBS to process payments through a card terminal in my shop or accept payments through my website?

Can I integrate my web shop with Sage Payment Solutions?

Can I accept payments in different currencies via Sage Payment Solutions?

How do I activate the service?

How do I know that my payments are secure?

How do I protect my business against fraud?

Which card types can I accept through Sage Payment Solutions?

How do I cancel or refund a transaction?

What are the next steps?

To accept payments from your customers you will need to take the following steps:

1. Upgrade to Sage 50 Accounts 2008 to accept payments from your customers.

2. Choose how you wish to settle payments from our different settlement options. You can use your own existing merchant account, or you can set up a merchant account through Sage Merchant Services.

3. Set up our reporting and reconciliation options. This allows you to manage your transactions, reconcile your payments and run transaction reports.

Apply Now to accept payments from Sage 50 Accounts

What is VSP?

VSP is a brand name, standing for Very Secure Payment. It is the name of our Admin area, VSP Admin.

What is a merchant account?

A merchant account is an agreement with a merchant bank that allows you to accept payments by credit and debit card. This is a separate account from your business account and because not all banks are acquiring banks, you can have a merchant account at a different bank from the one where your business account is located. To accept payments through Sage 50 Accounts you will need a mail order/telephone order (MOTO) merchant account.

What does the service do?

The service allows customers to accept credit and debit card payments from Sage 50 Accounts 2008.

Who is it for?

It is for any business who either already accepts card payments or who would like to accept card payments. The two main applications are:

1. To accept payments for sales orders taken via mail order or telephone order.

2. To accept payments for debt collection.

What are the benefits?

Sage Payment Solutions allow you to accept credit and debit card payments quickly and simply from within Sage 50 Accounts. The main benefits are:

Improve your cash flow and speed up your working capital cycle. Debt collection by credit and debit card can be more efficient than accepting payment by cheque.
Fast and easy to use. You can collect payments from Customer Receipts, Bank Receipts, Supplier Refunds, Invoices, Sales Orders and Quotes screens whilst using Sage 50 Accounts.
Reduce manual entries. Once you have accepted a payment, it will be automatically reconciled against the invoice within Sage 50 Accounts.
Competitive and secure payment processing. Sage Payment Solutions offers secure payment processing at very competitive rates.

How does it work?

See a demo of how to accept payments from Sage 50 Accounts.

In key points within Sage 50 Accounts, a 'pay now' button appears at the bottom of the screen once you have activated Sage Payment Solutions.

When you are ready to take a payment, click the 'pay now' button. A screen will open and ask you to confirm that you wish to take a payment.

Once you have confirmed, the solution will ask you to enter your customer's name, billing address and card details.

The solution will submit the details to the bank, and in 2-3 seconds, it will respond to let you know whether or not the payment has been successful.

The payment will then be reconciled into the bank account you have specified.

The payment will appear in your bank account within your usual settlement time, which is usually 3-4 days.

If you want to see further details of the transaction or process a refund, secure online reports are provided to you by Protx, who power Sage Payment Solutions.

I already accept card payments through a terminal provided by my bank. Why should I use Sage Payment Solutions?

If you already have a MOTO merchant account, you need to apply for our payment gateway only service.

Cost saving: Sage Payment Solutions would replace the need for you to use a physical terminal if you only use it for mail order or telephone order transactions so you would not need to pay line rental for your terminal. Please note that you will still need your terminal if you accept payments in a face-to face environment as our solution is currently only for processing mail order/ telephone order transactions.
Competitive payment processing: Our solutions are very competitive and start from just £20 per month with no other charges.
Automatic reconciliation: The advantage of using Sage Payment Solutions is that your payments will be automatically reconciled into Sage 50 Accounts so that you can reduce the amount of manual entries you have to make.
No need to change your banking relationship: You can still keep your existing mail order/ telephone order merchant number with your bank. We work with all the major acquiring banks. You provide us with your merchant number and we will send the card payments to your merchant account.

I don't currently accept payments over the phone, but I would like to start. How do I get started?

If you do not have a merchant account with a bank, you need to apply for our merchant account and payment gateway service. This is a complete solution which provides you with the following benefits:

Competitive payment processing: Our combined merchant account and payment gateway service starts from just £50 per month with no other charges. This means there are no percentage fees to pay.
Use a single provider: There is no need for you to maintain relationships with a number of providers and banks.
Trusted provider: We work with the Royal Bank of Scotland to provide merchant services to our customers which can give you the confidence that your payments are in safe hands.

How much does it cost?

Payment Gateway service:

You will be charged £20 per month including up to 1,000 transactions per quarter.

If you process over 1,000 transactions per quarter, you will be charged 10p per transaction with no other charges.

There are no other fees at all.

To use our payment gateway service, you must have your own mail order / telephone order merchant account with one of the merchant banks we work with.

Merchant Account Service:

You will be charged £50 for up to £2,000 per month and an additional £40 per £2,000 thereafter.

You do not need to have a merchant account with your bank to use this service.

There are no transaction fees, no percentage fees, no annual fees and no additional charges to pay.

Why should I pay fees to Sage Payment Solutions?

If you wish to take payments over the telephone or via mail order you will need to pay fees both to your merchant bank for the costs associated with your merchant account and to your payment gateway for processing the payments.

Sage Payment Solutions provide a payment gateway from just £20 a month, allowing you to process up to 1,000 transactions a quarter. We are one of the most price competitive payment gateways on the market. These fees are in addition to your merchant account charges.

Alternatively, if you apply for an RBS merchant account through Sage Merchant Services your charges will start from just £50 a month for all of your fees, including merchant account and payment gateway charges.

Can I use my merchant account with RBS to process payments through a card terminal in my shop or accept payments through my website?

If you apply for an RBS merchant account through Sage Merchant Services we will set you up with a Mail Order Telephone Order merchant account. This account will allow you to process Mail Order and Telephone Order transactions ONLY.

If you wish to process payments through your website or through a card terminal in a shop you will require a different sort of merchant number and you will need to contact a merchant bank.

Can I integrate my web shop with Sage Payment Solutions?

If you wish to integrate your web shop with Sage Payment Solutions there are various Sage Developers that will be able to help you.

Please visit the Additions Directory for further information.

Can I accept payments in different currencies through Sage Payment Solutions?

Currently, it is only possible to accept payments in GBP through Sage 50 Accounts or in EUR if you are a Sage Ireland customer. The ability to accept payments in different currencies will become available in future releases of Sage 50 Accounts.

How do I sign up?

To apply for the service you need to complete our online application form

You will need the following information to complete the application:

Company details
Your contact information
Your merchant account number if you are applying for our Payment Gateway service
Details of your business turnover and expected card turnover if you are applying for our Merchant Account service
Bank details of where you would like to settle your payments
Bank details to set up a Direct Debit Instruction to pay our fees

How do I activate the service?

Once you have completed the online application form, we will set up an account for you and send you your unique account details via email.

You then need to go into your Sage 50 Accounts software, click on 'Company Preferences' and 'Payment Solutions'

Select 'Enable Payment Solutions' and enter your Vendor ID.

Sage Payment Solutions is now active and you will be able to see the 'pay now' button from key areas within Sage 50 Software.

How do I know that my payments are secure?

Sage Payment Solutions is powered by Protx, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sage. Protx has been certified as level one compliant under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. This means that we comply with the regulations set out by Visa and MasterCard to ensure that card details are kept secure at all times.

No card details are stored within the Sage software at any time, which means that if someone were to access your computer, they would not be able to gain access to your customer's details.

How do I protect my business against fraud?

It is essential that you protect your business against fraudulent card transactions to avoid chargebacks. We support AVS and CV2 checks which check that the billing address and the three digit security code on the reverse of the card match the details held with the bank.

Please read more information about fraud prevention in our merchant advice section.

Which card types can I accept through Sage Payment Solutions?

You will be able to process all of the major credit and debit cards: Visa, Visa Debit, Visa Electron, Maestro, MasterCard, Solo. If you wish to process American Express, Diners or JCB cards you will need to set up an additional merchant number directly through these banks.

How do I cancel or refund a transaction?

You can void and refund transactions through the Protx VSP Admin area that is included in your Sage Payment Solutions account.