The age of e-commerce and digitalization gave rise to different methods for online payment, such as e-cash, credit cards, contactless payment methods, mobile wallets, etc. These payments occur through various platforms, for example, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Braintree, etc. Online payments are valuable tools used by individuals and organizations as a safe and easy way to make payments via the Internet. Moreover, it also provides an opportunity for technological advances in the world economy. It has also been the leading e-commerce facilitator for the growth of the electronic business. The online payment platforms have achieved expertise, resourcefulness, and lowered fraud rates in the industry.
The number of cash transactions has fallen in recent years as online banking and shopping have become increasingly popular. As a result, because of the sheer diversity of preferences, especially among the various age groups, business types, and technologies, there are more electronic payment systems than before. AffiniPay, a financial technology company, offers industry-specific payment processing capabilities.
What is AffiniPay?
AffiniPay is a financial technology company based in Austin, Texas, founded in 2005 to provide professional services payment solutions. AffiniPay dominated the legal industries through state-of-the-art technology and strategic partnerships with its LawPay solution. It is endorsed and recommended by 50 governmental organizations and more than 60 local and specialty bar associations, and it is available through the American Bar Association’s ABA Advantage Program.
AffiniPay provides payment platforms and gateways tailored to the needs of professionals in the legal, accounting, psychology, and related industries. This platform offers open APIs, unparalleled security, and on-site support to ensure quality experiences for all users. It allows users to schedule repetitive payments and use payment analytics to improve business finances.
Company Profile
Given below is AffiniPay’s company profile.
| Company Name | AffiniPay |
| Website | affinypay.com |
| Founded in | 2005 |
| Founder | Amy Porter |
| Key People | Amy Porter- Founder, Thomas West- CEO, Christian Fedel- CFO, Meg Swanson- CMO. |
| Headquarters | 3700 North Capital of Texas Highway Suite 300 Austin, TX 78746 United States |
| No. of Employees | 180 |
| Revenue | 23.5 million USD |
| Competitors | PayPal, Square, Google Pay, Tipalti, Skrill, Remitly. |
How Does AffiniPay Work?
With AffiniPay, professionals can accept online credit, debit, and eCheck payments while maintaining level 1 compliance. A Level 1 dealer processes at least one million, 2.5 million, or 6 million transactions annually using a credit card accepted by the dealer. It is known as the highest and most stringent security standard. The merchants and service providers with a credit card or cyber-attack must meet level 1 equally regardless of their size or the number of transactions processed, stored, or forwarded.
AffiniPay software is a core technology behind the company’s leading payment brands. More than 50,000 professionals, 48 state bars, and ten national CPA societies, including the American Institute of CPAs and the American Bar Association, have trusted these solutions.
What is AffiniPay Business Model?
AffiniPay extends the support for multiple payment methods, such as credit cards, debit cards, and eChecks, with one-click payment processing, advanced fraud detection, and robust security safeguards. AffiniPay collaborates with professional organizations and software providers, who offer several software solutions, such as management of practice.
In order to accelerate the online payments in large law firms, AffiniPay has acquired ClientPay which is a digital payment solution. Under the agreement, ClientPay will be part of AffiniPay’s brand family, including LawPay, exclusively designed to serve lawyers. LawPay and ClientPay empower large legal and professional services firms to include in their practices credit card, eCheck, or digital wallet processing. ClientPay will also add substantial corporate technology management partnerships to the AffiniPay and LawPay portfolios.
Large companies have specific payment requirements which require solutions built by an industry that securely integrates their current practice management and accounting software and ensures the processing and personalized customer support of significant transactions. LawPay and ClientPay offer the following benefits to the legal payments market:
- Secure integrations for the presentation of electronic invoices and payment with the business management providers of the industry;
- Customized solutions teams to integrate in order to meet the needs of large companies;
- Payment Card Industry (PCI) payment options, enabling ClientPay clients to benefit from the proactive PCI compliance team of AffiniPay;
- Enterprise security, threat management, access management, and privacy engagement;
- Dedicated customer success team designed with calls within 20 seconds for professionals;
- Integration of legal technology.
AffiniPay has launched the integration with BQE CORE software so that the company is able to provide contactless payment solutions for all BQE Software customers. With this integration, the BQE CORE customers are able to process payments digitally including the processing of debit, loan, and ACH/eCheck transactions seamlessly. BQE is the leading accounting and project account software provider for the architectural and engineering sector with growing accounting and legal practices.
By understanding the unique requirements of various verticals, AffiniPay offers payment processing capabilities that work perfectly in its existing business workflows and practices. The company designs online payment solutions for the industry for legal, accounting, medical and association sectors. AffiniPay enables professionals to offer their consumers a seamless experience that allows them to pay on an easy-to-use platform. AffiniPay also supports multiple methods of payment like credit cards, debit cards, and e-checks.
How Does AffiniPay Make Money?
AffiniPay is an independent sales organization that assists professional trade associations with online credit card transactions. It has created a solution specifically tailored to the legal and accounting industries.
AffiniPay has successfully completed two rounds of fundraising. The company secured the latest source of funding from a secondary market round on 25 February 2020. The company has the backing of two investors, which include TA Associates and Great Hill Partners.
According to BuiltWith, AffiniPay is actively using 41 technologies on its website. SPF, Font Awesome, and Google Apps for Business are just a few of the options. Moreover, AffiniPay uses 31 G2 stack technologies, including HTML5, Google Analytics, and jQuery. Therefore, the profit earnings from these websites go to AffiniPay. The profit depends on the traffic generated on each website. Also, there are social platforms like Facebook, Instagram through which AffiniPay has earned a lot.
AffiniPay offers CPACharge for certified public accountant (CPA) firms, a solution that provides a range of payment options and ensures compliance with PCI. Whenever AffiniPay receives payments, it deposits the entire amount on behalf of its professional customers on the same day and calculates processing fees monthly. The solution simplifies the invoice and reconciliation process matching, as customers receive the total sum directly deposited in their bank accounts. AffiniPay also offers a payment solution for non-profits and associations, with multiple methods for accepting payments, reporting and reconciliation, and state-of-the-art data security. The solution includes credit card credit and payment support for dues, registrations for events, donations, and much more.
AffiniPay also extends its portfolio of solutions and staff to serve a broader range of verticals. The new solution range of the company will meet the unique requirements of several verticals. From a technological point of view, AffiniPay focuses on improving the end customer experience, both in terms of payment instruments and increasing the number of possible integrations into company systems. In addition, one of the advantages of owning the underlying technology stack is that it enables AffiniPay to measure customer requirements and adapt the solution to business practices and workflows. AffiniPay transforms the way professionals get paid with its dedicated solutions.
What are the Benefits of AffiniPay?
The choice of AffiniPay over another payment processing system has several advantages.
- No monthly charge
- Only 2.9% + $.30 per transaction (3.5% + $0.20 per American Express transaction)
- Payments get transferred within 48 hours to users’ bank account.
- Customers don’t get sent to another payment site.
- Users can make recurring payments (including scheduled payments).
- Recurring donations are supported (including previously authorized donations).
Conclusion
To summarise, electronic payment systems have facilitated monetary transactions and even enabled credit-based financing of everyday purchases. A person can transfer payments from a cost center to a key competitive advantage for their business with a solid electronic payment system. It can also save his time and expenses.
Another advantage of using an electronic payment system is that it provides increased security, faster payments, and premium facilities. As a result, online payment systems like AffiniPay and Bitcoin gain popularity, but a virtual economy has still many questions and considerations. There will, however, always be a risk of identity robbery, market euphoria, and privacy issues.
Moreover, history has shown that new technology can produce irrational exuberance, leading only to overvalued securities and a financial collapse eventually. New financial technology isn’t yet perfected, however, and can be very expensive. But financial technology can be the key to managing money with new innovations and proper use.
