From Payment Gateway to Full-Service Processing, PayTrace Has Evolved To Meet B2B Payment Needs

In a Nutshell: What was once a purpose-built payment gateway provider is now a leading full-service B2B payment processor. PayTrace started in the early 2000s as a gateway that brought efficiencies to corporate card programs. Now, as the B2B arm of payment giant North American Bancard, it is a full-stack payment processor with multiple partners and thousands of satisfied clients. The nexus of an ecosystem of integrators, native integrations, and partnerships, PayTrace is a name that mid-market enterprises looking to save time, effort, and money on payments should seek out.

As modern forms of financial technology coalesced around the internet in the early 2000s, PayTrace emerged as a payment gateway able to take advantage of innovation.

It offered cost-effective access to level 2 and 3 processing by investing in development and deftly integrating the additional complexity required. That meant embracing more stringent compliance requirements and catering to a mid-market B2B niche looking to save on corporate card interchange fees.

The company bootstrapped via an indirect sales model, operating entirely in the cloud and offering an open API to developers.

Those smart decisions led to steady growth for about 20 years — an eternity in the payments industry. Then, North American Bancard (NAB) came calling.

NAB, one of the U.S.’s largest credit card processing companies, sought to round out its portfolio with a B2B offering. PayTrace fit the bill as a company that could contribute a loyal client base and leverage enhanced resources.

As NAB’s B2B arm, PayTrace is now evolving into a full-stack provider, drawing on the parent company’s ecosystem and expanding go-to-market strategies accordingly.

That means a broader payment marketplace choice for mid-market enterprises with a base of $10 million or more in top-line revenue and processing around $250,000 or more of credit card volume.

PayTrace maintains its gateway and reseller relationships, but it also reaches the market through partnerships with independent software vendors (ISVs) that incorporate payments into their highly targeted offerings.

North American Bancard’s extensive sales force also connects PayTrace to B2B customers needing robust top-to-bottom payment processing.

Jeremy Boogaart, VP of Product, came to PayTrace after the NAB acquisition to build out its integrated payment strategy. PayTrace is launching and managing native enterprise resource planning (ERP) and ISV integrations.

“We’re becoming the payments source of truth regardless of what business software you’re running,” Boogaart said. “Soon, we’ll be able to go into most companies in the mid-market and operate in those environments.”

PayTrace is becoming more intentional about reaching customers through multiple channels as it expands beyond relationships with independent sales organizations (ISOs) and third-party integrators.

It offers merchant services directly, for example. And it is taking increasing control over the integrations landscape.

“We have a great ecosystem of integrations to many different pieces of business software,” Boogaart said. “What we’re doing now is pulling that all together and maintaining some key integrations ourselves.”

In 2024, PayTrace is launching ERP integrations with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Acumatica, among others.

It undertook native integrations to eCommerce platforms such as BigCommerce, Shopify, and Magento so that any transactions that happen anywhere in a business’s software ecosystem flow through.

Meanwhile, it intends its indirect go-to-market strategy with ISVs to present a more B2B-centric alternative in a market focused on consumer offerings.

“There are a lot of players out there — Stripe being the biggest,” Boogaart said.

Boogaart said Stripe presents seamless tools for recurring payments for digital media and other use cases to simplify software integration. PayTrace is out to do the same thing with B2B.

Business software providers with credit card processing needs can log in, connect to PayTrace, use its API to process payments, and seamlessly integrate them into their customers’ business systems.

“If you’ve got a time tracking system that wants to do charges to customers, not only can we run those bank charges, we can complete those transactions to whatever ERP or finance system the person is using without really lifting a finger on the developer’s part,” Boogaart said.

It’s a set of tools that doesn’t exist elsewhere. Although competitors in the B2B space may pursue integrated payments, many look at integration as a direct sales strategy.

That’s true for PayTrace, and integration also boosts the reseller value proposition. But PayTrace takes a holistic view.

“There are other go-to-markets and angles where this sort of business fabric of payments we’re putting together will be unique,” Boogaart said.

PayTrace works almost exclusively with U.S.-based firms, although that may change as it builds new capabilities. Prime fits are enterprises in that $10 million to $500 million sweet spot.

Initial conversations with interested parties vary according to the sales channel. Sales engineering with end merchants occurs mainly through resellers.

PayTrace can participate in those conversations, but many resellers exclusively undertake onboarding and client management. For PayTrace, managing those relationships is about partner management. Dedicated relationship managers ensure that those partnerships work well.

Sales through ISVs are more consultative. PayTrace’s sales team discusses the many monetization options available to ISVs, including fixed-rate versus cost-plus and pass-through options.

There’s also the task of nailing down processing options: preauthorizations, capturing, and the like.

“Payments can get very complicated, and there are many ways to lose money, so the process with ISVs is technical and designed to ensure ISV customers get the best rates,” Boogaart said. “Those relationships differ from reseller relationships and involve sales engineering, solution documents, gap analysis, and granular detail.”

Either way, PayTrace brings much-needed flexibility to B2B payments. As with consumer-facing businesses, online payments help B2B businesses get paid faster for better cash flow and liquidity. Point-of-sale solutions add to that flexibility.

Features in the PayTrace ecosystem include Trace AR™, which automates accounts receivable with digital invoices and payment links, and TraceACH™, which adds ACH payments.

Virtual terminal services turn laptops, tablets, and mobile devices into simple credit card terminals.

True to its origins, PayTrace’s gateway platform optimizes data fields to provide instant access to interchange savings. It can manage surcharging.

“Our scope isn’t just credit card processing; we’re going to market with a suite of general financial tools,” Boogaart said.

Getting PayTrace’s diverse customer base where it needs to be isn’t a matter of flipping a switch. Bespoke deployments require attention to detail, and PayTrace’s five-star support team repeatedly steps up to be available on demand.

“We lean on our entirely U.S.-based support team as a differentiator,” Boogaart said. “Our service level agreements require us to pick up the phone within three to five rings, and we hit that 98% of the time.”

In the age of AI chatbots and endless call trees, clients find the certainty of human contact refreshing and helpful.

“You call our number, and someone will pick up the phone within seconds — without fail,” Boogaart said.

Online support resources include demo videos, guidance for onboarding merchants, and partner training materials. PayTrace’s YouTube channel comprises a repository of playlists and more than 100 videos. Its blog presents industry and product insights to clients and the public.

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Depending on the deployment, clients save on costs through myriad processes and interchange optimizations. Process efficiencies also save time.

“From embedded payments and the time you save on the collection side to payment links and charges that flow back to the ERP and automatically interact with cash applications and match to invoices, those are huge time savers,” Boogaart said.

Security and compliance are watchwords at PayTrace. Self-service questionnaires, PCI compliance elements, and fraud detection protocols keep data and transactions safe. PayTrace leverages NAB’s work in AI/ML to automate transaction analysis and impose risk holds when needed.

PayTrace’s holistic approach to integration requires market-by-market and product-by-product implementation. The result is a complete product and service package that promises more going forward.

“We bring a lot of elements to the table,” Boogaart said. “The time and attention we pay to the B2B integrated payment space is unique.”