With identity theft rampant in today's internet, security continues to become more and more important. A common practice of merchants is to use a USB swipe reader, plugged into a computer. The merchant then swipes the consumer's card, which sends it through the USB card reader, into the computer, and to a database, point of sale system, payment gateway, or some other processing software. Originally, this wall done in a keyboard emulator mode - basically in clear text. Not very secure at all. Later, HID mode was introduced, which hid the swiped data a little better, but it was still unencrypted and extractable. With MagTek's Magnesafe card readers, the card date is encrypted at the head before it is transmitted. Using the NELiX TransaX Payment Gateway, you can send in your Magnesafe encrypted data. We decrypt on our end and process the payment. Process swiped transactions securely and easily, and maintain PCI complaince! More information on the NELiX TransaX Payment

It's been a long time since I've blogged about QuickBooks, but it's still one of our strongest offerings. And now, we've added what we feel is an unbelievable new feature to our QuickBooks module. In addition to being able to run credit card and ACH / E-Check transactions out of QuickBooks, and in addition to our powerful Batch Mode, and the swipe and remote deposit capture / check conversion features, we now have a powerful gateway sync module! That's right - you heard me! Now you can process transactions from anywhere! processed through iTransaX , our iPhone / iPod / iPad applications, processed through your website, processed from your Microsoft Access or FileMaker database, processed through the virtual terminal, etc. You can process transactions from anywhere! Then, open your QuickBooks file, and click a button and viola! All of your transactions are recorded in QuickBooks. This process accounts for all transaction types - Sales, Refunds, Credits, Voids

It's that time of year again! MWAA summer meeting - the annual meeting of the Midwest Acquirers Association. All of our friends and colleagues will be attending. The Keynote speech is by the founder of Twitter and Square. I'm personally very excited to sit in on that session. The best part about MWAA this year? It's across the street from our offices! I knew, years ago, when the Schaumburg Convention Center went up, it would eventually pay off, and here it is! A convention I don't have to travel for! I hope to see you there!

The Software as a Service (SaaS) model is a model that is becoming more and more popular. A software vendor will develop a system that they will host, but let other companies use. For example, let's say a development firm creates an e-commerce package specifically designed for companies that sell educational games. This SaaS developer will allow merchants to license their software. The SaaS developer hosts, maintains and upgrades the software. Licensing structures may include a monthly fee as well as per transaction fees. Per transaction fees may come in the form of a percentage or fixed per transaction amount. There are unique complexities to the SaaS providers billing needs. Each of their merchants must be able to accept payment from their customers, but the SaaS provider must also collect from their merchants. Licensing structures may vary from merchant to merchant, and even transaction to transaction. Additionally, returns / refunds can complicate the billing process.

I just finished arranging our travel to FileMaker DevCon 2010 in San Diego this year! We're very exciting to be attending. Our focus has always been on working with the development community to help enhance their product and service offerings to their client with respect to payment processing. At the same time, we add a new source of revenue to the developer's business. FileMaker has been an application that our developers have had experience with way back since FileMaker Plus! Wow, that seems so long ago - 20+ years! FileMaker has been around for a long time, and with good reason. It's an extremely powerful, yet easy to use database. NELiX TransaX has developed tools to help developers integrate credit card and ach / e-check payment processing into the applications they build. This allows the developer to provide additional services to their customer, and perhaps bill additional development hours for providing those services. At the same time, the developer's