SOFTWARE & SAAS PAYMENTS
Embed Payments Into Your Software Platform
Turn the payments your customers already process into a new source of recurring revenue. Build payments into your product with Clearly’s APIs, merchant onboarding and online + in-person payment capabilities.
Talk to Our Embedded Payments TeamBuilt for SaaS companies, ISVs and software platforms serving merchants in Canada and the United States.
YOUR PRODUCT. CONNECTED PAYMENTS.
Your software platform
The experience your customers use to run their business.
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Clearly Payments
Onboarding · Online payments · Terminals · Stored payments · Funding · Reporting
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Your payment-enabled customers
Merchants collect payments. Your platform participates in the payment economics.
Build a payments business alongside your software business
Your software already helps customers book appointments, manage orders, send invoices or run a location. Embedding payment acceptance connects the transaction to that workflow and gives your platform a commercial role in the payment activity.
Clearly helps you structure a payment programme in which your platform participates in processing economics. Your customers activate payments, accept transactions and receive their funds. Your platform earns payment revenue under your commercial agreement with Clearly.
Growth comes through payment adoption and ongoing usage, not just the number of software accounts you sell. As more customers activate payments and process more volume, the opportunity grows alongside your SaaS revenue.
We work through merchant pricing, programme costs, revenue participation and reporting with you. You get a model your finance team can evaluate without guessing at a percentage taken from someone else’s programme.
Discuss Your Payments Revenue StrategyILLUSTRATIVE PLATFORM VOLUME
500 active merchants
× $40,000 monthly processing per merchant
$20 million
in monthly payment volume
This is an illustration of processing volume, not platform revenue or a promised result. Your payment revenue reflects the agreed commercial terms, processing costs and actual merchant activity.
Make payments part of the product your customers stay for
Keep the work and the payment together
Let a customer pay an invoice, settle an appointment or complete an order inside the experience your merchant already uses. The payment status returns to the workflow instead of leaving staff to match a separate processor receipt.
Give customers more reasons to use your software
Payment collection, repeat billing and useful transaction records make your product more central to day-to-day operations. Merchants get fewer disconnected tools. Your platform gains a deeper customer relationship and another way to create value.
Clearly’s embedded-payment infrastructure is already used by software platforms to bring payment acceptance directly into their products.
Turn software customers into active payment merchants
An integration only becomes a payments business when merchants start processing. Clearly helps you build a repeatable path through application, verification, merchant-account setup and activation, with a clear handoff between your software and the payments team.
01
Apply
Collect business, ownership and banking details.
02
Review
Complete underwriting and business/identity checks.
03
Activate
Configure the merchant account and payment channels.
04
Start processing
Connect the live account to the software customer.
Keep activation connected to your experience
Use branded application journeys and onboarding API connections to bring merchant signup closer to the product. Map your customer record to the payment application so the team can follow progress, request missing information and help a merchant reach activation.
Your product controls the invitation, context and next steps. Clearly coordinates the payment application, underwriting process and account setup. Required checks remain part of onboarding; submitting an application is not the same as approval.
Make adoption an ongoing programme
Start with a group of merchants who fit the first payment workflow. Use their activation and support experience to refine the rollout before expanding across the customer base.
Plan the merchant communications, account connection, device deployment and first transaction together. A clear activation process reduces abandoned applications and helps customer success explain why switching on payments is worthwhile.
Choose how deeply payments sit inside your product
Clearly supports hosted checkout, embedded payment components and direct API integration. Choose the collection experience around your product, development resources and card-data responsibilities. The strongest integration is the one your team can launch, operate and grow.
Hosted checkout
Connect an order or invoice to a branded Hosted Payment Page. Card details are collected on the hosted payment surface, giving your team a practical route to online acceptance with less payment-entry infrastructure to maintain. Explore Hosted Payment Pages.
Embedded payment entry
Use hosted payment fields or an embedded checkout experience to keep payment entry within your software. The payment service handles sensitive collection while your product manages the surrounding journey and result.
Direct API control
Use the payment API to connect transaction creation, authorization, capture, status and refunds to your business logic. Your team gains deeper workflow control and designs the security and operational boundaries with Clearly. Understand payment API integration.
Brand the checkout and activation journey so payments feel like part of your product. We also plan receipts, merchant communications and payment descriptors around the account structure and required disclosures. Your platform’s brand stays central without hiding who the merchant is or what the customer is paying for.
Connect the entire payment lifecycle, not just the pay button
A production integration needs to handle what happens before and after an approval. Clearly connects transaction controls and payment results with the orders, bookings and accounts your software manages.
01
Merchant ready
Use the activated merchant account.
02
Collect or tokenize
Capture the payment method through the chosen flow.
03
Authorize
Request approval for the amount.
04
Capture
Complete the sale or capture an earlier authorization.
05
Update the product
Record the result and transaction reference.
06
Settle & reconcile
Connect processing activity with deposits and fees.
Give teams the controls they actually need
Create a sale, authorize now and capture later, void an eligible transaction or issue a full or partial refund. Tie each action to the original payment reference and the user’s permission in your software.
Look up transaction status before retrying an uncertain request. Your application can distinguish an approval, a decline, a timeout and an unsettled transaction rather than treating every response as “paid” or “failed”.
Keep payment status in step with your software
Use payment responses, transaction lookups and webhook/event connections to update the relevant order or account. A browser return or a customer closing a window is not reliable evidence that funds have been collected.
Clearly helps your team secure payment notifications, handle repeat delivery and recover after a timeout. Reliable event handling keeps payment status accurate in your software, even when a connection is interrupted.
One payment relationship across online and in-person workflows
Vertical software often serves businesses with both a website and a physical location. Give those customers payment options that work together: online checkout, invoices, payment links, phone payments and integrated terminals.
With semi-integrated payments, your software sends the amount to the payment device and receives the result. The terminal handles card entry. Staff do not have to rekey the total or manually attach a separate terminal receipt to the software transaction.
Choose countertop, portable, wireless or mobile acceptance around the merchant’s environment. Support chip, contactless and digital-wallet payments at reception, a counter, a table or a service location.
Explore payment terminals · Mobile payment acceptance · How semi-integrated payments work
Connect the payment device to the workflow your merchant already uses.
01
Your software
Sends the payment amount and reference.
02
Payment terminal
Collects the guest or customer’s card or wallet payment.
03
Payment result
Returns to the software transaction.
04
Merchant records
Connect the sale with settlement and reporting.
Build repeat payments into the customer relationship
Use tokenized card-on-file to support subscriptions, agreed payment schedules, deposits and later authorized balances. Your application works with a reusable payment reference instead of keeping raw card numbers in customer records.
A recurring workflow needs more than a calendar. Record the customer’s agreement, use the correct stored-credential indicators, handle cancellations and make payment status visible to the merchant. Clearly helps connect those payment controls to the product experience.
Account updater refreshes eligible stored credentials when participating issuers provide new card information. That helps reduce avoidable expiry-related failures. A failed payment can also lead to a new payment link or a request to update the payment method, rather than an invisible billing problem.
Give merchants a way to collect outside checkout
Some payments begin with an invoice, a phone call or a balance owing. Add invoicing and online invoice payments, pay-by-link or a Virtual Terminal to the merchant’s payment toolkit.
Keep the payment connected to the invoice, customer or booking reference. Your software can show what was paid and what still needs attention, reducing manual collection work and giving merchants more reasons to use the payment tools.
Give your engineering team a clear route to production
Clearly provides a production payment API, sandbox testing and technical integration guidance. We work with your team on the interfaces, credentials, environments and payment flows needed for the product you are building.
Design the boundaries first
Clearly helps your team map merchants, accounts and user permissions so each customer has the right access. We plan the card-data boundary with you, keeping server credentials out of browser code and test access separate from production. Your developers get a clear security design to build around.
Test the difficult paths
Our integration guidance helps your team test approvals, declines, refunds, cancelled payments and interrupted requests, including duplicate actions and webhook handling. Checking transaction references, settlement records and connected terminals before rollout helps prevent payment issues from reaching your merchants.
Get the right integration materials
Get API documentation, relevant code samples, test access and implementation tools for your chosen payment products. Clearly works with your team on notification security, retries and recovery so developers can build and troubleshoot the connection with confidence.
Support Canadian and US merchants with one payment partner
Clearly supports software platforms serving merchants in Canada and the United States. Plan Canadian and US merchant onboarding, payment acceptance, CAD and USD requirements, devices and reporting with a team that understands both markets.
Canadian in-person acceptance can include Interac debit alongside credit cards and digital wallets. Build the method mix around the merchant’s country, account and transaction channel rather than presenting one identical checkout for every use case.
Separate customer choice from merchant settlement
Accept international cards and build the currency experience around your customer base. Multi-currency payments and Dynamic Currency Conversion serve different purposes, so plan pricing currency, payer choice and settlement together.
We map the merchant’s entity, banking and funding requirements during programme design. Serving merchants in both countries does not require your software company to improvise a cross-border funds flow.
Explore online payment options · Understand DCC and currency choice
Reduce sensitive-data handling. Keep responsibilities clear.
Build the collection model around tokenization, hosted payment entry and encrypted device flows. The goal is to keep unnecessary card data out of your application while giving merchants a secure, usable way to accept payments.
A smaller card-data footprint
Hosted collection and tokenization can reduce PCI DSS scope by keeping raw card details away from your servers. Point-to-point encryption supports protected terminal capture. The scope reduction depends on the validated solution and the payment environment. Clearly provides managed PCI compliance support and helps map the remaining platform and merchant responsibilities. Read about PCI responsibilities.
Protect the payment and support the exception
Combine AVS, CVV checks, 3DS2 and fraud controls with your order and customer context. Preserve the records needed for refunds and chargeback responses. Clearly’s payment support helps merchants address disputes while your software keeps the related transaction and customer activity connected. See what supports a chargeback response.
Your team remains responsible for securing its application, access and customer data. We agree the operating responsibilities during integration so the merchant, platform and payment teams know who handles each issue.
Operate a merchant portfolio without losing the transaction detail
Connect each payment account to the correct software customer, location and permissions. Give merchants visibility into their own activity while your team manages the platform payment relationship and activation programme.
Use transaction and settlement reporting to connect sales, refunds, fees and deposits. Reconciliation should explain the difference between a sale being approved, a batch settling and money arriving in the merchant’s bank account.
Agree the reporting access and data connections your finance and support teams need. Include payment revenue reporting in the programme design so processing volume and the platform’s earnings are not confused.
Know who handles the money questions
Merchants receive funds through their agreed payment-account setup. Funding schedules and any account-specific conditions are established through onboarding. The software platform’s revenue participation is a separate commercial arrangement.
Clearly handles payment-account and processing support with your team, including funding questions, payment issues and dispute escalation. Your customer success team has a defined payment partner rather than becoming the default destination for every settlement problem.
Launch deliberately. Expand with your merchants.
01
Plan
Map workflows, countries, economics and responsibilities.
02
Build & test
Implement collection, transactions and account connections.
03
Pilot
Activate an initial merchant group and verify operations.
04
Grow
Expand onboarding, channels and payment adoption.
Already processing with another provider?
Start with the merchant portfolio, payment contracts, devices and current integration. Plan a phased transition with clear merchant communications and a pilot before moving the wider base.
Bring your stored-payment setup with you when the existing vault and receiving platform support an authorised secure transfer. Clearly plans credential migration with your team. If a credential cannot move, we help plan how customers update their payment method so the transition stays clear.
Build the programme as well as the integration
Clearly brings payment integration, merchant onboarding and ongoing processing support together. Your team can focus on the software and the merchant relationship while we work through payment operations and the launch plan.
Timing follows the payment flows, account approvals, terminal testing and engineering work. We define milestones with your team so business, product, engineering and customer success share the same launch expectations.
A payment partner for the product and the business behind it
Choose Clearly when you want more than a gateway connection. Build an embedded-payments programme that joins the commercial model, merchant activation, online and in-person payments, implementation and ongoing service.
Make the economics work for both sides
Evaluate merchant acceptance costs alongside your platform’s revenue opportunity. Clearly’s pricing options and Cost Analysis & Optimization help frame a payment proposition merchants can understand and your finance team can assess.
Connect the software to real merchant operations
Serve payment workflows in retail, hospitality, healthcare and professional services. Explore our existing integration portfolio as context for the payment systems and business workflows Clearly supports.
Build around your vertical, merchant countries and payment channels, with an integration and commercial plan agreed directly with Clearly.
Embedded payments questions, answered
What are embedded payments for a SaaS platform?
Embedded payments make payment acceptance part of the software experience. Your merchant customers can collect payments through workflows such as checkout, invoices, appointments or in-person sales. Clearly supplies payment processing and the integration and onboarding capabilities that connect those transactions to your product.
How does our software company earn payment revenue?
Your platform participates in payment economics under its agreement with Clearly. The opportunity depends on merchant activation, processing activity, pricing and programme costs. We work through the commercial model with your team. Processing volume is not the same as platform revenue, and no fixed earnings are implied.
Can customers pay without leaving our software?
Yes. Embedded payment entry and API integrations can keep the transaction within your product experience. Hosted checkout is also available when a separate hosted payment surface is the better route. We choose the integration around your product and the card-data boundary you want to maintain.
Who handles merchant onboarding and underwriting?
Clearly coordinates the payment application, verification, underwriting process and account setup. Your platform can connect branded signup and onboarding workflows to the customer journey. Required information and approval remain part of the process; an application does not guarantee activation.
Can we combine online payments and payment terminals?
Yes. Clearly supports online and integrated or semi-integrated card-present acceptance. Connect the payment amount and result to your software while the terminal handles card entry. Plan devices, payment methods and rollout around the merchants and countries you serve.
Do you support subscriptions and recurring payments?
Yes. Use tokenized stored credentials for authorized recurring payments, subscriptions and agreed schedules. Connect billing status, cancellations, failed payments and payment-method updates to the customer record. Account updater helps keep eligible stored credentials current.
Can we serve merchants in Canada and the United States?
Yes. Clearly supports platform payment programmes for Canadian and US merchants. We plan onboarding, merchant accounts, currencies, payment methods, banking and devices around each market. The merchant’s acceptance and settlement setup is established during programme design.
Does an embedded integration remove our PCI responsibilities?
No. Hosted collection, tokenization and encrypted devices reduce direct exposure to card data and can reduce PCI scope. Your platform still needs secure application design and appropriate controls. Clearly provides compliance support and helps define responsibilities for the chosen integration.
Can we migrate an existing merchant portfolio?
Yes. We review your current accounts, integration, devices and stored payment credentials, then plan a controlled rollout. Token transfers require a supported secure process between payment environments. Merchant communications and payment-method updates are planned where needed.
What should we bring to the first technical conversation?
Bring your software workflow, merchant countries, current payment setup, expected adoption, payment channels and engineering requirements. We will discuss the commercial model, API and sandbox access, onboarding, reporting, security and the steps to a production launch.
Build your next revenue stream into your product
Tell us what your software does, who your merchants are and how they take payments today. We will help you shape the payment experience, integration and commercial programme around the business you want to build.
Talk to Our Embedded Payments Team