PAYMENTS CONSULTING
Payments consulting.
From strategy to execution.
Build a payment business, launch a product or improve the programme you already run. Clearly Payments brings strategy, payment economics, technology and hands-on execution together around the result you need.
For software companies, fintechs, financial institutions and businesses with a significant payments initiative.
FROM IMPORTANT DECISION TO WORKING PAYMENT PROGRAMME
01
Understand the opportunity
Market, customer needs, economics and constraints.
02
Choose the right model
Product, technology, providers and commercial terms.
03
Make it work
Implementation, launch and operational improvement.
What is the payments decision in front of you?
The right engagement starts with a business problem, not a list of consulting services. We bring the commercial and technical work together so your next decision stands up to scrutiny.
NEW REVENUE
Turn payments into a stronger business
Assess the opportunity, model revenue and costs, and decide how payments should fit your product or business. Leave with a business case, commercial model and practical route to market.
BUILD OR BUY
Choose what to build, buy or partner for
Map the payment stack and compare gateways, acquirers, processors and software partners. Align architecture, integration and provider decisions with your roadmap.
EXISTING PROGRAMME
Find out why the programme is underperforming
Look beyond the headline processing rate. Analyse margins, authorisation performance, operational friction, reconciliation and customer experience, then prioritise the changes that matter.
MAJOR COMMITMENT
Get a clearer view before you commit
Evaluate a vendor contract, partnership, new market or acquisition with payments specialists. Test the economics, dependencies and execution risks before making a long-term decision.
STRATEGY THAT REACHES THE OPERATION
“Clearly Payments gave us the structure to clarify our payments strategy and was instrumental in getting our payment operations optimized.”
Kurtis B, CEO, Red Ram
Payments expertise you can put to work
Engage Clearly for a defined decision or a programme that runs from strategy through launch. The work is shaped around your organisation, the payment opportunity and the decisions your team needs to make.
STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS
Size the market. Build the business case.
Market analysis, opportunity assessment, financial modelling and payment economics. We connect demand, adoption, transaction mix, provider costs and operating costs so you can evaluate margins and growth with a workable model.
PRODUCT AND TECHNOLOGY
Design the payment product and the stack behind it.
Payment product strategy, embedded payments, architecture, build-vs-buy decisions and integration planning. We develop roadmaps and help design, build, integrate and deploy online, mobile and in-person payment solutions.
PROVIDERS AND COMMERCIAL TERMS
Make the provider decision on the full commercial picture.
Vendor sourcing, RFPs, evaluation, procurement and negotiation. Compare capabilities, integration effort, pricing, contract structure and operating dependencies, then negotiate a model that supports your economics.
OPERATIONS AND PERFORMANCE
Make the payment operation easier to run and improve.
Payment data and analytics, reporting, reconciliation, process design and performance analysis. We identify where payment results, margins or service fall short and help implement the improvements.
RISK AND STRATEGIC TRANSACTIONS
Understand the risks before the commitment.
Payments due diligence, M&A support, partnership assessment and market-entry analysis. Bring risk, security, privacy, PCI DSS and regulatory considerations into product, technology and commercial decisions.
EXECUTION AND ORGANISATION
Turn the roadmap into a working programme.
Implementation planning, provider deployment, launch coordination and post-launch optimisation. We help align product, technology, finance, sales and support, including organisational design, change management and payment-programme growth.
From a clear mandate to a working result
Start with the decision, the expected business outcome and who needs to act. Then connect the analysis to implementation, rather than leaving your team with recommendations it cannot use.
01
Define the mandate
Agree the problem, scope, stakeholders and success criteria. Review the current programme, contracts, systems and data.
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02
Make the choices
Test the opportunity, financial model and technical options. Set out the trade-offs and the decisions required.
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03
Execute with your team
Support provider selection, negotiations, integration and launch. Give each workstream clear ownership and a practical sequence.
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04
Measure and improve
Review payment performance, economics and operational results after launch. Turn the findings into the next set of improvements.
CLEARDENT
Payments expertise for a software business
Clearly has worked with ClearDent on payments consulting. It is the kind of engagement we bring to software organisations making important payment-product, commercial and operational decisions.
“Clearly Payments is something special. We’ve worked with a lot of payment companies in the past and we’ve never worked with a friendlier, more customer focused processor before. On top of how great they’ve been to work with, they have helped us save thousands of dollars per year in processing costs.”
Alvin Lin, ClearDent
Adding payments to a software product connects customer experience, provider choices, recurring revenue and support. Our Software & SaaS payment solutions show how those pieces come together.
Specialists in the business of payments
Payments advice is stronger when it connects the commercial model to the technology and the day-to-day operation. Clearly works across merchant acquiring, gateways, processors, software and payment hardware, with strategic and execution experience across North America.
Understand what drives the margin
Model fees, revenue shares, transaction mix and operating costs together. Negotiate provider terms with a clear view of the economics your business needs.
Connect the decision to delivery
Work through the product, integration and operational details with people who understand payment implementation. Align internal teams and external providers around launch.
Our network of dozens of partners serves banks, card companies, transaction processors, payments cooperatives, technology firms and non-banks. The work spans cards, debit, ACH/EFT, P2P and digital-currency payment models.
A focused assessment or a substantial delivery mandate
Building payments into software
Validate the revenue opportunity, compare partnership models, select the technology and providers, and map onboarding, acceptance, reporting and support before launch.
Improving an established payment programme
Follow the payment from customer experience to settlement and reconciliation. Assess acceptance, provider costs, margins and operating effort, then implement a prioritised improvement plan.
Evaluating an investment or strategic partnership
Assess the payment business model, technology dependencies, provider agreements, risk and economics. Give the transaction or executive team a clearer basis for its decision.
Explore Enterprise payments, payment integrations or Clearly’s payment technology for more context. For the consulting engagement, start with the business decision you need to make.
Before we start
What can we hire Clearly to do?
Engage us for payments strategy, a financial model, product and architecture work, vendor selection, negotiation, operational improvement, due diligence or implementation. We agree a defined mandate and deliverables around your business objective.
Can Clearly help with execution as well as strategy?
Yes. We work through provider decisions, programme design, integration, deployment and launch, as well as the strategy and analysis behind them. Your engagement can cover a specific phase or connect the work from business case to operation.
What should we bring to the first conversation?
Tell us what you want to achieve, the decision or problem in front of you, the current payment setup and your timeline. We will discuss the scope, relevant stakeholders and information needed to propose the engagement.
Discuss your payments project
Tell us about the opportunity, problem or decision your organisation is working through. We will connect you with the payments expertise to define the right next step.
Useful starting points: your business, the current payment setup, what needs to change and your timeline.