Helping Business Clients Make Smarter Payment Processing Decisions With BAMS

Introduction

Running a growing business requires making decisions across everything from forecasting and margins to systems, cash flow, and eventually an exit. Zabella sees that firsthand. Led by Yury Zabella, the San Francisco-based fractional CFO practice runs the finance function for food and beverage, manufacturing, and technology companies with $1M to $30M in annual revenue, helping owners make better financial decisions as they grow.

One area business owners may overlook is how much their payment processing setup affects costs, cash flow, and profitability. Accountants, bookkeepers, and fractional CFOs are often among the first outside professionals positioned to notice those issues.

In this conversation with Zabella, Dimitri Akhrin, President of BAMS, discusses payment processing referral partnerships and the growing role of bookkeepers and accountants assisting with payment processing recommendations for their business clients.

Q1: Dimitri, why are accountants and bookkeepers particularly well positioned to help businesses evaluate payment processing?

Dimitri Akhrin: Accountants and bookkeepers have a perspective that very few other business partners have. They are regularly looking at revenue, expenses, margins, bank deposits, and financial statements. That means they may see the true impact of payment processing costs more clearly than the business owner does.

A merchant might simply see processing fees as another monthly expense. An accountant or bookkeeper may notice that the effective processing cost has increased, that certain fees appear unusual, or that deposits are taking longer than expected.

That makes bookkeepers and accountants assisting with payment processing recommendations a very natural extension of the advisory role they already play.

Q2: What should an accountant or bookkeeper look for when reviewing a client's payment processing expenses?

Dimitri Akhrin: The biggest mistake is looking only at the advertised processing rate. Merchant statements can include interchange, assessments, processor markups, monthly charges, gateway costs, and other fees.

The real question is what the business is paying in total relative to what it processes, and whether its account is structured appropriately for its transaction mix.

There are also opportunities that may not be obvious from looking at the headline rate. A B2B merchant, for example, may benefit from Level 2 or Level 3 processing. Another business may need better funding, reporting, or payment technology.

A knowledgeable payment partner can help identify those opportunities while the accountant or bookkeeper remains the trusted financial advisor to the client.

Q3: How do payment processing referral partnerships work?

Dimitri Akhrin: At their best, payment processing referral partnerships are straightforward. The accountant, bookkeeper, consultant, or other trusted advisor identifies a client who may benefit from having their processing reviewed and introduces them to an experienced merchant services provider.

From there, the payment provider does the specialized work. At BAMS, that means reviewing the merchant's existing processing environment, explaining what we find, identifying potential opportunities, and determining whether there is a better solution.

The referring professional does not need to become a payments expert or take responsibility for servicing the merchant account. They are connecting their client with a specialist who can evaluate an area of the business that directly affects its finances.

Q4: Why can this be valuable for the relationship between an accountant or bookkeeper and their client?

Dimitri Akhrin: Business owners want advisors who do more than record what already happened. They value professionals who can identify opportunities to improve the business.

If an accountant recognizes that a client may be spending too much on credit card processing and connects them with someone who can solve the problem, that creates tangible value.

This is why we see such a strong fit between financial professionals and payment processing referral partnerships. The accountant or bookkeeper already understands the client's financial picture. BAMS brings specialized payments expertise. The business owner benefits from having both working in their respective areas of expertise.

Q5: What should accountants and bookkeepers consider before recommending a payment processing company?

Dimitri Akhrin: Trust is critical because your recommendation reflects on you. I would look at the provider's experience, transparency, support model, technology, and ability to serve different types of businesses.

You also want a partner who approaches the relationship consultatively. Every merchant should not automatically receive the same recommendation. An eCommerce retailer has different requirements from a B2B distributor, hotel, restaurant, or professional services company.

At BAMS, our goal is to understand how each business accepts payments and then determine what actually makes sense for that merchant.

Q6: Where do you see the future of these referral relationships heading?

Dimitri Akhrin: I think businesses increasingly expect their professional advisors to help connect the dots. Accountants and bookkeepers do not need to personally provide every financial service, but they can build a network of specialists they trust.

Payments fit naturally into that model because processing touches revenue, expenses, cash flow, and reconciliation.

For BAMS, payment processing referral partnerships are about creating that bridge. We provide the payments expertise, while accountants and bookkeepers can continue concentrating on their core responsibilities. Done properly, it gives the business owner access to another specialized resource while allowing the trusted advisor to bring additional value to the relationship.

Key Takeaways

Thank you, Dimitri, for explaining why payment processing is becoming an increasingly relevant consideration for financial professionals advising businesses. From food and beverage brands and manufacturers to B2B companies and local retailers, virtually every merchant accepting electronic payments has processing costs that ultimately affect the bottom line.

By developing responsible payment processing referral partnerships, financial professionals, from bookkeepers to fractional CFOs like Zabella, can help connect clients with specialized expertise without having to become merchant services experts themselves. For bookkeepers and accountants assisting with payment processing recommendations, working with an experienced provider such as BAMS can create another opportunity to identify potential savings, improve financial operations, and provide meaningful value to the businesses they serve.