Embedded payments for software platforms

Embedded payments show up wherever your customers already do business. A member updates a subscription and pays without leaving the app. A patient settles a balance from a text message. A customer joins a monthly plan at a kiosk. A resident pays rent from the portal they already use. A field technician collects payment on a phone between jobs. A student pays tuition from the school portal. In every case, payments are part of the software, not an afterthought bolted on beside it.

Adding payments inside your product is a product decision and a business decision at the same time. Three things tend to drive it:

A better customer experience. When customers pay inside the software they already use, there is no redirect, no re-entry of details and no second account to manage. Checkout friction drops, and so does abandonment.

Stickier relationships. A platform that handles a customer's payments is harder to leave. The payment data, the recurring billing and the reporting all live in one place the customer already trusts.

A new revenue line. Every transaction carries economics. With a payments program, some of that economics stays with the platform instead of flowing entirely to an outside processor.

The companies that move earliest usually have the best experience to learn from, and the most runway to turn that learning into a revenue stream that grows with the platform.

Redirected checkout is a perfectly reasonable place to start. Embedded payments are where most platforms end up when payments become a core part of the product.

Embedding payments means more than a payment form. Someone has to onboard and approve each merchant, monitor risk, handle settlement, keep card data protected and meet card network and banking requirements. Platforms have three broad options:

1. 1Refer customers to a payments partner. Fast to start, with limited control and revenue.
2. 2Use PayFac-as-a-Service. Offer payments under your own brand while a partner handles the underwriting, risk and compliance infrastructure. This is what linq provides.
3. 3Become a registered payment facilitator. Maximum control, with the full operational and compliance burden.

See info on building versus buying.

Embedded payments are more than a checkout button. A complete program covers the full lifecycle of a merchant on your platform:

• Merchant onboarding that fits inside your signup flow, with KYC, KYB and underwriting decisions handled behind the scenes.
• Underwriting and risk monitoring that keeps your platform and the card networks protected, without your engineers running a risk department.
• A payment gateway with tokenization and hosted fields for card-not-present and card-present payments.
• ACH and bank payments alongside cards, so customers can pay the way that fits their business.
• Settlement and funding so each merchant gets paid on schedule and knows where their money is.
• Recurring billing and saved payment methods for subscriptions, memberships and installment plans.
• Reporting and reconciliation across every merchant, every channel and every payment type in one place.
• Chargeback and dispute handling, with the workflow and evidence your platform needs to respond.
• Support for your merchants and your team, so questions land with people who know payments, not a generic help desk.

Card data is the most sensitive thing most software ever touches, and it is also the part customers worry about least when checkout just works. The way you integrate shapes both the experience and the security burden. Hosted payment fields and tokenization keep raw card numbers off your servers, which keeps your PCI scope narrow and your audits shorter. The token, not the card, is what gets stored and reused for future charges. We help you choose the integration shape that protects your customers and your team at the same time.

Every card transaction carries an interchange fee set by the card networks, plus a margin that the processor keeps. When you run a payments program through a partner like linq, part of that margin can flow back to your platform. The structure depends on your volume, your merchant mix and how the program is set up, but the pattern is the same: as your platform's payment volume grows, so does the revenue it earns from it. We are upfront about the economics before you commit, so you can model the opportunity the same way we do.

Embedded payments fit any software platform whose customers take payments from their own customers. The model is the same whether your customers run gyms, clinics, car washes, property portals, schools, field services, professional services, ecommerce stores, nonprofits, events, travel businesses or something we have not named yet. The mechanics of onboarding, underwriting, processing and settlement do not change from one vertical to the next, which is why linq works across so many of them. See who we serve.

A program you can grow into. Start with a referral, move to PayFac-as-a-Service, and keep the door open to more control later, without re-platforming each time.

Underwriting and risk handled for you. The partner should carry the compliance load, not hand it to your engineers.

A gateway you control. Tokenization, hosted fields and reporting should feel like your product, under your brand.

Support that knows payments. When a merchant has a question, it should reach people who understand the program, not a queue that escalates for a week.

We work with software companies at every stage: choosing the right model, planning the integration, onboarding your first customers and improving the program over time. Our payment gateway, ACH, merchant onboarding and underwriting tools work together, so you are not assembling a payments stack from separate vendors. We have helped businesses accept payments since 2004, and we bring that experience to every conversation before you commit to anything.