7 Ways to Lower Your Merchant Fees

Here are a few simple steps to streamline the way you track your daily business expenses. Many merchants struggle to keep finances in order. Small business owners tend to wear multiple hats — from operations to HR, marketing and finance. There’s a lot to take care of, and it’s easy to understand why financial admin can slip to the bottom of the pile. Yet there are lots of good reasons why you should be tracking your business expenses. Aside from reducing the cognitive overload come tax time, keeping on top of your expenditure can you better manage cash flow and make informed, profit-building decisions for your business. Read on to discover some small steps you take as part of your day-to-day routine to keep on top of your business expenses. 1. Store your receipts properly Maximise your deductions at tax time by being diligent with retaining and documenting your receipts — your accountant will thank you. Keep your paper receipts in order by recording them in your accounting software, and then storing them systematically in the event of an audit. If you have a lot of paper receipts, consider converting them into digital formats (either by taking a photo or scanning them) to save on storage space, and prevent your receipts from fading or deteriorating over time. Alternatively, ask vendors to send you digital receipts via email or SMS — which is a money saver for them, and a space saver for you. Store your digital receipts securely, so that you can retrieve them as required. Just make sure that your system is backed up to avoid any heart-dropping mishaps. Most accounting software has the ability to attach the electronic receipt to the entry in your ledger, which makes it easy to search and retrieve the receipt as required. Zeller Dashboard tracks expenses in real time, and has a handy search function so that you can find specific transactions when you need them. 2. Open a separate business account Maintain a clear line between your personal spending and your business expenses by opening a separate business banking account — it’s one of the easiest ways to keep an eye on your spending. There are many good reasons why having a separate account is good for your business; it saves time, makes reconciling your expenses simpler, and it gives you greater visibility of what’s happening with your finances. It also means that you don’t have to explain your personal spending decisions to your accountant — or anyone else — come tax time. 3. Let accounting software do the heavy lifting Modern accounting software is more than a spreadsheet, it’s a complete system designed to keep you on track financially and save time. As such, there are many tasks that can be automated to reduce the amount of time you spend on bookkeeping. Most cloud accounting systems have the ability to connect directly with your bank feed, which updates your financial transactions in real time, and makes reconciling expenses a lot easier. Set aside a regular time each month, or more often if you have a lot of transactions, to go through your records and reconcile your expenses. If you use an expense tracking app throughout the day, your accounting software will intuitively match your bank records to the entry, and you’ll have minimal work to do. If you need help deciding which accounting software will meet your accounting requirements, read How to Choose The Right Accounting Software For Your Business . 4. Review your suppliers annually Brush up on your negotiation skills and you could save a few dollars. While some expenses may appear to be set in stone, in reality, there is usually room to negotiate to get a better deal for your business. Utility companies update their plans and pricing on a regular basis, so make it a priority to contact them every year to see if you’re on the best plan for your needs. Also consider bundling services, like your work phone and internet, to get a better deal and save. Loyalty can go a long way when it comes to negotiating with suppliers. If you’ve been trading with someone for a long time, keep an open dialogue with them about your needs. Most small business owners are prepared to be flexible in order to keep a loyal customer. And remember, not all negotiations have to be about money. You might not be able to barter on the price point, but you might be able to secure faster delivery at no extra cost — which may not save you money, but will save you time. When it comes to automatic contract renewals, make a diary note to review your contract two to three months before the renewal is due. This will give you time to advise your supplier if you find a better deal, and choose not to renew. Another approach is to negotiate the terms at the beginning of the contract. If a contract calls for automatic renewal, ask your vendor for an amendment to the terms giving you the option, not the obligation, to renew your contract within a window of time. 5. Wherever possible, fix expenses Expenses fall into one of two categories: fixed or variable. Fixed costs remain the same, irrespective of your volume of business. This may include things like rent, plant or machinery purchases, business registrations and insurance. The benefit of fixed costs is that they can be anticipated, and the expense accounted for. In contrast, variable costs can change depending on business needs, and may include labour, raw materials and utilities. While variable costs offer flexibility, they can also put your business at risk of overspending if not managed appropriately. Purchasing equipment or machinery outright is one way to fix your costs. Leasing tools can make it easier to get up and running, but will likely cost you more in the long run. By investing in your own equipment, you can reduce ongoing payments, which is good for your business cash flow. 6. Reduce your reliance on invoices For some industries, preparing and sending invoices, and giving clients payment terms, is regular practice. However, relying on invoices can mean a delay in getting your money. Reduce your risk, and the administrative burden of chasing up unpaid invoices, by transitioning to upfront payments, or collecting payments on job completion with a portabl. This will reduce the number of defaulted or delayed payments from clients, and get that money in your account a lot faster so you can focus on growing your business. 7. Keep your income and expenses up to date Regularly reconciling your expenses is one of the best ways to stay abreast of the financial health of your business. Knowing your numbers, whatever they may be, is critical for running a successful business. Achieving this also means knowing exactly what and how you’re being charged for each business service, including for the provision of EFTPOS services by  your payment provider . Seek out a provider who is open and transparent about costs, with no hidden conditions or fees. Better yet, look for a fixed transaction rate, and no account-keeping fees or ongoing equipment rental. At Zeller, we provide full transparency for our customers, with flat rate transaction fees and no ongoing costs. Our full-featured dashboard also allows you to check your numbers at any time, giving you 360 degree visibility of what’s going on with your business — from real-time transactions, profit comparisons, a summary of tax obligations and any refunds transactions that may require your attention. 8. Get professional help Investing in the services of a professional accountant can help maximise your savings and minimise your tax liabilities, yet the true value of an accountant comes from bigger picture thinking. A good accountant can also help you grow your business, by providing guiding advice on when to scale up and how. And while your accountant handles the financial details, you can focus on the building your brand and your customer base. An accountant should be a trusted partner in your business, so it pays to shop around to find the right person for your circumstances and ambitions. Finding a reputable practitioner is important, so ask around for recommendations of capable candidates from others in your industry. Other questions to consider are: What services do you need? Is this their area of expertise? What accounting software do they work with? What costs do you need to consider? Finding the right accountant is like finding the perfect pair of shoes. Once you’ve found the right fit, you’ll feel fully supported and ready to take your business to new levels. Keeping on top of the financial health of your business is one of the best things you can do to nurture a profitable and sustainable business. Managing your expenses may not be the most thrilling job in the house, however it can be one of the most rewarding. Appropriately managing business expenses will also have one of the biggest impacts on your bottom line, so it pays to embrace it with good practices and an optimistic outlook.

Meet your newest recruit: a sleek, reliable multitasker that takes payments, processes sales, cuts costs, grows tips, splits bills, and boosts your brand. Once upon a time,  EFTPOS terminals did one thing: accept card payments. In 2024, they have become the beating heart of a business’s finances, incorporating myriad tools and features to help merchants not only deal with the increasing volume of card payments, but also make informed business decisions, deliver premium and branded customer service, and get you paid faster. Zeller Terminal is one such device that’s leading the way in payment technology in Australia. Integrated into Zeller’s financial ecosystem, which offers a  point-of-sale system ,  transaction account  and  savings account ,  debit cards  and  corporate cards , a  contact directory  and  mobile app , Zeller EFTPOS Terminal is a key component of an all-in-one system that gives businesses real-time visibility of their cash position, important sales insights, and near-instant access to their funds. So much more than an EFTPOS machine, Zeller Terminal is a key growth driver for your business, and below, we explain twelve reasons why. Top 12 benefits of Zeller Terminal 1. It saves your business money. Zeller Terminal is yours to own outright for the low cost of $99, or $199 if you choose Zeller Terminal 2, which comes with a built-in point-of-sale system. There are no monthly rental fees, no lock-in contracts, and no hidden costs. Once you start taking payments, you will only ever incur a 1.4% transaction fee for all card types – including AMEX – or 1.7% for over-the-phone transactions. Plus, with Zeller Terminal’s flexible surcharging capability, you can choose to pass on all or part of your merchant fee to the customer. Unlike many merchant services providers which lock you into surcharging for an added fee, Zeller’s zero-cost EFTPOS  option can be turned on, off, or customised at the press of a button. 2. It accepts every payment method. Zeller Terminal gives your customers the option to pay however is most convenient for them. To make payment, a customer can: tap their smartphone, watch, or other  NFC-enabled device  to the terminal tap their contactless debit and credit cards to the terminal insert a chip card into Zeller Terminal and, if needed, securely enter their PIN swipe their card and enter their PIN, or sign directly on the screen (available on Zeller Terminal 1 only) call you and read their card details over the phone 3. It simplifies checkout with a free, built-in point-of-sale system. Traditional point-of-sale software can be costly to growing businesses, which is why Zeller Terminal 2 incorporates a simple POS solution right into the hardware, for free:  Zeller POS Lite . Designed for micro, small, and mobile businesses, this easy-to-use POS solution records sales and delivers a fast and secure customer checkout experience. With Zeller POS Lite, you can: Manage a library of items directly on the terminal or via Zeller Dashboard or App Customise your product offering with modifiers and variants Design your home screen grid to allow quick access to frequently used items Generate itemised receipts which customers can receive via email, SMS, or QR code View detailed sales reports to understand what you are selling and when Create and manage discounts Get set up instantly – Zeller POS Lite comes automatically installed on Zeller Terminal 2 4. It boosts your brand with customisable receipts and screensavers. Zeller ensures your brand is central to the payment process by allowing you to customise both your receipts and your machine’s screensaver. Whether they’re printed or sent digitally as an email or SMS, Zeller receipts can incorporate a custom image at the top of the receipt, as well as business details, social media handles, a brief message or returns policy. Similarly, Zeller Terminal’s large digital screen can be customised with an image of your choice, allowing you to engage your customers with your brand while you scan their items or pull up their order on your point-of-sale. Much more than a simple payment device, Zeller Terminal is an innovative marketing tool that can be leveraged to instil your brand messaging. Customise your Terminal screensaver and your receipt to align with your brand. 5. It splits payments. Gone are the days of making your customers get out their phone calculator to figure out who owes what after a group meal. Zeller Terminal’s  Split Payments  functionality gives customers the option of splitting by custom value or by number of people. Not only is this more convenient for your patrons, but it speeds up the payment process, freeing up the EFTPOS terminal for it to be used by other staff. Additionally, by giving each individual customer the option to pay their share, it gives them all the opportunity to provide a tip. Everyone tips differently, so by giving more power to each customer, it is not only a more democratic process, it's likely to result in cumulatively greater tips for your business. 6. It settles the bill, tableside. Zeller Terminal’s  Pay at Table  feature is revolutionising the dining experience. Where before waitstaff would have to jostle between the diner’s table and the point-of-sale machine to settle a bill, Zeller Terminal now allows you to see total outstanding bills, take payments and close tables — all on one device. Rather than the customer paying at the counter or finalising the bill in the traditional, time-consuming manner, waitstaff can deliver the bill and the mobile payment device, all at the same time. The status of a table is updated in real time and synced across all machines, reducing human error and optimising the whole operation. 7. It makes processing refunds easy. Zeller Terminal supports both complete and partial refunds – and you, as a business owner, have the ability to restrict who can provide a customer with a refund. It’s an added level of protection for your business. Refunding a payment doesn’t cost your business anything; Zeller doesn’t charge any additional fees for refunding a customer. 7. It gives you real-time insights. Track key metrics from your Zeller Terminal in your own Zeller Dashboard or on  Zeller App . By providing powerful real-time data and a searchable transaction history, Zeller equips you with the tools you need to better manage cash flow, identify cost-saving opportunities and sales patterns. With most payment services providers, daily transaction information is unavailable until totals are tallied up at close of business — and important business information can only be found in a monthly merchant services statement. Having the ability to see how your business is performing at a glance enables you to quickly understand your short-term cash flow, progress sales targets to meet (and outperform) business objectives, and ultimately make smarter business decisions. 9. It gets you paid faster with same-day settlements. When you settle your funds into a Zeller Transaction Account, your day’s takings from Zeller Terminal will be deposited into your account the very same night, 365 days a year. If you choose to settle your funds into a third-party bank account, you will receive them the next business day. Speeding up the settlement process means you have access to your funds faster, helping to keep your cash flow healthy, and helping to avoid delays to wage payments or supply orders. 10. It can be controlled remotely. If your business operates across multiple locations, you need an easy way to manage your EFTPOS payment terminals. Every one of your Zeller Terminals can be controlled from your Zeller account, ensuring consistency across your entire operation. Update your staff permissions, enable and disable surcharging, update the information on your receipts, and more from one easy, online location. 11. It increases your tips. Zeller Terminal makes it easy for customers to leave a tip. This is particularly useful for hospitality businesses — you don’t have to enable the feature, but the functionality is there. You can configure your Zeller Terminal to provide a range of tipping options, either prompting a customer to leave a tip calculated on a percentage of their purchase or allowing them to enter a custom amount. This is a proven tactic, designed to grow tips for your business. 12. It reduces paper with digital and QR code receipts. A recent study* revealed that Australia produces 10.6 billion paper receipts annually, but because of their chemical coating, none of them can be recycled. With consumers and businesses becoming increasingly aware of their environmental footprint, many are choosing digital receipts as a convenient and sustainable alternative. Zeller Terminal embraces this step forward by offering customers the choice to have their receipts sent via email or SMS (available on both terminal models), or they can quickly scan a QR code which appears on-screen after the payment has been processed and download their receipt directly to their smartphone (Zeller Terminal 2 only). *‘Life Journey of an Average Receipt’ report, commissioned by Slyp, undertaken by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Plus protection for your business. Zeller uses end-to-end encryption and industry best practices to protect transactions from the time they are taken at the terminal to the time your money is received. Whether you choose to use an open or secured Wi-Fi connection or a mobile broadband-based connection, all the information Zeller processes is encrypted to our servers. Our team adheres to industry best practices in cybersecurity and threat management, constantly monitoring transactions for suspicious activity and blocking fraudulent transactions. When payment disputes occur, our team of experts deals with the bank for you, helping you avoid costly chargebacks. We’re always looking ahead. Our team of developers are hard at work, continuously building new functionality to give your business an edge. That's why, when you sign up for Zeller, there are no lock-in contracts or commitments. We know you’ll love our solution enough to never want to leave. Learn more about how  Zeller Terminal  can help your business grow by accepting every card payment, quickly and securely, for one low rate. By sharing your details with us, we may contact you from time to time. 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Discover the latest Zeller updates, designed to help grow your business. New Zeller features are released almost every fortnight. Sometimes they’re under the radar — things like faster transitions between screens, for example. Our developers are quick to take advantage of advances in technology to continuously streamline your EFTPOS tools . Other new features are bigger, and have the potential to level-up your business and the way you accept, manage and spend business funds. To help you stay up-to-date with the latest Zeller updates and adjust your business processes to make the most of them, we put together a list of the latest updates you may not know about: Hourly reporting on Zeller Terminal and in Zeller Dashboard Understand more about your spending with rich transaction data Store receipts in Zeller Dashboard New sounds to signal transaction status An enhanced Zeller SIM Card experience Keep reading to learn more and get best practices for these new updates to set your business up for success. Hourly reporting on Zeller Terminal and in Zeller Dashboard Hourly reporting on Zeller Terminal and in Zeller Dashboard Zeller’s transaction reporting functionality is now more powerful than ever. With this latest enhancement, you have the ability to filter and report on transactions accepted via Zeller Terminal — within a specific timeframe of your choosing — from your terminal itself, as well as within Zeller Dashboard. From within Zeller Dashboard and on Zeller Terminal, merchants can view a list of all transactions together with information such as purchase amount, card type, and site name. With this latest update, transactions can be filtered for any desired date and time range. You can leverage this functionality to filter and report on transactions across multiple business days, quickly pinpoint transactions that occurred within a short period of time, or report on extended business hours where trading continues into the early hours of the next morning — an especially handy feature for pubs, clubs, and late-night restaurants. If your business trades past midnight, this enhancement will make end-of-day reconciliation a much easier task for even the most junior members of staff. Simply instruct your team to set the filter parameters on Zeller Terminal to reflect your business’ trading hours by setting the hours and minutes on the clock face on either the Transactions, Terminal or Site Reports screen, and reconcile the total amount transacted with your point-of-sale. By default, transaction reports will continue to be generated for the 24 hour period of any given day. Read more about filtering transactions by time here . Understand more about your spending with rich transaction data Since launching Zeller, we’ve made it our goal to help you manage the entire payments and financial side of your business from one ecosystem. That means Zeller not only gives you the fastest way to accept payment from every customer and have that money settled in to your Zeller Transaction Account overnight, it also enables you to use those funds and track spending via Zeller Mastercard. In Zeller Dashboard, you can now see detailed information about where and how your business funds are being spent. As a business owner, the ability to easily identify and understand all of your business relationships — including relationships with the business you transact with — is critical. The newly launched Zeller Contact Directory stores business and personal details for customers, suppliers, as well as the businesses where you spend money using Zeller Mastercard. This level of transparency enables you to better understand where and how business funds are being spent, giving you the opportunity to deepen those business relationships. Whenever you use Zeller Mastercard, a contact record will be automatically created within Zeller Dashboard and populated with rich information about the business where the purchase was made. Next time you open a transaction on Zeller Dashboard, you’ll see information such as the business name, address and more — helping you to understand the places where business funds are being spent, and gain a deeper understanding of how and who you transact with. The next time you buy from that same business using Zeller Mastercard, the transaction will be stored against the business’ contact record. You also have the ability to add additional information to these business contact records, including: transaction notes. an accounting category, to simplify expense management a category and sub-category, to assist with budgeting custom tags, such as ‘supplier’ a transaction receipt Keep reading to discover more about Zeller’s new receipt upload functionality. Store receipts in Zeller Dashboard Tired of filing every paper receipt? How about trawling through reams of receipts to identify business deductions come tax time? With this latest update, you won’t have to. We’ve lightened the administrative load by giving you a place to store receipts digitally, within Zeller Dashboard. Simply upload a photo or PDF of a receipt from either a purchase made using Zeller Mastercard or a transfer from your Zeller Transaction Account and save it to the appropriate transaction record. This simple functionality makes bookkeeping that much easier. New sounds to signal transaction status Zeller Terminal will emit a new two-tone sound to indicate that a transaction has failed. This sound is easily distinguishable from the new tone emitted when a transaction is successful. When you’re serving customers in a busy or noisy environment, these new sounds will help your team to quickly identify the status of every transaction. If a customer’s payment is declined, the declined tone will be emitted and the reason for the failed transaction will appear on the terminal screen. This enables staff to quickly identify the issue and invite the customer to progress the sale another way. An enhanced Zeller SIM Card experience A smattering of enhancements make it easier than ever to manage your Zeller SIM Card , ensuring that no matter where you’re selling — you’re able to accept cashless payments. The latest enhancements include: the ability to nominate your Zeller Transaction Account or a third party account as the billing account from which to deduct the monthly $15 fee for unlimited data If your account falls overdue, the nominated billing account appears on-screen so you can easily identify the account with insufficient funds. full terms and conditions conveniently available to view on Zeller Terminal Keep up with the latest Zeller updates and announcements by subscribing to the Zeller Business Blog newsletter below.