Introduction

Payments are what keep your lending business going. As such, we understand how important it is to get them right. Our software was made with different types of lenders in mind, and we're confident we have a payment solution for whatever your lending model requires.

But you may be wondering, how do we define payments, and how does LoanPro handle them? This article will serve as an introduction to the topic of payments and will answer those questions. Here we provide the conceptual basics, and our Logging Payments article explains how to actually log them.

Highlights

We'd say it's safe to assume that most people understand what a payment is on a basic, conceptual level—a transfer of something of value for a good or service. In your case, a payment is likely a transfer of money from a borrower who is repaying the loan that you offered them. While that's easy to understand, there is much more to payments below the surface.

When you use your credit or debit card to purchase something or make a payment, the transaction is not quite as simple as it may seem. For example, imagine you're out and have decided to use your credit card to purchase something that has caught your eye; you're the consumer in this situation. Your card is swiped or inserted into a machine, the funds leave your account, and the seller trades you their good. Sounds pretty simple, right? But there's much more going on behind the scenes. The seller, otherwise known as a merchant, has had to pay a fee to a merchant services provider so that you can use a credit card at their business. And their card reader does more than just scan the card: it connects them to the credit card company so that the funds can be transferred.

Instead of using your card, maybe you'd prefer to just send funds from your bank to the merchant's bank. But the banks need a way to connect to each other as well, so a third-party processor still needs to get involved to help.

As you can see, it can get a little complicated. As a lender whose business is dependent on receiving payments from borrowers, setting up the methods to do so can sound intimidating. There's no need to worry, though; we've got you covered. Our software is already integrated with third-party processors so that selecting a way to receive payments from your borrowers is effortless. Below, we'll break everything down in a simplistic way and explain how LoanPro can make receiving payments the easiest part of your business.

Where Does Payments Fit? 

When it comes to understanding how payments actually work in the system, it's important to know how LoanPro's Loan Management System (LMS) categorizes payments, the breakdown of the overall process, and how Secure Payments fits into the picture.

Types of Payments

LMS separates payments into two broad categories: those that are only logged and those that are both logged and processed. We categorize payments like this because the payment methods that they consist of work differently on a fundamental level in LMS.

Only Logged

Our first category is logged payments. This category is the simpler of the two, as it only consists of one payment method—cash payments. We call these "logged" payments since LMS is not directly involved in these transactions and only records a log. If you have borrowers that prefer to make payments with cash, LMS can handle this. While the software can't physically take cash from your borrowers (that's where you come in), our implementation of Cash Drawers makes it easy for you and your loan servicers to receive and track cash on a daily basis.

Logged and Processed

"Logged and processed" payments, on the other hand, are payments that LMS is directly involved in. These are the transactions that occur within LoanPro's software, and it encompasses payments involving bank cards and integrated bank transfers. Logged and processed payments also include payments made through customer-facing payment portals and AutoPays. When a payment that falls under this category occurs within LMS, the transaction is completed within the software via our payment integrations and then logged within the LoanPro UI.

The Payment Process

Now that you understand how LoanPro categorizes payments, let's take a look at the overall process. We'll keep this breakdown simple and go into greater detail in our other payments articles.

1. The process begins with the creation of a payment profile in LMS. While it seems like you are creating these in LMS, you are actually using Secure Payments via an iframe, which is kind of like a bridge between two websites. The payment profile is then selected as the method for the payment.
2. The payment is initiated and processed in LMS, then it's sent to Secure Payments.
3. Secure Payments then sends the payment information to the corresponding payment processor where it's processed on their end.
4. Depending on the success or failure of the payment with the payment processor, a response is sent to Secure Payments and then logged. Secure Payments relays this information back to LMS so that your payment records match in both places.
5. LMS then updates the loan calculations to reflect the payment.

Here's a diagram of how everything works together:

Secure Payments' Role

The safety of your payment information is always a top priority of ours. To ensure your information is always safe, we created Secure Payments, a PCI-compliant product separate from LMS. Your payment profile information is stored here, and we tokenize it to ensure security. LMS stores only basic payment information and uses the token in Secure Payments to initiate transactions. Like we mentioned, the two products are separate, but they communicate with each other to match payment information.

Secure Payments is also where you will create payment processors—third-party entities that facilitate the transfer of funds. Once you create a processor in Secure Payments, it can be used for payments in LMS. However, we'll cover that topic in greater detail in our intermediate-level article.

This Feature is Not 

• This feature does not handle your relationships with payment processors for you. Our integration with different third-party payment processors makes the payment process easier, but you'll have to contact the payment processor if any issues arise. 
• This feature does not choose your processors for you. Each processor offers a different set of expertise, and one may fit your lending model better than another. We recommend researching which processors are right for your company.

What’s Next?

At this point, you have a good foundational understanding of how payments work. Now, we suggest you read Logging Payments, which explains how to set up payment profiles and how to make payments within LMS. We also recommend reading Intro to Secure Payments for an overview of the product and Intro to Payment Processors for more information regarding payment processors—including a list of the available processors integrated with LoanPro.