Revolutionising the Payments industry: How EPM & Data strategies pay for themselves.
The payments industry, spanning payment processors, card terminal operators, and transaction service providers, is a whirlwind of complexity and competition.
With thin margins, unpredictable transaction volumes due to increasing cost of living, and shifting regulatory landscapes, accompanied by huge swathes of data, put finance teams under immense pressure to deliver precise budgets, reliable forecasts, and actionable insights, all while keeping a tight lid on costs.
Traditional tools like spreadsheets and outdated systems typically struggle under the strain. That’s where Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) technology steps in—a powerful solution poised to transform Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) for payments businesses. In this article, we’ll unpack how EPM tackles key challenges, uncovers cost-saving opportunities, and streamlines vital processes like budgeting and month-end close.
Why EPM pays in payments
EPM technology is a unified platform that brings together financial planning, reporting, and analysis into one seamless system. Picture it as a central hub for your finance team, pulling in data from across your operations to deliver real-time insights, automate repetitive tasks, and sharpen strategic decisions. For payments companies juggling vast streams of transaction data and relentless cost pressures, EPM offers a lifeline. It moves you beyond the limitations of manual spreadsheets and fragmented tools, empowering smarter, faster, and more confident financial management in an industry where precision is non-negotiable.
- Centralised Data Integration: Payments businesses deal with a flood of data from merchant accounts, card terminals, and processing systems. EPM consolidates this into one platform, eliminating the chaos of juggling multiple sources. This means your finance team can see the full picture, transaction trends, revenue streams, and costs – without hours of manual stitching.
-
Real-Time Insights: In an industry where payment volumes can spike or drop overnight, waiting for weekly or monthly reports is a luxury you can’t afford. EPM delivers live updates, letting you spot trends, like a surge in contactless payments or a dip in merchant activity, as they happen, so you can adjust plans on the fly.
-
Automation of Repetitive Tasks: Think of the hours spent reconciling transactions or formatting reports. EPM automates these grunt-work tasks, cutting down on human error and freeing your team to focus on strategy, like optimising fee structures or forecasting cash flow – rather than drowning in spreadsheets.
-
Scalability for Growth: Whether you’re expanding into new markets or rolling out more terminals, EPM grows with you. It handles increasing data complexity without breaking a sweat, ensuring your financial processes stay robust even as your business scales up or pivots to meet new demands.
-
Enhanced Decision-Making: Payments is a game of precision—misjudge a forecast, and you’re overpaying suppliers or underfunding operations. EPM’s advanced analytics and scenario-planning tools give you the clarity to make bold, informed calls, whether it’s renegotiating vendor terms or investing in new tech.
For payments companies, where every fraction of a penny counts and agility is king, EPM moves you beyond the limitations of manual tools and fragmented systems. It’s about transforming how your finance team works—making them faster, sharper, and ready to tackle the challenges of a dynamic industry.
Key Challenges in Finance for Payments Companies
Finance teams in the payments sector, whether supporting payment processors, card terminal operators, or transaction service providers, face a relentless set of obstacles. These hurdles drain time, inflate costs, and hinder strategic focus in an industry where precision and speed are critical.
-
Prolonged Month-End Close: Reconciling vast streams of transaction data from card terminals, merchant accounts, and processing platforms often turns month-end close into a slog. Manual processes and disconnected systems lead to delays, stretching timelines and delaying critical reporting.
-
Unpredictable Transaction Volumes: Payments businesses live or die by transaction flows, which can swing wildly due to seasonality, consumer trends, or economic shifts. Budgeting and forecasting become a guessing game without tools to handle this volatility.
-
Cost Pressure and Margin Squeeze: With thin margins and fierce competition, there’s constant pressure to cut costs—whether it’s reducing operational overheads, renegotiating supplier deals, or streamlining staff resources. Identifying savings without clear data is like searching in the dark.
-
Data Fragmentation: Information sits in silos—think separate platforms for terminal activity, payment gateways, and financial records. Pulling it together manually is time-consuming and prone to errors, leaving finance teams scrambling to produce a coherent picture.
-
Regulatory Compliance Demands: The payments industry is a regulatory minefield, with rules around interchange fees, data security, and reporting constantly evolving. Keeping up requires robust systems, but legacy tools often fall short, risking fines or inefficiencies.
-
Limited Strategic Focus: Buried under manual tasks and firefighting discrepancies, finance teams have little bandwidth for high-value work like analysing market trends or advising on growth opportunities. This keeps the business reactive rather than proactive.
These challenges aren’t just annoyances—they’re barriers to staying competitive in a fast-moving sector. Modern solutions are essential to break the cycle.
How EPM Transforms Budgeting and Forecasting
Budgeting and forecasting are make-or-break for payments businesses, and EPM technology turns these processes from a headache into a strength. By leveraging integrated data and smart tools, it delivers accuracy and agility that spreadsheets can’t match.
-
Real-Time Data Feeds: EPM pulls live data from transaction systems, merchant activity, and operational metrics, so budgets reflect current realities—like a sudden uptick in card payments—not last quarter’s assumptions.
-
Dynamic Budget Adjustments: Payments volumes aren’t static, and neither should your budgets be. EPM lets you tweak plans mid-cycle, adapting to shifts like holiday surges or quieter spells without starting from scratch.
-
Scenario Planning Power: What if processing fees rise? What if mobile payments double? EPM’s “what if” tools let you model multiple scenarios, giving you forecasts that hold up under pressure and guide smarter decisions.
-
Improved Accuracy: Manual data entry invites mistakes—EPM cuts them out by automating calculations and flagging inconsistencies. This means forecasts you can trust, not ones you second-guess.
-
Faster Turnaround: Building budgets or updating forecasts used to take days or weeks. EPM slashes that time with streamlined workflows, letting you respond to market changes—like a competitor’s pricing move—before they derail your plans.
-
Alignment with Strategy: EPM ties financial plans to business goals, whether it’s expanding terminal networks or boosting merchant retention. It ensures every pound budgeted drives tangible outcomes, not just numbers on a page.
For payments companies, where agility can mean the difference between profit and loss, EPM turns budgeting and forecasting into tools for winning, not just surviving. The difference can be in the tools you use to manage the business, and EPM is a cornerstone sometimes overlooked due to initial cost of implementation.
However, the reality is these systems typically offer huge returns on investment that outweigh the initial cost through transformations to cost of operations or lost opportunities elsewhere.
This is where selecting the right technology and ensuring strong implementation is critical. This is something Bolt Consulting specialise in and can support a client through the entire process, ensuring overall ROI and benefits to the business are realised.
Driving Cost Savings with EPM: A Net Benefit Perspective
Cost savings are the lifeblood of the payments industry, and EPM delivers them in ways that more than justify the initial investment. It’s not just about trimming fat – it’s about finding big wins that reshape your bottom line.
-
Spotting Wasteful Spending: EPM digs into cost drivers—think high supplier fees or underused terminals—and flags areas to cut. Clear data means you’re not guessing where the savings lie; you know.
-
Reducing Manual Labour Costs: Hours spent on data entry, reconciliations, or error fixes add up. EPM automates these tasks, shrinking the staff time needed and lowering operational overheads month after month.
-
Preventing Overruns: Poor forecasts lead to overstaffing slow periods or overstocking hardware. EPM’s sharper predictions keep spending in check, avoiding costly missteps that eat into margins.
-
Optimising Vendor Contracts: With visibility into transaction costs and supplier performance, EPM arms you to negotiate better terms. Even a small fee reduction across millions of transactions can yield massive savings.
-
Long-Term Efficiency Gains: Beyond quick wins, EPM builds a leaner finance function. Less time on routine tasks means more focus on strategic cost-cutting—like rethinking tech investments or streamlining processes.
-
Measurable ROI: The upfront cost of EPM pales next to the cumulative savings. For a payments business, where every penny counts, this net benefit can shift you from scraping by to scaling up.
In a sector obsessed with efficiency, EPM isn’t just a cost-saver—it’s a profit multiplier, turning financial clarity into a competitive edge.
Streamlining Month-End Close and Boosting Process Efficiency
Month-end close is a grind for payments finance teams, but EPM turns it into a streamlined, stress-free process. By automating the heavy lifting and enhancing workflows, it saves time and boosts overall efficiency. Here’s the breakdown:
-
Automated Data Consolidation: EPM pulls data from card terminals, payment gateways, and accounting systems into one place; no more manual downloads or copy-pasting. This slashes close time from days to hours.
-
Error Detection: Built-in validation spots discrepancies, like mismatched totals or duplicate entries, before they delay reporting. You fix issues fast, not after the deadline’s passed.
-
Real-Time Dashboards: Forget waiting for final reports. EPM’s live dashboards show financial health as you go, so you’re not blindsided by surprises at the end of the process.
-
Standardised Workflows: EPM enforces consistent steps across the team, cutting confusion and ensuring everyone’s on the same page. No more chasing colleagues for missing inputs.
-
Faster Decision Cycles: A quicker close means earlier insights, cash flow trends or profit dips reach leadership sooner, speeding up responses like adjusting credit terms or supplier payments.
-
Resource Reallocation: Time saved on month-end frees your team for analysis; say, digging into transaction patterns or cost trends, rather than wrestling with reconciliations.
For payments businesses, where delays can ripple into cash flow or compliance headaches, EPM’s efficiency boost is a lifeline that keeps operations humming.
Does EPM really pay? Concluding remarks.
In the payments industry, whether you’re processing transactions, managing card terminals, or facilitating merchant services, success hinges on being lean, adaptable, and insight-driven.
EPM technology delivers on all fronts, revolutionising FP&A with sharper budgeting, stronger forecasting, and slicker processes. The upfront investment fades against the backdrop of cost savings, reduced month-end stress, and strategic clarity it brings.
By providing expert technology, slick back-end processes, and an efficient business to business experience, being the best you can be for your customers means higher transactions, more fees, and better customer satisfaction – all of which impacts the bottom line.
For businesses ready to ditch the chaos of fragmented tools and manual workarounds, EPM isn’t just an upgrade—it’s a game-changer.
Could it be the key to propelling your finance team, and your business, ahead in 2025 and beyond?
How Bolt Consulting Can Help
This is where Bolt Consulting comes into play. With deep experience in EPM and financial planning sector, Bolt Consulting offers tailored solutions that address the unique challenges faced by clients.
-
Expert Guidance: With a team of seasoned EPM consultants, Bolt Consulting provides strategic insights that align with your business’s specific needs, from financial planning to operational efficiency.
-
Technology Integration: They help in selecting and implementing the right EPM software, ensuring it integrates seamlessly with existing systems, whether it’s ERP, CRM, or specialized utility management software.
-
Custom Solutions: Recognising that one size does not fit all, Bolt Consulting works on bespoke solutions that consider your company’s current state and future goals, ensuring that the EPM system grows with you.
-
Training and Change Management: They guide your team through the transition, offering training and support to ensure adoption and utilization of new systems, making the change management process smooth and effective.
-
Ongoing Support: Beyond implementation, Bolt Consulting offers advisory services to keep your EPM strategy up-to-date with market trends, regulatory changes, and technological advancements.
Through our deep understanding of both the EPM domain and the nuances of financial planning, Bolt Consulting stands as a partner to help you navigate this complex terrain. Whether it’s through strategic planning, operational enhancements, or ensuring regulatory compliance, they empower your business to not only meet but exceed the challenges of today and tomorrow.
Embrace the future of your industry with Bolt Consulting, where innovation meets expertise to drive your enterprise performance to new heights.
