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First American Payment Systems LP, a Fort Worth, Texas-based payment processor, says its online pricing-model tool released this week enables its independent sales organizations and their sales staff to gauge a merchant's revenue potential before signing the merchant. First American automatically updates the tool with the latest interchange rates, Kevin Jones, vice president of sales and marketing, tells CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent Weekly. Once logged into the tool, an ISO types in such factors as the type of merchant, total card volume in dollars, transaction volume and the average ticket. The software then analyzes the data against a database of the most recent six months of transaction activity for similar merchants in First American's portfolio. ISOs also can manipulate variable fees, such as statement fees, to determine how they affect projected revenue, Jones says. ISOs also can input the payment model used for each sales agent, who then can access it to see their revenue, Jones says. "Everything I've seen has been based on rates that have to be loaded into the model," he says. "Any rate changes have to reloaded manually. This tool updates rates as they come in." First American developed the tool in-house over a nine-month period, he adds.
