What are the enhancements and improvements between APX version 1.0 to APX version 2.0

 

 

Improvements and enhancements between APX 1.0 and APX 2.0  

The underlying change to Abacus Payment Exchange (APX) 2.0 was the move of payment facilitators - from Vantage/Propay to Payrix.  This provided the foundation to delivering new (and improved) functionality and an overall better client experience both today and in the future.   

In addition, this evolution of APX ensured that we introduced new features and capabilities that addressed key customer objections identified during customer discovery phase of the APX development project.  

• One-third of surveyed customers stated that ease of setting up APX was important. Tests of the new APX 2.0 onboarding and setup flow were identified it as a “delighter” to these customers. 

• Improving competitiveness with our customers current payment solutions 
• Meeting consumer quality expectations for a payment experience  
• Improve a compelling but under-utilized feature in PayNow 
• Reassure consumers that emails, and notifications are not spam 

To address these issues, we implemented eight of the top 20 opportunities identified by customer research in six key areas. 
 

Onboarding 

The key benefits in onboarding are primarily for new customers.  

• Instant qualification and approval for most firms (merchants).  In the past it took 2-3 days and sometimes weeks for approval. 
• Pre-filling merchant application forms with data already in the system. 
• Improved validation and help on the merchant application forms.

• Plaid integration to automate verification of bank account information. There is no need to upload bank statements or canceled checks if merchants use the Plaid integration. 

Payment portal 

APX 2.0 now supports a payment portal which allows clients to view information on transactions, account information and additional reporting. 

 
Figure 2: View of the home page on the payment portal available with APX 2.0.  

 

Reporting 

With APX 2.0 it is easier to reconcile your electronic payments with your bank statement. 

• For legal practice management we’ve added the matter id for transactions 

• For tax and accounting practice management we’ve added the contact id for transactions 
• We’ve added the client's name vs. just the name on the credit card
• Improved the layout of the report to make it easier to find transactions 

 

 
PayNow 

With PayNow we made a few improvements based on customer feedback. 

• Improved, professional, email template 
• Ability for consumers to save their payment information for future transactions
• A modern user interface for both firms and consumers, including more help. 
• Firm notifications when a consumer pays an invoice 
  

   

  

Ability to cancel PayNow Link

 

Notifications 

CARET also improved (and increased) the number of standard automated notifications. These notifications provide our clients with improved visibility through each step of the payment process.  

• Clear status notifications for onboarding 
• Transaction notifications on success and failure, refunds, and chargebacks 

Made notifications more professional with intentional design vs. former plain text

 

 

 

 

 

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Recurring payments 

For recurring payments, we addressed key issues identified by customers and created a consistent best practice UI across all our practice management applications.  

• Clear next steps to set up a recurring payment 
• Schedule dashboard 
• Retry a scheduled payment request 
• Improved help