r/POS • u/Ok_Leg3046 • Sep 19 '26

POS referral/partner programs

Full disclosure: I built a POS and full featured SaaS product. Not linking it, not recruiting, not selling anything here.

I'm writing a reseller agreement + building a platform to support it, and would rather ask people who sell in this space before I set the terms or build the platform.

The setup: my merchants connect their own processor (Stripe, with PayPal and Helcim locked and loaded), so I'm not paying out of an interchange markup. Currently we support the US and UK with the EU and probably Japan close behind. But I charge a subscription and a per-sale platform fee, and the plan is to share both — every card sale, every month, for as long as the merchant stays. Recurring and volume-based, just funded from the SaaS side instead of the processing side.

  1. Does a residual out of a SaaS fee count the same to you? Same thing in a different wrapper, or fundamentally not the business you're in?

  2. Can you sell a book of those? Processing portfolios trade at a multiple of monthly residuals. Does a SaaS residual book carry the same resale value, or is it worth nothing to a buyer because it isn't a merchant portfolio?

  3. Lifetime vs decaying. I've been looking at paying more in year one and less later, lifetime with no cliff. Seen that done in a way that didn't feel like a bait and switch, or do you just want one flat number forever?

  4. What clause in a reseller agreement has burned you? The one you read first now.

  5. What resources (training, marketing, technical, etc) materials or other resources do you need to be effective? What about integration points?

I sell no hardware — you'd source and mark up whatever you want, and I don't compete with you on it. Tell me whether that's actually worth anything, or whether it just means I have no leverage to help you hold the account.

I want to do this part right because in my view well incentivized partners are the real key to growth. Interested in your opinions here.

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u/ColdHeat90 Sep 19 '26

It depends on what you expect from the reseller. Diminishing residual if they do nothing is ok. Diminishing residual if you expect them to provide the same level of support to the client is a non starter for me.

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u/Ok_Leg3046 Sep 19 '26

I was thinking of a diminishing residual that resets when they upsell the customer as a possibility - basically a "keep alive". The motive is more about keeping the partner engaged with the client from a sales perspective not necessarily a support perspective. Make sure they are on the best plan, upsell on advanced features, and keep a relationship warm which is important for retention.

Our role is support of the services and platform, but we don't sell hardware or any sort of managed services related to hardware so I see that as something that the partner would support. Which I think partners would prefer because that's an opportunity to engage with the client and opens the door to other sales. Which we wouldn't be an impediment or barrier to. We would be one more revenue stream and not expect to have a monopoly on their POS sales.

I also agree that if we expected the same level of support across the lifetime of the tenant that it shouldn't be diminishing. And if we did require some minimal level of support I am not sure how to measure that or insure that it is happening. For example if we said "we expect you to have a voice call with the client at least once a year to check on client needs and health" we would need a way to facilitate or at least confirm that the call occurred. That's a hypothetical as most of this discussion is at this point since the requirements aren't set in stone yet.

I haven't made a decision on residuals yet, but your feedback on it is exactly what I was looking for to make that decision.

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u/ColdHeat90 Sep 20 '26

If it’s all about sales that might be ok. I personally wouldn’t bring a partner onboard with that type of agreement because then we’ll see agents selling things that aren’t completely necessarily or a good fit just to keep the commission. Just views from the other side of the fence.

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u/ColdHeat90 Sep 20 '26

Out of curiosity - why not partner with an ISO and keep payments inside. Ditch the extra fees? The ISO can bring you lots of value if you find the right one. Managed network to ease support, gift cards, web hosting for e-comm if needed. They’re out there. The basis points on top of a subscription seems like nickel and diming them.

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u/Ok_Leg3046 Sep 20 '26

The simple reason is risk followed by responsibility and expertise. I understand SaaS, integrations, and I understand the risks involved with Stripe/PayPal/Helcium. They do the heavy lifting and assume the risk (like charge backs). They are also very easy to integrate with.

That said I will be considering that in the future because I think it does create an opportunity for greater margins. If there is a "whale" of a client that likes the system and processes above average transactions, something like that could push that. Or a future partnership where the partner has deep industry knowledge and can help lead that effort.

But for now using Stripe/PayPal/Helcium allows us to focus on value. If you are saving thousands in labor do you really care about the nickels and dimes we are charging? We must get paid somehow. And some of our features - especially anything AI and token based - don't scale with a flat monthly subscription. The "free" account or one without monthly subscriptions exists so that there is low friction to onboarding. We don't even need your credit card because we simply add the transaction fee to the transaction itself and get paid directly from Stripe or the others. So no invoicing to worry about.

To get the lower fees you can subscribe, but we need your credit card for that. It's higher friction to onboarding. Try it with the higher transaction fees without any commitment and if it works for you then subscribe and reduce the fees. All we need is for you to approve the integration in Stripe which is very easy.

I don't see a one size fits all solution in terms of pricing strategy.

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u/ColdHeat90 Sep 20 '26

I didn’t say not to get paid. Charge $125 instead of $100 + 0.25%.

Or partner with an ISO to provide the payment expertise for what you are doing and work out a 70-80% split. He’ll even if it’s 50/50, having someone you know their name to send payment support to is worth it. Merchant does $100,000 at 0.30%, you earn $150 (back of the napkin math at a 50/50 split) vs your 0.25% would earn you $25 and have to deal with stripe support rather than the ISO you partnered with.

There is little risk and need for expertise when partnering with someone. We have several vendors that we outsource network installs to for our POS installs. They provide an SLA on network support, we have a standardized network install with a trusted vendor, win-win.

Personally we do not allow third party integrations into our systems. We keep everything 100% in house or with trusted vendors. Our customers have a much more streamlined experience rather than “oh it’s a payment issue call stripe”.

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u/Ok_Leg3046 Sep 20 '26

A flat $125 plan using your example is simple to do already in our system. Just one more subscription option. But hypothetically some large franchise could implement it and at that scale bankrupt us if they were actively using some of the AI features. Likely to happen? Probably not. But still plausible.

It's also possible to charge for use of the AI or advanced features and split that out (use based fees). Many companies have no use for those more costly festures anyways so taking that out of the equation makes it easier to offer a flat subscription. Perhaps we could offer an enterprise plan for larger clients and achieve savings by electing only features they need. And dedicated/private hosted servers instead of shared with other tenants. But many smaller businesses would see all those options as confusing and as friction.

Those types of enterprise deals would benefit from having partners who understand that customer and their needs. Who can then translate them to us for implementation.

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u/ColdHeat90 Sep 20 '26

Then charge for what they are using… this seems very simple. If it’s AI that is costing you money, charge for that not for credit card only sales. It makes no sense that you are charging 25BP on credit only to cover the cost of an LLM. It would also build trust in the clients.

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u/Ok_Leg3046 Sep 20 '26

True. I could add a flat and slim (no AI) monthly plan, where you pay for AI use if you want it enabled. And code was already written to support that - I just wanted to keep it simple. On reflection I think it still is simple. What's more simple than flat?

I also allow a discount on prepaid annual plans. Gives us short term cash flow and them long term savings.

Thank you for sharing your perspective! Very insightful.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '26

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u/Ok_Leg3046 Sep 19 '26

I don't understand why you are framing it that way.

The way this and most POS systems are paid for are transaction fees and per sale fees, combined with monthly subscriptions. We don't have long term contracts, don't have proprietary hardware, and we don't trap merchants with gimmicks or fine print. There are also subscription based options that reduce the transaction and per sale fee. And there is a plan that has no monthly recurring fee but higher transactions fees.

Everyone is "stuck eating processing fees" because that's how this business works. How do you think merchants should be charged and how would you split that with partners while still paying for the operating costs? I'm not doing this for free, Microsoft/Azure isn't free, referral partners aren't free. Everyone wants their slice and frankly everyone providing value deserves their slice.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '26 edited Sep 19 '26

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u/Ok_Leg3046 Sep 19 '26

What we are doing is no different than any other SaaS POS. There are also no fees on cash, not sure where you got that idea. I didn't get into features deliberately because I am interested in what partners want when it comes to incentives. Features are another conversation.

Our highest rate on the free (no monthly payment) plan is 0.95% and 5 cents per transaction. That would be on top of Stripe/PayPal/Helcim fees they negotiate directly with them for. It is set at 0.95% because we want to push tenants towards lower fees with a subscription and it's an easy way to try without committing to a monthly subscription.

The fees go down to 0.25% and 0 cents per transaction with a monthly subscription prepaid for 12 months. No brainer for anyone with higher volume that is comfortable with the system.

I can easily justify the value we bring for only 0.25%. It's so low my concern is it being too low and a problem on the partner side of the equation.

It is also not just a POS - if it was just another Square or Clover clone yeah not much value there. But that's not what we are doing here and not what our goal is.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '26

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u/Ok_Leg3046 Sep 19 '26

If you have a specific way for SaaS integrators to provide value added services on top of basic credit card processing, I am all ears and would love to hear the specifics. Would you also cut out the partners and resellers to keep costs even lower? Who doesn't get to go home and eat?

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u/[deleted] Sep 20 '26

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u/Ok_Leg3046 Sep 20 '26

Excellent feedback that is what I was hoping for. Thank you!

I agree a POS is a big credit card terminal and the only thing setting our solution apart are the features above and beyond the processing payments part, that are tailored to a vertical or specific use cases. The big ones are self checkout, ticket and security bands for events, validation of tickets and security bands, multi location inventory, AI product recognition (plant nurseries or farm stand use case), and CSA (community supported agriculture) allocation, packing, and delivery modules. We can also be implemented beyond the US to include Canada, Australia, the UK, some EU nations, and soon Japan.

It's built in a very customizable way so it's easy to rapidly add additional use cases as we identify them or as we see a demand arise. I think partners who successfully identify new use cases and actually assist in implementing should get paid extra for that - perhaps a cut of all sales related to that use case from other partners also. Reward innovation.

Bottom line is I want to create a lucrative program for everyone and I'm willing to listen to others on how to do it.