Franklin Payments: Look at the statement.

For 31 years, according to Ken Smith’s testimonial on Franklin Payments’ website, Daddypops Diner worked with cash. Then COVID-19 made customers reluctant to handle it. The diner needed a way to take cards. An arrangement that had lasted decades had met a new customer expectation.

That little account is a useful introduction to Franklin Payments. Payment technology arrives in a business through circumstances like these: a customer wants to use a card, an invoice needs collecting, a shop needs a different checkout. Franklin supplies the equipment and services to handle those moments. Its range includes card processing, restaurant point-of-sale systems, online payments, mobile acceptance and virtual terminals.

01 / Six months changed the conversation

Another customer story begins with resistance. Christopher J. Cleary of Clearco Products says the company was not considering changing its processor when Anna contacted it. Reviewing six months of statements changed that. Cleary describes potential savings, then help with setup and training. His account closes by emphasizing the follow-up.

“It was Anna’s follow up after the sale”

Christopher J. Cleary / Clearco Products
From a testimonial published by Franklin Payments

These are company-published testimonials, so they tell us what Franklin chooses to emphasize. The emphasis is revealing. One customer needed a new payment method; another needed a reason to leave an existing arrangement. In both cases, the company presents a person helping a merchant make the change.

There is a buying lesson here. Before comparing sales pitches, compare actual statements. Several months can show the business as it operates, including busier and quieter periods. Then ask what the proposed arrangement would have cost for that same activity. A rate becomes more useful when it has a bill attached.

02 / The checkout has more than one address

Franklin’s product menu follows the places where money changes hands. Its restaurant POS offering promises traditional point-of-sale functions with additional features chosen around a restaurant’s requirements. That is a different starting point from the virtual terminal, where a business can handle online or email invoicing and recurring billing.

The virtual-terminal page also advertises SwipeSimple tools: keyed payments, saved cards, an inventory catalog, customer and product insights, searchable transaction history and recurring payments. For a business taking orders away from a physical checkout, those functions put payment handling and records in the same working environment.

At the counter, Franklin describes a SwipeSimple terminal with a touchscreen, thermal receipt printer, chip and contactless acceptance, and cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity. Its mobile offering adds authorizations, signature capture and emailed receipts from a mobile device. The e-commerce page covers shopping cart capabilities, reporting, recurring payments and electronic checks.

The distinction matters. A recurring invoice and a restaurant checkout ask different things of a payment system. Franklin’s breadth makes it worth examining for merchants with these needs; the useful question is which combination fits a particular business.

03 / A second name, a wider business

There is another name to know: PSS Payments. Its website explicitly identifies it as a DBA of Franklin Payments and part of The PSS Group. That group brings together payroll, payments, benefits and digital marketing. Payment processing sits beside other services a small business regularly buys.

The PSS Payments website lists MX POS and Clover POS alongside online, mobile, invoicing, ACH and e-check services. Its legal disclosure identifies Franklin Payments as an authorized agent of Priority Technology Holdings and Paysafe Merchant Services Corp. That places Franklin in the distribution and service layer of the payments market, connecting merchants with processing infrastructure and tools.

A banking relationship makes that role concrete. Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank offers merchant services through Franklin Payments in collaboration with Payroll Service Solutions. The bank’s published offering includes a personal account manager, online reporting and next-day funding availability. These are features of that advertised program; a merchant should confirm the terms of its own proposal.

04 / Put the whole bill on the table

PSS Payments lists interchange-plus, flat-rate and tiered pricing options, with a free cost comparison. It also says it helps businesses review their current processor’s agreement before switching and checks whether existing POS or accounting software can remain in use.

Those details make the comparison more demanding, and more useful. A merchant should ask for processing charges, equipment costs, recurring software fees and contract terms together. Compatibility matters too: keeping a familiar system could reduce the work involved in changing providers. The number on the first page of a proposal cannot answer all those questions.

Franklin’s own processing page advertises a choice of contract length and no-penalty termination rights. Its about page promises statements online or by mail and an annual account review. Together, those claims make an ongoing proposition: the account deserves attention after installation.

05 / Ask who stays for the setup

Franklin’s named testimonials include dining, manufacturing, promotional products and limousine services. That variety explains the menu of payment tools. The common requirement is help making a system work within an existing business.

The offer deserves closer scrutiny when a merchant depends on a particular integration, needs unusual reporting or already has a costly agreement to exit. Ask for compatibility confirmation and written terms before treating a lower quoted rate as a saving. A useful first conversation starts with the current statements, the current equipment and the way customers actually pay.

For Daddypops, the pressure came from customers. For Clearco, persuasion began in the statements. Franklin’s most interesting promise lives between those two situations: help a business see what needs changing, then stay around while it changes.