Commtrac

Commtrac Software

Product 03 of 04

Account to account point of sale

Commtrac POS

A palm authenticated terminal that settles every sale account to account over the domestic real time rail, straight into the bank account the business already holds. No card network, no processor, no percentage of the ticket.

Settlement tapeterminal 0042 · CAD

No sales on the tape. Each one settles as it happens.

tape ready

Reference

At a glance

Form factorCountertop terminal
AuthenticationPalm signature
RailDomestic RTP, account to account
EnrollmentOnce, valid at every terminal
AccountsMultiple per customer
SettlementDirect to the merchant account
ChargebacksNo card network surface
Back officeCRM · Order management · Accounting
ClearingCommtrac Clearing included
Metering$0.10 per settlement · $100 per terminal monthly

Pricing

A dime a sale. Whatever the ticket.

$0.10 USD

per settlement, no percentage of volume

$100 USD

per terminal, monthly

Estimate

Work out a monthly bill

Set a terminal count and a monthly settlement volume. Note what is absent: there is no percentage of your takings anywhere on the bill, so the ticket sizes never matter. The figures below are arithmetic on the published rates, not a quote.

Terminals
Settlements per month
LineAmount
4 terminals × $100$400.00
10,000 settlements × $0.10$1,000.00
Monthly total$1,400.00

The problem

Every sale pays the middlemen first.

A card sale pays a queue of intermediaries before it pays the merchant. Interchange, network assessments and processor margin are taken as a percentage of every ticket, and for a business running single digit margins those points are not a cost line. They are a silent partner.

Then the merchant waits for its own money. Card settlement batches on the processor's schedule, lands days later, and sits in an account the processor controls, exposed to holds, rolling reserves and disputes long after the customer went home happy.

Card railsettlement of a 100.00 bill

Bill total100.00
Interchange-1.80
Network assessments-0.14
Processor margin-0.96
Merchant receives97.10
AvailableT+2 · processor schedule

Commtrac POSthe same bill

Bill total100.00
Flat settlement fee-0.10
Merchant receives99.90
Availableat initiation · own account

The same bill, settled twice. For a merchant running three points of margin, the 2.80 the middlemen no longer take is not a discount on costs. Applied to every ticket, it is close to double the annual profit.

The solution

Account to account. Nothing in between.

Commtrac POS is a palm authenticated terminal that moves a sale from the customer's bank account to the merchant's over the domestic real time rail. No card network, no acquirer, no processor custody. The customer scans, the payment initiates, and because the rail is irreversible the merchant can treat the sale as cleared the moment it moves.

Customer palmScan · Approve
Commtrac POSA2A · Local RTP
Merchant accountCleared at initiation
COMMTRAC POSterminal 0042
Table 1243.20 CAD

Awaiting palm. No card. No device.

Direct account to account

The terminal

A payment in the time it takes to wave

The customer rests a palm over the terminal. Commtrac resolves who they are and which account they approved, initiates the transfer on the local rail, and clears it into the merchant account.

Enrolled once, recognized everywhere

A customer who links their palm at any Commtrac POS can pay at every Commtrac POS, with every bank account they choose to connect. There is nothing to carry and nothing to re enroll.

Presence is the credential

The payment is authorized by the customer standing at the terminal. There is no card number to skim, store, or test online, and no card network in the transaction at all.

The back office already knows

Every terminal ships with Commtrac Clearing at no charge, so the sale reaches order management, CRM and accounting systems the moment it initiates.

Worked example

Dinner in Toronto, 43.20 CAD

A customer finishes dinner and owes 43.20. They rest a palm on the terminal. An Interac e-Transfer leaves the account they linked and arrives in the restaurant’s own bank account in under ten seconds. No card is presented, no processor sits in the middle, and the restaurant keeps 43.10 of the 43.20.

What happens

01

The customer rests a palm on the terminal at the table.

02

Commtrac recognizes them and the bank account they already approved.

03

An Interac e-Transfer leaves that account for the restaurant.

04

The restaurant’s own bank account is credited.

What never happens

No card is presented, tapped, or kept on file.

No card network, acquirer or processor takes a share of the bill.

The customer never types an email address, an account number or a memo.

Nothing is installed. There is no app on either side of the counter.

3.1

Deviceless, cardless checkout

The customer presents a palm, approves, and leaves. No card, no phone, no wallet, and nothing between their bank account and the merchant account except the domestic rail.

3.2

Link once, pay anywhere

A palm enrolled at one terminal works at every merchant running Commtrac POS, and a customer can hold multiple linked bank accounts behind the same signature.

3.3

Local rails, straight to the account

Sales settle over the domestic real time rail directly into the account the merchant already banks with. There is no processor balance, no batch schedule, and no one holding the funds in between.

3.4

A fixed fee, not a percentage

Settlement costs a flat dime whatever the ticket. A dime on a 40.00 lunch and a dime on a 4,000.00 banquet, with no interchange and no volume tier negotiated over the merchant.

3.5

No chargeback surface

Real time rail payments are final when they move. With no card network in the transaction there is no chargeback mechanism to abuse, and with no card number there is nothing to steal.

3.6

Commtrac Clearing included

Each terminal comes with a Commtrac Clearing deployment free of charge, so instant confirmation, reconciliation and back office sync arrive with the hardware.

The route

Every middleman, itemized. Then removed.

A card sale is a queue of parties, and each one bills the merchant for its place in line. A Commtrac sale is one transfer between two bank accounts. Pick a party and read what it does on the card route, what it takes, and where it stands when the sale runs account to account.

Party to the transaction
Party registerroute: account to account
PartyCard network
Role in a card saleRoutes the authorization, sets the rules
Takes from the ticketInterchange and assessments, a percentage
In a Commtrac saleNot present

Integration

What adoption looks like

01

Place the terminals

Each terminal arrives with Commtrac Clearing deployed at no charge. Set it on the counter, connect it, and the clearing side of every sale is already handled.

02

Connect the merchant account

Sales settle over the domestic real time rail directly into the bank account the business already holds. There is no processor account and no balance waiting to be paid out.

03

Wire in the back office

Order management, CRM and accounting systems connect through the included clearing deployment, so every sale reaches them the moment it initiates.

04

Customers enroll once

A customer links their bank and palm at any terminal a single time, and enrollment is network wide, not per store. Someone who enrolled at another merchant walks into yours already recognized: they scan their palm and pay.

05

Sell

The customer scans, the transfer moves account to account, and the sale clears for a flat dime. No percentage, no batch schedule, no waiting for your own money.

The network

Where the terminal sits

01

The Commtrac API

The same account linking and payment initiation, delivered as an API for checkout on a page. What the terminal does at the counter, the API does online.

02

Commtrac Clearing

Ships installed on every terminal at no charge for the software. Sales are confirmed, reconciled and posted to the back office the moment they move.

04

Commtrac Messaging

Steps in when the sale crosses borders. A Canadian paying at a terminal in the UK settles with Comtell, which syncs the cross border payment through to the merchant.

Next step

Put Commtrac to work against your own volumes.

Tell us the rails you run and the institutions your customers bank with. We will walk through what it looks like on your existing stack, and what it costs at your volumes.

Contact sales
Commtrac

Global settlement infrastructure