Lost checks, armored trucks, and trips to the bank - oh my! The cannabis industry has long been plagued with burden and hidden costs of cash and check transactions for wholesale purchases due to underbanking from traditional financial institutions. LeafLink’s Direct Payments allows cannabis operators to receive funds digitally and via ACH to get paid faster with lower costs and improved transparency.
How does it work?
Direct Payments is a simplified way for sellers to increase their payment speed, traceability, and security by shifting any offline cash or check payment activity into LeafLink. With a simple bank-to-bank connection, cannabis operators can save time and money by reducing lost funds, risky cash transportation, and manual accounting tasks and errors that make it challenging to work with cash and checks.
After you've linked your bank account and an invoice has been created (either carried over from LeafLink Marketplace, or manually created in LeafLink Payments), you will see the invoice populate on your Eligible Invoices tab, as seen below. You will need to select Direct payment from the drop-down and click on Request Payment.
You will be asked to verify that all invoice information is correct, and once you formally request the payment, the invoice will populate in the Due tab on the Invoices Page, as seen below. The buyer must authorize the payment before the funds can be disbursed to you.
Once authorized, the funds will settle in your account the next business day! You can track and consolidate all your Accounts Receivable by navigating to the Paid tab on the Invoices Page. The Payment Details will be marked as "Direct Payment."
What are the benefits of using Direct Payments?
Cannabis businesses have long had to adapt to being underbanked by traditional financial institutions, leading to inefficient and costly cash and check work arounds becoming commonplace in the industry. LeafLink developed Direct Payments to cure many of our customers’ common headaches, with features like:
- Faster Time to Cash: Receive funds in your bank account faster with direct ACH transactions and stop waiting for mailed checks or cash deliveries.
- Digital Transactions: Send, track, and receive funds without leaving LeafLink to save on expenses around cash, checks, and lost funds.
- Centralized Accounting: Save time and streamline workflows with automated and connected dashboards.
- Seamless Onboarding: Sign up and start transacting in under five minutes with integrated digital onboarding and bank linking.
- Secure Data & Transactions: Connect your bank through secure account linking provided by Plaid to gain peace of mind that your data and transactions are protected.
Where is Direct Payments available?
LeafLink users in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania are all eligible to leverage Direct Payments.
How do I get started?
Since Direct Payments doesn’t require any credit underwriting to start transacting, getting started is as simple as linking a bank account for both buyers and sellers. Once our secure bank linking tool, Plaid, has connected your bank credentials to LeafLink, you can start sending digital payments automatically, streamlining your operations and reducing expenses.
If you’d like to get started, click on the Payment tab in the top left corner of the Marketplace. Note: if you do not already have a Payments account, you’ll need to click “Join Today” and go through the digital onboarding process before proceeding. Once inside your Payments account, simply link your bank account in the Settings tab and start requesting payments on the Invoices tab.