We spoke with Annie Filice, VP of Operations at FullStack Labs, about how her company uses Mercury’s ACH authorization feature to fight fraud.
Feature: ACH authorization
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Company: FullStack Labs
VP of Operations: Annie Filice
What they’re building: A custom software consultancy with capabilities to build enterprise solutions and provide complete software development teams.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Tell us a bit more about FullStack Labs.
In our industry, clients don't necessarily have in-house technical knowledge or capabilities to build their own websites or applications, let alone customize them. So that's where we come in and provide the talent and expertise to assist them in doing so.
What has your experience been with using ACH authorization tools at other banking providers?
With our previous ACH authorization tool, our main complaint was the user interface and website experience. It was just terrible. And then there was the lack of customer service availability — anytime we had an issue, we would have to call and be on hold for hours before we could get ahold of anyone to reach a resolution.
What prompted you to want to try Mercury's ACH authorization feature?
We've been a Mercury user for a few years now, and it's always been a wish of ours to have a feature like this. So when we were invited to the beta test, we jumped on it right away.
What has your experience been using Mercury’s ACH authorization feature so far?
The Mercury ACH authorization interface and functionality are incredibly smooth and easy to work with. It's really just click-and-go as we would expect any application to be. There is also the added benefit of being able to review transactions that are not from a previously authorized vendor.
We also appreciate how open and receptive the Mercury team has been in receiving feedback and improvement suggestions. Initially, we had the beta feature turned on but immediately turned it off because the ability to approve or deny an authorized vendor transaction wasn't there yet. When transactions are flatly denied like that, it causes a lot of problems for payroll and other services. One failed payment can cause you to lose all credit or good standing with a provider, leading to delays in processing and turnaround times. I gave Mercury the feedback that the feature really wasn't functional for our organization until this could be implemented, and they listened.
Since the implementation of this additional layer of functionality, it's worked really well. Ultimately, it’s a very useful feature that gives us more control and a sense of security over what's going in and out.
What kind of vendors have you authorized so far?
Payroll services; benefit providers such as 401(k), medical, dental, and vision; various SaaS products; and other known vendors with recurring costs. Having the ability to authorize vendors alleviates the concern of a vital transaction being blocked such as payroll.
What is your company's approach to fraud prevention and how has that changed as you've scaled?
We're currently a large, internationally-based organization. I wouldn't say that there's really a marker or moment in time when we began to need ACH authorization. You could be a one-person, one-hundred-thousand-dollar company or a one-thousand-person, one-hundred-million-dollar company and still recognize the value of being able to approve or deny transactions in your account that you didn't initiate. It is simply another layer of highly valuable security.
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Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust ®️; Members FDIC.