Payments, done in the right order: terms first, estimates in writing, money kept safe.

Choose how you want to start

Start now: what you get, and exactly where the work stops

For clients who already know they want to begin. The down payment buys a defined discovery engagement under your domain, and the work stops at a clear, predictable point.

How start-now works:

1. Email help@eliostech.com with your company, domain and the payment need in a line or two.
2. We reply with the written terms for the $8,000 down payment and a secure payment link from our processor.
3. You read and accept the terms, then pay on the processor's secure hosted page.
4. Your kickoff goes on the calendar, and discovery begins.

Please never send card numbers by email, text or chat. Card details are entered only on the processor's secure hosted payment page.

How we run a payments domain engagement

Every engagement follows the same sequence, so you always know what has been done, what remains and what it will cost.

1. 1

   Open the accounts

   We work with you to open and organize the accounts the domain needs: merchant and gateway accounts, sandbox and portal access, boards and shared documents, with access set up the safe way from day one.

2. 2

   Find the subject-matter experts

   We identify the people who actually know the flow: finance, operations, IT, your processor's support contacts and vendors. Each one is named, with a clear role.

3. 3

   Discover the remaining effort

   Working session by session with those experts, we map the payment flow end to end and list what is done, what is missing and what is risky.

4. 4

   Move forward with written estimates

   Each next phase becomes a written estimate with scope, assumptions, exclusions and options, so you can budget before you commit.

5. 5

   Track ideas into reality

   Approved estimates become epics and stories on a visible board, so you can follow each implementation idea from proposal to a live, reconciled payment flow under your domain.

The commercial flow: legal terms first

This is how EliosTech sells its own work, and it is the same terms-first pattern we recommend when we design a client's checkout. Clear terms, accepted before payment, protect both sides and keep payment processing clean.

1. 1

   Terms shown first

   Before any payment, you see the engagement terms in plain language: what the down payment covers, that it is non-refundable regardless of satisfaction, and where the work stops.

2. 2

   Terms accepted and recorded

   You accept the terms in writing. We keep a record of which version you accepted and when, and the same terms appear on your receipt.

3. 3

   Down payment through a secure processor

   You pay on the processor's hosted payment page. EliosTech takes payments through Worldpay and Slim CD, including American Express, and never handles raw card numbers.

4. 4

   Discovery under your domain

   The down payment funds discovery: accounts, subject-matter experts, the payment flow map and the remaining-effort list.

5. 5

   Estimate offers delivered

   You receive written estimate offers for the remaining work, each with scope, price, assumptions and exclusions, plus a readout call to walk through them.

6. 6

   Your decision: stop or proceed

   End services at the estimate offers with no further obligation, or approve an estimate in writing and we schedule the next phase.

Plain-language terms

• The $8,000 down payment is non-refundable, regardless of satisfaction. It pays for discovery time that is reserved on the calendar and delivered.
• Terms come before payment. You accept the written terms before any card is charged.
• The estimate stage is a real exit. After the estimate offers, you may end services with no further obligation.
• No surprise work. Nothing beyond discovery starts without your written approval of an estimate.
• Change requests are estimated too. If scope changes, you get a revised written estimate before the work changes.

These are EliosTech's own commercial terms, summarized. The signed engagement terms govern. For your own customer-facing terms, have your counsel review the final wording.

2026 payment-safety practices we build in

When we recommend a payment implementation, for example a checkout processed through Worldpay or Slim CD with American Express and the other card brands, these are the practices we design for and then estimate into the remaining work on your domain.

Keep card data out of your systems

• Hosted payment pages or hosted fields from the gateway, so card numbers never touch your servers, email or spreadsheets. This shrinks PCI DSS scope.
• Tokenization for saved cards and recurring billing; never store security codes.
• In person: EMV chip and contactless terminals, and validated point-to-point encryption where your processor offers it.

Meet PCI DSS v4.0.1 as it applies in 2026

• The future-dated v4.0 requirements have been mandatory since March 31, 2025. Where they apply to your validation type, that includes an inventory and authorization of scripts on payment pages and change and tamper detection on those pages.
• Confirm your self-assessment type with your processor or QSA. Then document it, so the next audit is a review, not a project.

Authenticate and screen fraud

• 3-D Secure 2 for card-not-present payments where it fits the business. American Express SafeKey is Amex's version.
• AVS and CVV checks, velocity limits and processor fraud tools, tuned to your real order patterns.
• Multi-factor authentication on every gateway and merchant-portal login, least-privilege users, and separate API keys per environment, rotated on a schedule.

Build integrations that fail safely

• TLS 1.2 or higher, signed webhooks verified on receipt, and idempotency keys so a retry never charges twice.
• Settlement and refund data reconciled back to the ledger every day, with exceptions routed to a named owner.

Get the commercial rules right

• Confirm how American Express is accepted through your processor, for example an acquirer program or a direct Amex agreement, and what that means for pricing and settlement timing.
• Show refund, cancellation and non-refundable terms before payment, record acceptance, and repeat them on the receipt. That is what a processor looks for when a dispute arrives.
• Add surcharges or convenience fees only after checking the card-brand rules (Amex has its own) and state law.

ACH and bank payments

• Nacha's 2026 fraud-monitoring rules took effect on March 20, 2026 for the largest participants, and on June 22, 2026 for all other non-consumer originators and third parties. ACH flows we design include risk-based fraud monitoring and account validation.

Worldpay, Slim CD and American Express are trademarks of their respective owners. EliosTech, Inc. is an independent technology consultancy, not a processor, acquirer, gateway, QSA or law firm, and claims no partnership, certification or endorsement from them. We recommend and implement compliant flows on the platforms you contract with. Your processor, QSA and counsel make the final compliance calls.

Where EliosTech helps in the payment flow

The hands-on work between an idea and a posted, reconciled payment:

• Checkout and payment-flow design: terms-first checkout, hosted payment pages, saved-card and recurring billing, receipts and refunds that match the disclosed terms.
• Processor and gateway integrations: gateway and processor maps, API interfaces documented against one data contract, webhooks, settlement and ERP reconciliation.
• Commercial payments and receivables: requirements for lockbox, electronic lockbox, integrated receivables and remote deposit; cash application and exception handling; field validations and audit search.
• Core banking APIs and client portals: account management, disputes, demographics and audit search, with requirements traceable from story to test.
• Subscription billing and partner payments: account state, payment posting and partner payment walls.
• Delivery discipline: epics, UAT, data-migration checks and Change Board readouts with stakeholders across teams and time zones.

We read XML and JSON payment payloads, map source fields to posting and exception outputs, and write the field-level data maps engineering builds from.

Straight talk: some buyers need ACH, NACHA or ISO 20022 as a credentialed specialty. We support those programs on the requirements, mapping and delivery side. If you need a certified ACH rules specialist or a QSA sign-off, we will say so on the fit call and scope our role accordingly.

Rates (market-competitive, stated up front)

Why these numbers: they sit in the senior payments and technical analysis band: domain ownership, not commodity staff augmentation. Contracting through EliosTech, Inc. (C2C preferred; W2 when the total package is strong) covers the entity, insurance, accounting, invoicing and one accountable owner. Longer terms and prepaid work move the rate down; short notice and onsite days move it up.