Payroc: 97% of Firms Lost Revenue to Slow Payment Integrations

On this page 6 sections

1. The Finding: What Payroc's Oct. 28, 2026 Research Measured
2. Where Payment Integration Problems Usually Stall
3. Hidden Costs: Delayed Launches, Abandoned Checkouts and Dev Hours
4. Questions to Ask a Processor About APIs, SDKs and Sandbox Access
5. Hosted Checkout vs. Direct API: Picking the Faster Path
6. A 30-Day Integration Plan for Small Teams

Key takeaways

• Payroc surveyed people at software companies, not merchants. Read the 97% as a sign that the problem is common, not as a measure of dollars lost.
• On a small store's project, the extra developer hours from an overrun can cost more than the sales missed during the delay. Scope comes first, and hosted options come before custom code.
• Before you sign, ask a processor for sandbox access and whether you can take your stored card tokens with you if you leave. Those two answers say the most about how fast you'll launch and how easily you can switch later.
• Submit the merchant application in week one so underwriting runs while the build happens.

Nearly every software company in a new Payroc survey says slow or complex payment integrations have cost it revenue. The figure is 97% of 750 respondents, according to research Payroc released through Business Wire on Oct. 28, 2026. The respondents build software such as booking apps, ordering systems and billing platforms; they don't run stores. Merchants still run into payment integration problems from two directions. Sometimes they're waiting on a software vendor to add a payment feature. Sometimes they're connecting a processor to their own site. Most of the fix is scoping you can finish before a developer writes any code.

The Finding: What Payroc's Oct. 28, 2026 Research Measured

Payroc, a payment-processing acquirer based in Tinley Park, Illinois, hired the research firm Censuswide to survey 750 senior professionals at software companies. That group includes independent software vendors (ISVs), which are companies that sell software with payments built in. Respondents ranged from founders and CTOs to engineers, with 250 in each of the U.S., the UK and Canada. The survey ran Sept. 2–11, 2026.

The headline numbers from the release:

Security was the most cited barrier to AI-built payment integrations (43%), followed by the cost of adoption (38%) and organizational risk (36%). Payroc's own write-up says the pattern held in every country. Between 72% and 75% of respondents in each market had delayed or rejected a payment capability, and at least 91% in each market said integration friction had cost them revenue.

Treat the 97% as a sign that the problem is common, not as a measurement of lost dollars. Payroc sells the kind of tools the survey points toward. It launched Integration Essentials, a set of prebuilt hosted payment components, on May 19, 2026. On Oct. 6, 2026, it launched Payroc for Developers, which it calls an AI-native platform. As PPC Land noted, the release gives only headline percentages. It doesn't say how much revenue was lost, which capabilities were shelved or how long the delays lasted.

The most useful finding comes from putting two numbers together. Nearly all respondents like their current provider, yet 80% say switching is hard enough to keep them in place even if they weren't happy. Payroc CTO Paul Vienneau described the cost as "launches that slip, features that never get built, markets they don't enter." None of those losses show up on a processing statement, so nobody measures them.

Where Payment Integration Problems Usually Stall

Getting the first sale approved is rarely the slow part. That step is a card authorization, the request asking the card issuer to approve a sale. The weeks get lost in the work around it:

• Account approval running behind the code. A developer can finish a test build while the merchant account is still in underwriting, and live credentials only come after approval. Businesses in high-risk processing categories should expect to provide more documents and wait longer for a decision.
• Events that happen after the sale. Refunds, chargebacks, failed renewals and settlements come later, usually as webhooks: automated messages the processor sends your system when something changes. Teams that only build for approved charges discover everything else after they go live.
• Stored cards and recurring billing. Subscription and membership businesses need tokenization, which replaces the card number with a reference token. They also need a plan for retrying declined renewals and for handling expired cards. Decline codes change over time, so renewal retry logic needs regular review.
• Payments split across sellers. Online marketplaces have to verify sellers and route payouts to them. How that works depends heavily on the provider, and it's often the slowest piece to scope.
• Authentication screens. 3-D Secure authentication adds a verification step to some online purchases. That step has to work on a phone so shoppers don't get stuck.
• Reconciliation. Deposits arrive in batches, with fees and refunds already taken out. If the payout data doesn't line up with your books, someone has to match it by hand every week.

Professional services firms usually feel these problems through their software vendor. Say a law office's invoicing software never added the ability to keep a client's card on file. Staff then end up typing in card numbers from emails and phone calls. That's the 73% finding as a merchant experiences it.

Hidden Costs: Delayed Launches, Abandoned Checkouts and Dev Hours

A slow payment integration costs money in three ways. The first is delay: every week a feature isn't live, you keep selling at your old conversion rate. The second is breakage. Rushed launches ship with errors, like a decline message that tells the shopper nothing or a verification window that fails on a phone, and buyers leave. The third is developer hours, which for a small business is often the biggest cost.

Illustrative example. These assumptions are hypothetical, not benchmarks:

• An online store sells $40,000 a month.
• A new checkout feature (saved cards for repeat buyers, say) is expected to raise sales 3%, or $1,200 a month.
• The store's gross margin is 40%.
• A contract developer bills $100 an hour.
• The project was planned as one month and 40 hours of work. It goes live in three months and takes 100 hours.

Two months of delay at $1,200 a month is $2,400 in sales the store didn't make. At a 40% margin, that's $960 in gross profit. The 60 extra developer hours cost $6,000. In total the overrun cost about $6,960, and more than 85% of that was developer time, not missed sales.

For a store this size, how you build matters more than when you launch. A hosted option with fewer features that goes live quickly often beats a custom build that does everything and runs months late. Write down exactly what you need and get a fixed estimate before work starts.

Questions to Ask a Processor About APIs, SDKs and Sandbox Access

When you're choosing a payment API, ask these questions before you sign. Send them in writing and keep the answers:

1. Can our developer get sandbox (test environment) credentials before we sign an agreement? Some providers allow this. Payroc's developer portal, for example, says teams can test in its sandbox and only need an agreement to go live.
2. Do you offer a plugin or SDK (prebuilt code library) for our platform, or will we build from the raw API?
3. Are hosted payment pages or embedded hosted fields available, so card numbers never touch our servers?
4. Which events do your webhooks cover, and do you resend them if delivery fails?
5. How do you handle stored cards, recurring billing and automatic card updates?
6. Which in-person terminals work with this integration, if we sell face to face?
7. Can our merchant application move through underwriting while we build, and what documents will you need?
8. If we leave, can we take our stored card tokens with us? This is called token portability. Without it, switching becomes a project nobody wants to start, which is the trap 80% of Payroc's respondents described.
9. Who do we call during go-live week, and what are your support hours?

Pay close attention to the answers to questions 1 and 8. If they're vague, that tells you a lot. For a broader checklist, see our guide on how to choose a payment gateway provider.

Hosted Checkout vs. Direct API: Picking the Faster Path

Payment gateway integration time depends mostly on how much of the checkout you build yourself. For a refresher on how the pieces fit together, start with what a payment gateway does when a card is approved. Here are the options, from least work to most:

The build effort column compares the options with each other. Actual time depends on your team and platform. The card data column matters just as much. PCI DSS, the card industry's data security standard, applies to any business that accepts cards. Proving you comply is generally less work when card numbers never pass through your servers. Before you commit to a path, ask your processor which self-assessment questionnaire applies to it.

A simple rule is to start with the most hosted option that does what you need. Move to a direct API only when you can name a specific feature the hosted options can't provide. If you're starting fresh, MannyPay supports Authorize.net, NMI and other payment gateways, plus integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and other carts. Ask which path fits your checkout before anyone writes code.

A 30-Day Integration Plan for Small Teams

This plan assumes a low-risk business using a plugin, a hosted page or hosted fields. A direct API build or a high-risk account will take longer.

1. Week 1: Scope and apply. List every kind of payment you need to handle: one-time sales, refunds, partial refunds, stored cards, renewals and deposits. Submit the merchant application the same week so underwriting happens while you build. Get sandbox credentials and the processor's go-live checklist.
2. Week 2: Get basic payments working, then add webhooks. Run test charges from checkout all the way through. Then set up webhooks for refunds, disputes and failed payments. Decide where each one goes: your order system, your billing tool or a specific person's inbox.
3. Week 3: Break it on purpose. Use the processor's test cards to try declines, expired cards, verification screens and partial refunds. Read each decline message as a customer would. Match a test payout to your accounting so you know how refunds and chargebacks get recorded before real money moves.
4. Week 4: Go live small. Switch to live credentials, run a few real small transactions and refund them. Confirm that the refunds and the deposit show up correctly. Then check your approval rate every day for the first two weeks. If it drops, work through these fixes for false declines.

This week, send the questions above to every processor you're considering, and ask for sandbox access in the same email. If you'd like a MannyPay specialist to look over your checkout plan and gateway options, request a free processing quote. A specialist responds to quote requests within one business day. The open question is whether integrations built with AI tools will be as fast as Payroc's respondents expect. With security the top concern at 43%, expect buyers to start asking providers to show what an AI agent changed in a payment flow and who approved it.

Sources

1. 97% of businesses have lost revenue because payment integrations were slow or complex, Payroc research finds (Business Wire release, Oct. 28, 2026)
2. The Cost of Payments Inertia: New Research Findings (Payroc blog)
3. Payroc poll: 97% of software providers say slow payment setups cost revenue (PPC Land)
4. Developer Experience (Payroc)

AR

About the author

Adrian Reyes

Adrian Reyes is Senior Payments & Fintech Editor for Beyond the Swipe, covering credit card processing, merchant accounts, payment technology and processing fees.

This article is for general educational purposes and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Card network rules and state laws change; confirm current requirements for your business.