now any merchants, businesspeople or organizations with a great idea that would translate well to the Web and Internet sales? Know any services you would recommend to them for accepting and transacting credit cards and checks and managing the entire e-commerce process?

Setting up merchant accounts, whether on or offline, is just so much easier when there's one resource to look to for everything from submitting the applications to setting up the shopping carts, managing member Web sites, risk management, fraud protection and round-the-clock help desk services.

Netbilling provides all of this and then some, with flexible programs to suit a variety of business needs, security and low rates. Automated recurring billing and password management for membership and subscription-based sites are also among the features setting Netbilling apart from other gateway services.

For ISOs, this means being able to offer options many of their customers might not have considered, which results in additional revenue. Netbilling also has a lucrative referring-partner program in place, which means even more revenue.

As merchants take their businesses to the Web, they often find that they need a combination of any or all of the options Netbilling has to offer. Mitch Farber, President of Netbilling, said since starting the company in 1998, he has worked with people who started out doing $1,000 worth of transactions with Netbilling a month; some of these businesses are now generating $10,000 in transactions every day.

"We are a premium processing service for Web sites," Farber said. "There are lots of gateways around. We used a lot of merchant feedback in setting up our system." He credits his company's unique position with the variety and flexibility of the options built into their system, which allow merchants of all kinds to accept online payments.

Netbilling's complete processing solution includes real-time credit and debit card transactions, ACH processing, online check authorizations and fund transfers. Netbilling will help set up the merchants online, getting the applications approved quickly, opening the accounts, setting up a free Web-based application for shopping carts with links to a secure server and designing custom e-mail and payment forms.

Advanced fraud-scrubbing tools that merchants can configure to their specific needs also are an integral part of the secure environment. The risk-management option prevents user errors such as duplicate transactions, allowing only a certain number of transactions in the system. Netbilling also has a large proprietary negative credit card database, to which its subscribers have access.

Netbilling's system is completely compatible with other platforms, including Unix and Windows NT.

Beyond the technical aspects and variety of services Netbilling offers, Farber said, "We're really proud of the customer service we're able to offer merchants. We go in and educate them when we set them up. We really pride ourselves on the fact that we handle merchants from start to finish, helping them online and selling their products and services."

Farber also said Netbilling's 24/7 call center "has been a huge hit. The call center is staffed round-the-clock for live calls or e-mails, meaning that Netbilling takes care of the customer-billing inquiries, telephone, product orders, Web site cancellations and e-mails. This allows the merchant to focus on marketing while Netbilling manages the call center and e-mail communications on their behalf."

While most of Netbilling's merchants are based in the United States, Farber said it has customers all over the world and is able to process for international accounts. Netbilling has offices in Santa Clarita, Calif., and Scottsdale, Ariz., staffed by 30 to 50 employees.

A one-source access to all the various components necessary for merchants to conduct e-commerce is definitely a bonus for busy ISOs. Netbilling has implemented a referring-partners program to take a lot of the headache out of account management.

Karen Campbell, Director of Sales for the company, explained, "There's a lot of frustration among ISOs with other gateway services. There have been several ways that businesses get referred to a gateway, where the ISO is reselling the service and provides customer support to the merchants."

Farber said, "Other gateways sell services to ISOs, which they can then in turn mark up, add fees to, etc., when they bill their merchants. Our system works better. And the ISOs are not involved in any billing - we'll do it for them."

Netbilling only processes transactions but will process any type, Campbell said, whether for products, services, memberships or subscriptions. The merchants who process with Netbilling, though, must have a domain name in place and a site hosted by a hosting company.

"We've developed a new way to partner with ISOs, with lots of flexibility built in," she said. "They are not resellers. They're not taking our service and marking it up. There's no ISO time spent on customer support - they're able to spend time selling."

Farber said, "The ISOs don't have to support merchants. There is no set-up fee - it's waived for our referring partners. With the flexible pricing we offer, ISOs can make money referring small- to medium-size merchants with monthly residuals."

Netbilling pays its referring partners 10 percent in residuals per month based on what they bill the merchant. "It gets people in the door cheap," Farber said.

Campbell said, "We have an in-house merchant account specialist who works with several banks to pre-qualify and process merchant applications. Or we can send the applications to several outside providers we've developed relationships with. Netbilling gets a good buy rate for both kinds of accounts - pre-qualified and those we send out - and we're able to pass those on to the merchants."

Campbell said the programs are flexible - 1.5 percent and 15 cents per transaction or, for merchants selling higher ticket items, a flat rate of 45 cents when the average transaction is more than $20. The company will offer volume discount pricing as well.

Netbilling's secure processing and rebilling features help set it apart from other gateway providers. Credit card and ACH check processing for all online transactions, simple per-transaction fee schedule, fraud prevention, totally compatible shopping cart and membership site management and 24/7 service center for merchants are designed with reliability and security in mind.