Payment Workflows Power Vertical ERPs
Matt Brown, Co-Founder of Bonsai, on the rise of vertical ERPs
The real pricing power in vertical ERP comes from owning a payment workflow that generic processors do not handle well. A restaurant needs tips split correctly across staff. A tour operator needs installment payments collected months ahead, then paid out across countries and local methods. When the software already runs that business, the payment product feels less like a checkout button and more like core operating infrastructure, which supports higher take rates and stronger attachment.
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The pattern is to start with workflow, then move into money movement. Vertical SaaS bundles scheduling, contracts, CRM, or booking. Vertical ERP adds payments, balances, cards, payroll, or lending so the system does not just track the business, it moves the cash through it.
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Bonsai, HoneyBook, Shopify, and Toast all fit this logic. Once software is the place where work happens, payments can become a monetization layer and a distribution wedge for higher value products like faster payouts, business accounts, payroll, and credit.
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Pricing does not have to be above market on every payment. Sometimes processing is discounted to win the flow of funds, because the bigger prize is downstream revenue from lending, payroll, balances, interchange, and higher software retention.
The next step is more vertical payment products that look invisible to the user because they are built into the job itself. The winners will be the platforms that turn messy, industry specific money movement into default workflow, then stack banking, payroll, and credit on top of that captured flow of funds.