Epicor Eclipse payment processing, branch-level payment automation for electrical, plumbing and HVAC distributors

Why Eclipse distributors add Payment Hub, and what changes when they do

Eclipse is exceptionally good at the electrical and plumbing distribution problem: branch inventory, job accounts, order generations, will-call and delivered lines on the same ticket. Payment acceptance was bolted on later, and it shows at the counter and in the AR office.

The Eclipse distributors we work with tend to run the same way. Contractors buy on job accounts and pay by statement, which means checks, a lot of them, matched by hand. Counter sales on a card go through an EPX terminal that knows the order but not much else. Anyone who wants to pay online calls the branch or emails a card number to the credit department. The AR team spends the first week of every month applying cash and the rest of it chasing the balance.

Payment Hub connects those pieces. A contractor pays a job invoice from a link, or logs into a portal that shows every open invoice across the branches they buy from, or pays at the counter on a terminal tied to the generation being picked up. Each payment posts to Eclipse as a cash receipt applied to the right generation invoice, at the right branch, on the right GL account. The credit department reviews instead of keys.

Payment Hub vs Epicor Payment Exchange on Eclipse, honest side-by-side

Epicor Payment Exchange integrates with Eclipse at the counter and on orders, and for card-present sales it does the job. Payment Hub is about everything after the counter: invoices, statements, portals and the cash application behind them. Many distributors run both.

The fair summary is that EPX is a counter solution and Payment Hub is an AR solution. A distributor with two branches and a small job-account book can live on EPX alone. Distributors add Payment Hub when cash application across generations eats the credit department's month, when contractors ask to pay online, or when someone finally looks at what Level III would save on the contractor card mix.

Epicor Eclipse payment processing, built around job accounts, generations and branches

Electrical, plumbing, HVAC and PVF distributors on Eclipse sell to contractors on job accounts, from several branches, on orders that ship in generations. Integrating Payment Hub with Epicor Eclipse keeps everything Eclipse and Epicor Payment Exchange already do at the counter, and adds the receivables side of that business:

• AR automation. Statement autopay, installment arrangements on past-due job accounts and reminder emails run on a schedule for each branch, with dunning when an attempt fails. Every run posts to Eclipse as an ordinary cash receipt, so the credit department sees it where it already works.
• Cash application and payment reconciliation. A payment applies to the generation invoice it settles, at the branch that owns it, so one contractor order that invoiced four times reconciles as four receipts. Unapplied and on-account payments post with the customer and branch already set, and the processor deposit ties to each branch's cash GL account.
• B2B payments shaped like contractor buying. A deposit on special-order gear, card-present payment for the generation picked up at will-call, then one portal payment across the generations delivered to the job site. Each lands against its own invoice.
• Credit card processing fees and surcharging. Where state law and card-network rules allow it, Payment Hub applies a disclosed surcharge to credit card payments on account and posts it to Eclipse as its own line. Debit cards are never surcharged, in any state.
• Customer payment portal. Contractors with jobs at several branches see every open invoice, by job and by branch, in one login, read live from Eclipse. Their AP team pays by card or bank account without calling the credit department.
• ACH payments. ACH and eCheck sit on the same invoice links, statements and autopay as cards, which suits waterworks and utility distributors billing large project invoices. Each settles to Eclipse as a cash receipt like any other payment.
• Level 2 and Level 3 interchange. Contractors pay electrical and plumbing distributors on purchasing and commercial cards. Payment Hub attaches the Eclipse order lines (product, quantity, unit price, tax and ship-to) to each eligible payment, instead of a one-line invoice summary.
• Visa CEDP. Visa now grades commercial card payments on that line-item data, and under its schedule effective April 18, 2026, a payment whose data fails validation is priced the same as one that sent none. Visa doesn't publish its exact criteria, which is why the detail comes from the real Eclipse order lines rather than a typed summary.

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