Question
What are my payment processing options? You wish to know your options for receiving payment through your website.
Answer
You have the following payment options for taking registration payments, donations, and sales:
- Accept Credit Cards - Real-time Processing (RECOMMENDED)
- Accept Checks/Cash Only
- Accept Credit Cards - Manual Processing
- Accept PayPal - accept all payments via PayPal
1. CREDIT CARD PROCESSING
This is the most common and recommended option. With this option, all credit card processing is done online in real-time, at the time of the order. Credit card data is sent via an encrypted channel and is not stored in your administration area. This means that you are saving a lot of time and hassle and your constituent cards are the most secure.
If you are setting up a new merchant account, we support several 3rd party payment processors /internet gateways. Each has different terms and conditions, so contact the provider directly for more information.
2. CHECKS/CASH ONLY
This option is fine if you do not have any means of accepting credit cards, do not want to use PayPal, and expect to receive all payments in the form of checks and/or cash. The site is then used to gather all registrations and send billing receipts to users that register online. After you receive a check or cash payment, you can then update the order as paid in the Orders Report from the Reports menu.
Most customers use a combination of checks and cash, with one of the other payment processing options below. Using the site in a Checks/Cash Only mode is not recommended, as it limits the number of payment options given to your registrants.
3. CREDIT CARDS - Manual Processing
Manual Processing requires that you have access to a credit card processing machine or account as part of your business or organization. Your constituents can enter their credit card billing information online. This data is securely stored in your Administration area (from Reports -> Orders), and can be retrieved from your administration site.
An Event Administrator then runs the credit card processing manually each time a registration is made and updates the order record in the database to show that the payment was authorized and completed. The downside to manual processing is that you have to stay on top of each order, do the processing manually, and resolve any payment or authorization issues later with each customer. Note that CVV2 data cannot be stored, due to PCI regulations.
4. PayPal
PayPal is a popular online payment processing system. If you have not used PayPal before now, you may wish to do some research before selecting this option. The best feature of PayPal is that there is no setup or monthly fee for the merchant (your organization). The downside is that it requires your users to be directed to the PayPal website and they may need to setup an account there at the time they make a payment. Some people find this easy - some do not. Our websites are completely integrated with PayPal and your orders/payments will show as completed when users make payment on the PayPal site.
Note: eCheck, ACH and EFT payments are not supported, at this time.