Enabling Credit Card Payments
OpenApply integrates with the following credit card payment gateways:
- Stripe
- Cybersource
- Braintree
- Hosted PCI
- PayPal Express Checkout
- Alipay
- Flywire
These providers remit payment in regular periods and each charge processing fees. They handle the credit card information securely and allow OpenApply to remain PCI-compliant (i.e. OpenApply does not touch or store credit card information). It is necessary to contact the payment gateways directly to find out which one best suits your needs.
To configure credit card payments in OpenApply, it is necessary to establish an account with one of these supported providers. Login to your account with the provider to find the keys and IDs needed for OpenApply.
Once you have enabled credit card payments in OpenApply and added the required keys (more on this below), follow the instructions here to enable payments on a form.
You may wish to submit a small test payment to ensure that the credit card integration has been configured correctly. Some of the payment gateways also provide test keys and test credit card details.
Once credit card payments are enabled, if a parent chooses to pay by credit card while completing a form (or if credit card is the only payment method enabled), they will be required to enter their card details to make the payment, before they submit the form.
Stripe Integration
To configure the Stripe Integration with OpenApply, navigate to Settings > Payments.
First, copy the Secret Key and Publishable Key from the 'API Keys' section of your Stripe account, and paste them into the payment settings in your OpenApply account.
Next, copy the Webhook Callback URL from the payment settings in your OpenApply account.
Log into your Stripe account and access your Dashboard's Webhooks Settings - https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/webhooks. Click +Add endpoint to reveal a form to add a new endpoint for receiving events.
Paste the Webhook Callback URL that you copied from OpenApply. Choose the first version that is available to select (not the latest version). Click receive all events, then click Add endpoint.
In the Webhooks settings, Click to reveal the Signing secret. Copy this, and past the Signing secret under the Stripe keys in Settings > Payments.
Please note, you can ignore the All events warning for Event types in Webhook details.
Once you have taken the above steps, you will be all set to process secure online payments through OpenApply and Stripe.
For more information about API keys of Stripe, please visit Stripe's Documentation site and search for API keys for relevant tutorials.
Applicant View - Invoices & Fees
If credit card processing has been enabled, parents with Outstanding or Past Due invoices will have the option to Pay Now.
Once the required credit card information has been entered into the form and the Make Payment button has been clicked by the parent, the credit card will be processed by the selected credit card processor. If the payment is successful, the invoice will be automatically reconciled and marked as Paid.
Payment Failed
Sometimes, the parent's payment may fail, or the parent may inform you that they have paid, but the payment is not visible in OpenApply.
As a first step, we recommend to log into your payment gateway (such as Stripe), to see if any action is required on your side, or if there is any record of the attempted transaction in the gateway itself.
In relation to Stripe in particular, Stripe will allow you to process payments for a certain length of time without verifying your account, but then it will prevent payments until the account is verified. In this case, parents may receive an error message, 'Payment failed, please try again', but the payment never works.
If you are experiencing this error, and no parents are able to pay, then it is necessary for you to log into your Stripe and verify it, in order for payments to resume.
Following this, once you have double-checked your Stripe account, if there is still an issue with processing payments, you can contact us at support@openapply.com to investigate further.