Scheduling Software for the Internet Age Processing Online Credit Card Payments Through Appointment-Plus To Get Credit Card Payments Started: http://www.appointment-plus.com/cc_services.php Version 1.0
Table of Contents Overview...3! 1. Merchant Account...3! 2. Gateway Account...4! 3. Gateway Information Into Appointment-Plus...4! Page 2 of 6
Overview Utilizing Appointment-Plus you can allow your customers (end-users) to pay for appointments and services with a credit card. In addition, if you enable the Point of Sale (POS) system your staff can process customer credit card payments through the administrative side of the Appointment-Plus system. You can also utilize Appointment-Plus to process payments with PayPal and/or PayPal Pro the PayPal systems are different than traditional card processing and are NOT within the scope of this paper. Please contact our support team or our Help section for PayPal instructions. To process credit card payments you will need the following: 1. Merchant account 2. Gateway account 3. Gateway information input into your Appointment-Plus account. Please note that even if you already have a merchant account, we STRONGLY recommend that you review the information below regarding merchant accounts. Because of the negotiating power of Appointment-Plus, our merchant account affiliate, Merchant Warehouse, offers Appointment-Plus clients processing rates that are almost always lower than their current merchant account rates. 1. Merchant Account A merchant account allows a business to accept credit cards and debit cards. This is also widely known as a payment processing or credit card processing account. This is NOT part of standard business checking accounts. Most banks do offer separate merchant accounts for their business checking clients. However, because most businesses are not familiar with the merchant account process, these banks do not always offer the best credit card processing rates. Appointment-Plus has an established relationship with Merchant Warehouse, one of the largest online merchant account providers. Merchant Warehouse is rated No.1 by Credit Card Processing Review magazine. We strongly recommend that you allow Merchant Warehouse to review your current merchant account rates even if you are satisfied with your current provider. Your rates can almost always be improved and the process is simple. In any event, procuring a merchant account is the first step of the process and takes very little work. To get started, simply use the Save money on your credit card processing link in the lower left of your Appointment-Plus account, or go to http://www.appointmentplus.com/cc_services.php and complete the short online form. A Merchant Warehouse representative will contact you to discuss your needs and rates. Page 3 of 6
2. Gateway Account Whether you have a current merchant account or are procuring a brand new merchant account, to process credit card payments over the Internet (as opposed to a card swiper), you will also need what is known as a Gateway Account. The gateway account, in essence, connects your merchant account to the Internet. The gateway provider verifies and guarantees payment of the card. There are a number of gateway providers that you can utilize with your Appointment-Plus system, such as Merchant Ware, Authorize.net and e-select (for Canada). Appointment-Plus highly recommends Merchant Ware as the gateway for two primary reasons: (1) it offers the least expensive gateway to setup and use, and (2) it is the simplest to set up. In fact, if you have a Merchant Warehouse merchant account, there are no setup or monthly fees (processing fees still apply). This is the only gateway that eliminates setup and monthly fees. Yet another reason to allow Merchant Warehouse to review your merchant account needs. In any event, you will need to procure your gateway account information. This generally consists of items such as a login, password, key number (or tran key), and/or gateway account name. Depending on which gateway you utilize, the elements you need for Appointment-Plus will vary. For example, for Merchant Ware gateway you will need: a. Your MerchantWare SiteID b. Your MerchantWare Key c. Your MerchantWare Store Name Information below describes the exact gateway information you will need in Appointment-Plus for other gateway providers (such as Authorize.net). 3. Gateway Information Into Appointment-Plus After you obtain the gateway information needed, you must then enter that information into your Appointment-Plus account. This is done by accessing the Customer Payments preferences in the company tab: Company tab > Preferences > Customer Payments Please note that if you call your customers another terms (such as clients, patients, students, etc.) the name of the link will reflect that term i.e. patient payments. See screen shot below: Page 4 of 6
Use the Company tab to access your preferences Locate the Customer Payments link depending on your system settings, you may have more or less links but the Customer Payments link can always be found near the bottom of the list When you click on the Customer Payments link, you will see the Customer Payments options. You will find several options for places in the system where payments can be made such as Gift Certificates, POS (admin payments), Appointments (customer payments), and Packages. Gift Certificate payment setup Customer-made appointment payment setup Page 5 of 6
You must set up the gateway payment information for each section of the system that you intend to use for credit card processing. The example below is for information on a Merchant Ware gateway. The system tells you exactly what information is needed for each gateway type in the event you are not using Merchant Ware (i.e. Authorize.net or others). This example is for the Appointments (customer view) payments section: Still in the Customer Payments preferences Appointments (front end) payment section 1. Select your gateway - in this case Merchant Ware 2. Enter your Merchant Ware Site ID jkjkk 3. Enter your Merchant Ware Key jkjkk jkjkk 5. Decide which preferences you want to use for customer payments for example, will you require customers to pay at the time of scheduling? 4. Enter your Merchant Ware Store Name You will need to repeat this for the other customer payment types you will utilize. For example, if you will also use POS payments or Gift Certificates payments, repeat this process for those boxes also. Page 6 of 6