Configuring Customer Portal payments (Pin Payments)

Modified on Fri, 22 Dec, 2023 at 1:44 PM

Allowing customers to view and pay their accounts through the customer portal will save you time and money. Families make payments online and those payments are receipted onto their family account automatically and completely admin-free.

We currently have two online payment providers - Payrix and Pin Payments. We recommend Payrix, especially if you are considering offering Direct Debit as a payment option as Payrix is our Direct Debit provider. Pin Payments is only for online payments. Both providers are fully integrated with SimplySwim.

This article guides you through configuration of your site where Pin Payments is your payment provider.

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Pin Payments Account

Before you can configure your site to accept online payments, you will need to have set up an account with Pin Payments.

If you have not yet set up your account, follow this link to get started with Pin Payments.

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Merchant Fees

Pin Payments charges a processing fee and a surcharge (percentage) fee for each online payment transaction. This section shows you how to configure your system to on-charge these merchant fees. The vast majority of businesses choose to pass on these fees to their customers in full, making this a zero-cost and admin-free solution to collecting your payments.

If you wish to absorb fees, you can skip to the next section.

Passing on fees

The surcharge is set up as a POS item and then linked to the tender type and online payments configuration. It will appear as a separate line in the family finance. You can create a separate Revenue Type for it in SimplySwim for reporting if required.

More information on what you can charge can be found here: https://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of-card-payments-regulation/q-and-a/card-payments-regulation-qa-conclusions-paper.html). For financial advice specific to you and your needs, please speak to your accountant or financial/business advisor.

Step 1 : Create your POS Item

Note: You may wish to add in a new POS Item Category and/or Revenue Type first if you wish these to be separated out in reporting.

1. Go to Configuration, click on POS Items and then Add Item.

2. Fill out all fields and "Save".

a. Enter a name in the Item Description and Description on Receipt (example "Online payment surcharge"). Note: The Item Description is the name that appears in your POS Items list, the Description on Receipt is what will show on the family finance.

b. Sell amount is 0.00 (reason being you need to put a percentage amount elsewhere, explained below).

c. Select a POS Item Category.

d. Do not tick "Show on QuickSell screen".

e. Do not tick "Is this a Pass Item?".

f. Enter your tax type. If you are unsure of your tax type, please speak with your financial advisor.

g. Select your Revenue type.

Save.

An example of the POS Item:

Step 2 : Create / update your Online Payment Tender

Now you need to create / update your Online Payment tender type.

1. Go to Configuration and click on Tenders.

2. Click on "Edit" next to your Online Payments tender type. (If you do not already have a tender type for Online Payments, simply create one - see this article for more information: How to create a new Payment Type / Tender).

3. Tick the box "Tender attracts payment surcharge".

4. In the "Invoice Item to Charge" dropdown menu, select your surcharge POS item you created above.

5. Enter the percentage surcharge amount you wish to charge (for example if charging 1.75%, you would enter it as 1.750). Leave out the percentage sign.

6. Click on "Update Tender" to save the change.

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Configuring Online Payments in your system

Step 1: Direct Debit & Online Payment Provider Configuration

This setting is found at Configuration -> Direct Debit & Online Payment Provider Configuration.

This setting only needs to be configured once. You will need your configuration details from your completed Pin Payments account before this can be configured.

a) Click on Pin Payments from the provider list.

b) Tick the "Provider Enabled" box, complete your settings as advised from Payrix (see below) and save changes. Contact support if you have issues with this.

Settings guide:

Provider Enabled: Tick
Tender type: select your Online Payment tender type
LIVE Publishable Key: you need to copy and paste your LIVE PUBLISHABLE key. Make sure you select the correct key or your payments will not work.
LIVE Secret Key: you need to copy and paste your LIVE SECRET key. Make sure you select the correct key or your payments will not work.
Currency Code: AUD (note, if you are not operating in AUD, please contact Support)
Test Mode: Do not tick.

Click "Save Configuration" when you are done.

Step 2: Online Payment Settings **

This setting is found at Configuration -> Online Payment Settings.

This setting only needs to be configured once. You must have configured a payment provider first (step 1 above) and you will need your configuration details from your completed Pin Payments account before these Online Payment Settings can be configured.

Settings guide:

Portal Payments Enabled: Tick
Payment Provider: Select Pin Payments from the dropdown menu. (Note: This needs to have been configured in the Providers described in step 1 above).
Tender type: Select your Online Payment tender type.
Surcharge Enabled: TICK if you want to pass on associated fees. If you wish to absorb fees, leave unticked.
Smart Fee Calculation: TICK if you want to pass on associated fees. If you wish to absorb fees, leave unticked.
Surcharge Transaction Fee $: If you are passing on fees, enter your surcharge transaction fee amount (refer to your Pin Payments agreement). The example below is 30 cents. If you wish to absorb fees, leave as 0.00 or blank.
Surcharge %: If you are passing on fees, enter your surcharge % amount (refer to your Pin Payments agreement). The example below is 1.75% (1.750). If you wish to absorb fees, leave as 0.00.
Surcharge Invoice Item: Select your Online Payment Surcharge POS Item from the dropdown menu. (If you are absorbing fees, no need to make a change).
Surcharge Amount Set by Provider: Refer to your Pin Payments documentation for this setting. If your eCommerce payments are set as:

- "Payer Paid": Tick the box.

- "Business Paid": Do not tick this box.

Click "Save Family Portal Payment" when you are done.

** Note: The settings here override any settings on your Online Payments Tender and these settings will be the default settings.

If you do not wish to pass on any charges, set all amounts to 0.00 / blank and do not tick any surcharge boxes as below:

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Following this setup, Online payments will automatically attract a surcharge fee according to the percentage you place in your configuration. When families go to make a payment in the portal, the surcharge percentage and dollar amount will be displayed. You will notice that the "Processing fee" and "Total amount" fields have a grey background - these fields will automatically update depending on the "Payment amount". If the family changes the payment amount, the processing fee and total amount with automatically update.

If you do not pass on fees, the "Processing Fee" field will not display.

Example:

When a family makes an online payment, it will be receipted automatically on their family finance. The surcharge fee will display on a separate line.

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Check that your online payments are working

After you have configured your customer portal options (including adding in your API Keys and configuring your surcharge if you are passing one on), it is a good idea to check that your payments are working correctly.

To do this, login to the family portal for your test family or your family account (or go to your test family account/your family account screen in SimplySwim and click on "Edit Customer Portal Options" and login to the portal that way).

Go to "Make a payment" and then pay a small amount (e.g. $1.00) off the account to check that it is all working correctly. If not, contact Support for assistance.

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For those using accounting exports

*** note - if you run an accounting export from SimplySwim, you could set up a clearing account to reconcile payments. The reasoning for using this approach:

- Pin Payments collects the whole amount from the customer. This amount is reflected on the customer account in SimplySwim and movements in MYOB/Xero for the control account. This amount is customer related.

- Pin Payments charges you an amount for processing the payment. This amount is a cost to the business, attracts GST, and needs to be reconciled to the merchant invoice/statement issued by Pin Payments each month (needed for GST reporting). This amount is not customer related, and therefore is not reported by or exported by SimplySwim to MYOB/Xero.

- In cases where you charge your customer a fee to make a payment, this amount is reflected on the customer account in SimplySwim as an invoice (revenue) and is reported and exported to MYOB/Xero as revenue. Whilst this amount may be close to or match the amount charged by Pin Payments, the amount charged to the customer by you and the amount charged by Pin Payments to your business are not related, and should not be considered to be related. The amount charged to the customer is Revenue, whilst the fee charged by Pin Payments is a Cost to the business.

- Additionally, using a clearing account for these payments allows you to show the amount owing to you by Pin Payments at any time on the balance sheet - useful for EOFY reporting where transactions have been processed in one FY but will be remitted in the next FY.

Please speak with your accountant/financial advisor for further guidance about this.

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Last updated: 22 December 2023