Adding Schedule Options to Payment Portals

This article explains how to configure a payment portal for customers to create their own payment schedules. 

Payment portals can be configured to include the following schedule options:

• Pay in full today
• Make 4 equal payments
• Make payments of a minimum amount
• Flexible schedule start dates

Requirements

1. Your account must be set up to take card and/or check payments.
2. You must be assigned to a Security Group that has the roles allowing Schedule and Portal Configuration.
3. Schedule Service must be active for your account. An easy way to know if this service isn’t active is if you don’t see the “New Schedule” option in your account’s primary navigation. Send an email to support@pdcflow.com if you’d like Schedule Service to be activated for your account.
   

CONFIGURE a Portal to include schedule settings

1. Navigate to CONFIGURE > Portal
2. Either Add a new Portal or edit an existing Portal
3. In the Settings tab, Select the Schedule Options you’d like to offer in the portal:

• Pay in Full Today (this is required)
• Make 4 equal payments
• Make payments of a minimum amount

1. Configure the Schedule Allowed Start Days to any number of days between 0–31. Setting this to 31 will allow customers to start their schedule up to 31 days in the future. Setting this to 0 will require all schedule’s first payment to start the same day the schedule is created (if the schedule settings allow).

CONFIGURE Schedule Settings

1. Navigate to CONFIGURE > Schedules > Settings to set up or edit the account’s schedule settings.
2. In the Setting tab, configure the general settings for all schedules including the GLOBAL MINIMUM PAYMENT. This setting will be used to automatically calculate the smallest payment amount allowed in a payment schedule. 
3. In the Fields tab, configure the SCHEDULE INTERVAL. This setting (generally set to default to Monthly frequency) will be used to automatically calculate the start date for schedules.
4. Save any changes.
5. Navigate to CONFIGURE > Schedules > Maximum Terms Table to review and define how many months a schedule for a given amount may last.
6. Save any changes.

What Customers Experience When Creating a Schedule 

After you’ve saved your portal and schedule configurations, when a payer visits a portal to make a payment, they will enter their payment information. If the payment amount qualifies, they will be offered payment options, which may include:

1. Pay in full today
2. Make four equal payments*
3. Make payments of a minimum amount
4. Select a start date for the schedule

If the payment amount only qualifies for 1, 2, or 3 payments, the schedule options and preview will automatically adjust to offer the allowed options. 

The payer must acknowledge and accept the payment before creating the schedule. After creating the schedule, the payer has the ability to view, download, and email the schedule and payment receipt.

CONFIGURE Notification for Schedule Created

If you’d like to be sent an email notification whenever a schedule has been created via portal, configure a Schedule Created Notification.

1. Navigate to CONFIGURE > Notifications
2. Edit the Schedule Created event and add your email address
3. Click Save

Note: In order to trigger notifications, the Portal template’s  'Posting Notification' must be set to Yes.

Search and View a Schedule’s Transactions in REPORTING

You can search for scheduled transactions by origin. The Origins that relate to schedules include:

1. REM: recurring, scheduled transaction created by an employee
2. RWE: recurring, scheduled transaction created by a payer who used a web portal
3. EXT: indicates a transaction submitted via integration

You can also search for a schedule: 

• By using the filters options for Portal templates 
• By Schedule