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Whenever a payment is required as part of registration, the
online form will automatically total the amount owing by each participant
based on the selections they make.
Early bird pricing can be set up to automatically change at a set
date and time and member/non-member prices can also be set.
We offer five different ways to handle payment collection. Event
Planners determine the options available on their registration forms.
1. Cash
Participants paying by cash will see a screen showing the total
they owe and instructions about how to make their payment after
they submit their registration. These details can also be sent to
participants via email. When the event planner receives the payment
they update the online payment report.
2. Cheque
This option works in a similar way as paying with cash except participants
will see instructions about how and where to send their cheques.
3. Request an invoice
Some participants may require that the event planner send them an
invoice before their company will issue a cheque. The online payment
report shows event planners which participants require invoices
when this option is selected.
4. Credit Card Automatic
This method of handling credit card transactions processes transactions
in real time. From the online from, participants enter their credit
card information and click “submit”. Within a few seconds they know
if the transaction is approved or declined. Results of each transaction
are automatically recorded in the event database along with the
rest of the information from the registration form.
To facilitate these transactions a gateway company is used as the
link between the online form and the bank. Gateway companies verify
credit card numbers and then send the transaction data to the bank
for processing. The bank reports back to the gateway company with
approved or declined status. If approved, funds are transferred
into the event planner’s bank account, if they are declined the
person registering will be informed and be given the opportunity
to try again.
The main advantage of this system is that it eliminates manually
processing credit card transactions. This method does require you
to open an online merchant account with your bank and does have
fees charged by the bank, the gateway company and ePly. The additional
fees can be easily offset by the savings in labour if a significant
number of credit card transactions are expected.
5. Credit Card - Manual
With this method credit card transactions are not processed at the
time online registration takes place. When participants submit their
registration, all of the data they entered except for the credit
card information is sent to the event database. Credit card information
is encrypted and emailed to the event planner to avoid storing credit
card numbers on our web server.
The encrypted email that is sent to the event planner includes the
credit card number and expiry date, name on the card and amount
owing. Using an application provided by ePly, the event planner
deciphers the transaction details and processes the transaction
as if the information was obtained via phone or fax. After processing,
the event planner is able to update the online database with the
status of the each payment to keep the database up to date.
The main advantages of this method are that no online merchant account
is required (a standard merchant account that many businesses already
have is sufficient) and the only processing fees are from the credit
card company/bank. The disadvantage is that some manual labour is
required to process each transaction. For this reason event planners
typically use the automatic processing described above if they are
expecting more than 300 credit card transactions, but it depends
on the availability and cost of labour, the ability of the event
planner to open an online merchant account and other factors.
Please contact us
directly for more information about payment processing or to
request
a proposal.
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© 2003 ePly Services Inc.
www.eply.com
