Small Farm Central

Here's a step by step process to help you get Member Assembler's Scheduled Payments tool up and running.

1. Adding the Return Policies and Exchanges To Your Site

In order for Authorize.net to 'accept' your farm as a legitimate financial organization, you'll need to post a few new things to your site: your farm description, your privacy policy, and your refund/cancellation policy.

* First, add your farm description (which you probably have already added, when you first created your site. If not, head to Create Content / Description and write a few sentences about your farm.)

* Second, add your privacy policy. A default privacy statement will automatically show up when you head to Member Assembler / Scheduled Payments / Authorize Config. You must review and adjust accordingly to your farm's procedures. Be sure to add your contact information at the bottom of the agreement.

Privacy Policy for Scheduled Payments

*Third, add your refund policy. (You'll see that this box is below your privacy policy section.) When you're finished with all three sections, click Save Changes.

2a. What is authorize.net?

Authorize.net is an online payment gateway that allows you to accept credit card payments for your CSA. They have special technology that allows for the storing of credit card information (on their secure servers) and allows us to charge those credit cards at a later date on your behalf. So, for automated scheduled payments to work, you will need to sign up for authorize.net.

Authorize.net is only a technology provider. You will need another company, a credit card processor, to actually verify the transactions that go through the system & take money from your customers. This could be your bank if you already have credit card processing capability for your farm or we can set you up with a new merchant account through Total Merchant Services. It will take less than an hour with us on the phone to get your application filled in.

This process of signing up for Authorize.net and a credit card gateway may seem a bit confusing and tedious, but it is necessary for a system like this to work and you will get a lower processing rate than using a more simple processor like PayPal. Once the sign-up process is done, we can take over from there and you won't need to deal with the folks at Authorize.net.

2b. Signing Up For Authorize.net

If you've gotten a new merchant account from TMS, send us your login information and you can skip this step. Otherwise, head to Authorize.net to sign up.

The signup process for Authorize.net can be confusing; if you have any questions at all, along the way, feel free to contact us here or give us a call at 412.567.3864.

One of the first screens will ask you about signing up for 'value-adding products', including Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) AND an Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS). You do not need to check any of these boxes.

Authorize.net will process your information, which typically takes up to 7 to 10 business days. (2 to 3 days for Authorize.net's approval and 5-7 business days for credit card processors).

3. Entering Your Authorize.net Info Into Your Small Farm Central Site

Head back to your Member Assembler / Scheduled Payments / Authorize Config page. At the top of this page, you'll see fields for your "API Login Name" and your "Transaction Key". Enter these two pieces of information from your Authorize.Net account.

Notes if you are doing this yourself: When you initially created your Authorize.net account, it was created in 'Test mode'. You'll need to turn the test mode off, when you are ready to test your automated payment. Look for the red 'test mode' box when you are logged in to your Authorize.Net account.

Also, you will need to enable Authorize.net's Customer Information Manager (CIM) package. This service allows us to store credit card information for your members in a secure area and then charge these credit cards later in the payment schedule. This is absolutely essential for the Automated Scheduled Payments service to work.

Entering In Your Authorize.Net Transaction Key

4. Creating Your New Schedule Template

Now it's time to create your payment schedule. Head to Member Assembler / Scheduled Payments / Schedule Template.

* Enter in CSA Description. (For example: Fall Signups)

* Enter in your downpayment that you require for this CSA. (You can enter a dollar amount or a percentage.)

* Enter type of downpayment type (Dollar amount or percentage.)

* Enter in your first payment date (When would you like your first payment, after the downpayment, to happen?)

* Enter in your payments recur (how often would you like your payments to happen? Monthly? Weekly? Bi-weekly?

* Enter in number of total payments.

* Enter in a sample balance for preview and uncheck "Enable schedule template for new signups". This will allow you to see the breakdown of your payments, before enabling it and making it 'live' to your site.

Check out your Schedule Preview for Sample Balance. Need to make changes? No problem. Just adjust the Settings for the Current Schedule Template. Once you're happy with Schedule Preview, check the box "Enable Schedule Template For New Signups" This will make the Scheduled Payments an option when your customers check out.

5. Exploring the Misc Settings

Let's take a look at few additional options that you might want to review, before going live with your Scheduled Payments. Head to Member Assembler / Scheduled Payments / Misc. Settings. Here you can:

* Set the default payment type to 'Pay in Full' or 'Payment Schedule' (This means that whatever option you chose will be the first option shown. The other types of payments will be available by customers clicking on a link below the default payment method.)

* Suppress your payment notification. We recommend that you leave this box unchecked, so that your customers are in the loop with their payment schedule.

* Hiding American Express or Discover. You may not be able to process these types of cards, depending on your account with Authorize.net. You can hide these options here, so they are not available to your customers.

* Edit your outgoing 'Successful Checkout' message. This email is sent to your customers after they finish the checkout process successfully. This email is in addition to the email they'll receive about their order.

6. Receive Approval from Authorize.net.

You should receive information in approximately 7 to 10 business days regarding your Authorize.net application. Once you have been approved, you can move on to testing your Automated Payments at checkout.

7. Final Steps

Now that you have added your refund policies to your site, received approval from Authorize.net, and created a Schedule Template, it's time to test out your payment process. You should test out the order process COMPLETELY.Use a valid credit card...you can void the transaction after you've completed the process and received a successful order confirmation email)

You'll need to select the Member Assembler Payments option in your checkout configuration. Head to Member Assembler / Configure / Checkout and choose the Member Assembler Payments option.

Head to the public side of your site and do a test sign up. When you head to your checkout page, it should look like this.

Checkout Page #1

Click on the Member Assembler Payments button to continue the process.

After you submitted the payment, you should receive a confirmation email for your test purchase (the email that is sent to the Customer) PLUS an email confirmation about the order (the email sent to the Farmer).

If the confirmations worked properly, your Automated Payment schedule is working! If something is amiss, it would be a good idea to disable this as a payment option, until you have solved the issue.