Setting Up Online Electronic Payment Processing in Planning Pod

If you need to collect invoice payments or registration/ticket payments from your customers, Planning Pod integrates with several merchant payment processors so you can seamlessly collect credit card and ACH payments through our platform using one of these processors.

Note that this will require you to establish and maintain an account with one of these merchant payment processors, and you will be subject to the policies and fees of the payment processor(s) you use. Any transaction or account fees that they assess are in addition to the subscription fees you pay Planning Pod. In addition, any issues you encounter with the payment processor (for example, issues regarding fees, payouts, penalties or declined transactions) are not the responsibility of Planning Pod, and you will need to contact the processor regarding resolution.

The merchant payment processors that Planning Pod partners with include:

• Stripe
• Square
• Quickbooks Payments
• Paysimple

In addition, if you already work with a merchant payment processor and want to use them for processing payments through your Planning Pod account, we do connect to other processors via an Authorize.net gateway (additional fees are assessed by Authorize.net to maintain this service, but Planning Pod does not charge additional fees for connecting to an Authorize.net gateway).

Their associated fees and regional availability are as follows (note that all fees below are in U.S. dollars; please contact the specific payment processor for fees applicable to your country/region):

• Stripe
  • Credit card transaction fee 3.2% + $0.30 per transaction
  • Card in hand terminal transaction fee 3% + $.30 per transaction
  • ACH (E-check) transactions
  • Ability to pass credit card fees to customers
    
  • Purchase point of sale terminals to collect payments
  • Ability to track refundable deposits and authorization holds with credit cards
  • Available to businesses in 18 countries
• Square
  • Credit card transaction fee - 3.2% + $0.30 per transaction (ACH not available)
  • Available to businesses in the U.S.
    
    
• Quickbooks Payments
  • Transaction fees based on your individual agreement with Quickbooks
  • ACH (E-Check) fees based on your individual agreement.
    
    
•  PaySimple
  • Credit card transaction fee - As low as 2.39% + $0.29 per transaction
  • ACH (E-check) transaction fee - $0.64 per transaction
  • Phone and email support
  • Account fee - $10/month (special discounted rate for Planning Pod customers)
  • Available to businesses in the U.S.

With regard to transaction fees ... these will be deducted from each transaction by the merchant payment processor and your payout will reflect this amount being deducted. For example, if your customer makes a $100.00 credit card payment and you use Square as your payment processor, 3.1% + $0.30 will be deducted from that transaction (which is $3.40), leaving you with a total payout of $96.60. Planning Pod is unable to track these fees, so if you wish to view how much in transaction fees you have paid your processor, you will need to log into your payment processor account.  

NOTE: You can have more than one of these payment processors connected to your account, but only one can be active in your account and you can only process payments through the active processor in your account.

To Set Up and Connect to a Stripe Account:

To create a new Stripe account or to connect an existing Square account to your Planning Pod account:

1. Click on your name in the top left corner and select the "Settings" option.
2. Under the "Administrative & Payments" heading, click on the "Payment Processing" link.
3. Find the Stripe area; click on the "Get Started" button; and follow the instructions.

- To set up your Stripe Terminal, check out: Stripe Terminal: Setting up Your Terminal and Collecting Payments

- Learn how to add and manage credit card deposits with Stripe here: Adding/Managing Deposits

To Set Up and Connect to a Square Account:

To create a new Square account or to connect an existing Square account to your Planning Pod account:

1. Click on your name in the top left corner and select the "Settings" option.
2. Under the "Administrative & Payments" heading, click on the "Payment Processing" link.
3. Find the Square area; click on the "Get Started" button; and follow the instructions.

To Set Up and Connect to a PaySimple Account:

To create a new PaySimple account or to connect an existing PaySimple account to your Planning Pod account...

1. Click on your name in the top left corner and select the "Settings" option.
2. Under the "Administrative & Payments" heading, click on the "Payment Processing" link.
3. Find the PaySimple area; click on the "Apply Now" button; and follow the instructions.
4. A PaySimple representative will contact you to start the process of opening an account.

To Set Up and Connect to a Quickbooks Payments Account:

To  connect an existing Quickbooks Payments account to your Planning Pod account you must first have a payment processing account with Quickbooks:

1. Click on your name in the top left corner and select the "Settings" option.
2. Under the "Administrative & Payments" heading, click on the "Payment Processing" link.
3. Find the Quickbooks area; click on the "Get Started" button; and follow the instructions.
4. Once the connection is complete you must assign a Payment Account and and Income Category in the settings in order for payments to be accurately tracked in your Quickbooks account. 

To Use an Authorize.net Gateway to Connect Your Existing Merchant Account:

• Contact Planning Pod customer support for guidance.

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After You Have Connected One of These Merchant Payment Processors to Your Planning Pod Account...

• You can collect credit card payments (and ACH payments, depending on the processor) via the Invoices tool and the Registrations/Ticketing tool inside your Planning Pod account. Everything is all set up to make online payments simple for you and simple for your customers.
• Transaction information like transaction status, amount and ID number will be displayed in the relevant tool/area and will also be available in relevant payment Reports.
• You will be able to refund payments from inside the relevant tool/area; however, you will be subject to any refund windows imposed by your preferred merchant payment processor.

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Regarding Changing Your Merchant Payment Processor

If you wish to change the merchant payment processor that you use in collecting online payments, you can do so by setting up an account with that processor and clicking on the "Switch Active Merchant" button.

HOWEVER, IF YOU DO THIS, BE AWARE ... Your contacts' payment methods (Visa, Amex, etc.) are all linked to your current active merchant processor. If you change your processor, those payment methods will not be available and your contacts will be required to re-enter their payment information before you can run manual credit card payments using their stored card information. In addition, if you have scheduled automated invoice payments in your account, those will be removed and you will have to re-schedule those payments in the relevant invoices.