Creating a Payment Group

Payment groups can be described simply as a type of group within Insight where membership requires a separate registration and has an associated cost. The applications for this type of group are numerous - from setting up one-off or regular donation schemes, and conference bookings, to ‘premium content’ areas and ‘product of the month’ clubs. This guide explains how to set up a payment group, configure it for some of the most common applications, and manage registrations.

Requirements

Before you can begin using payment groups you will need to be able to process repeat credit card payments in the UK using the Sage Pay payment processor. You will also need to setup an Internet Merchant account with your bank that these payment processors link to.

For further information on payment processors see the payment processors guide.

Creating a Payment Group

You can set a new payment group as follows:

Enter the Web Office.
Within the Site Manager area select a user group folder beneath which you would like to add a payment group. The main work area will be updated with the Summary view for this group.
Click the Advanced Options link at the bottom of this area.
Advanced options not available? You will need the group structure and payment group manager permissions in order to create payment groups. Contact your local web site administrator for the necessary permissions.
Click the Create a sub-group below groupname task.
Enter a name for your new payment group (e.g. “Autumn Conference” or “Donate Now”), then select the Payment Group option from the group type selector. If the Payment Group option isn’t available you need the Payment Group Manager permission granted.
Click the Create Group button; you will be re-directed to the create payment group wizard.
Name your payment group and then select the payment processor which will used to process credit card payments when people register for this group, then click Continue.
Select one of the payment group presets from the list. These presets are used to change some of the terminology used when people register (for example the registration button will be labelled “donate” for a donations group, but “register” for a conference group). You can change your payment group type at a later date if you wish.

Examples of how to set up some of the most common types of payment groups are given below:

Customising a Payment Group

Begin configuring your new payment group by selecting the Settings tab within your payment group. The Settings tab is further sub-divided into a number of tabs; you should work through each of these tabs in order to complete the configuration process:

Step 1 – Welcome
The welcome area allows you to configure basic settings for the group and compose a welcome article to be displayed when the group is selected from the menu.

Group Settings – the group name and payment group type were set when the payment group was created. You can change these settings if required.
Visibility – Set the dates when registration for the conference will open and close. Then select whether registration is open to site members only, or to both site members and the public.
The allow repeat registrations flag is unchecked by default when the conference/event type has been selected. This prevents site members from registering for the same conference more than once.
Welcome Article – use the document editor to create an introduction to the conference. You may wish to include links to other documents in this area (such as accommodation details and speaker biographies). A button labelled “Register” will automatically be added to the bottom of this document.
Note: your payment group will not be visible on the web site until the welcome article contains some text. If you aren't ready to test your payment group yet then you should come back and modify this article later.
Once you have finished entering information in this area click the Save button before continuing.

Step 2 – Registrations
The registrations area allows you to set whether the person making the booking can register more than one person and which items of information should be collected.

Custom Page Heading and Footer– check this option to compose a brief introduction and/or footer to explain the registration process if required.
Registrations to this group – select whether registrations can be made on behalf of others (the default setting is on for conference/event type payment groups).
Set the information required - Indicate which items of information should be collected for both the booker and any other delegates, by selecting the required option for each selection list. You can set the collection of the information to be Mandatory, Optional or Hidden entirely from the registration page.
Create web site login - In some cases you may wish to provide a login account for people registering for your payment group, login access can be granted by selecting the option ‘Upon completion, create web site login for this person’. Payment groups are independent – this means that the login account provided will allow the user to access secure content in the current group but they will not be allowed access to content which is restricted to members of your main contact database group. All delegates will be checked automatically to ensure that they do not already have a login account on the web site i.e. they will not have their password reset. You would need to give users login access if you were allowing public registrations and you wished to allow them to edit their registration.
Customising the information collected - Additional fields of information can be collected by selecting group notes on this page. See the section ‘adding additional registration fields’ for more information on creating Registration and Delegate group notes.
Once you have finished entering information in this area click the Save button before continuing.

Step 3 – Payment Schemes
The payment schemes area allows you to define when payments for your payment group are taken – for example for a conference this could be an initial deposit followed by the remaining balance. You can display details of each payment element by clicking on the appropriate scheme, the blue band highlights the current scheme being viewed.

Each payment scheme contains the following settings:

Schedule name – use this field to edit the name of this scheme if required.
Accounting Fund – can be used with a separate desktop accounting application called Business office supplied by Endis. Contact sales@endis.com for more details.
Payment processor – select which payment processor will be used to process payments for this scheme.
Note:If registrations are approved on a payment scheme then the payment processor will not be able to be changed as there will be current registrations using this payment scheme.
Gift Aid - Set to "only consenting registrations" if you wish to allow payments to be Gift Aided so you can reclaim tax on any charitable giving to your organisation, this is particularly appropraite for a "Donations". payment group.
Take payment – select when this payment should be processed – this could be as soon as the registration has been approved, a fixed number of days after approval, or on a specific/fixed date.
Each payment gives membership for – registration will make each delegate a member of the payment group. The period of time you choose to make each person a member will depend on the type of payment group you are creating:
If you are running a conference then each person who pays the full balance will usually remain in this payment group indefinitely.
If you are accepting “one-off” donations then each person who donates may be retained in the group for up to 12 months, after which they are regarded as inactive donors.
If you are using the payment groups to provide access to a premium content area then membership of the group shouldbe set to only bee active whilst payments continue i.e.if the suscription is a monthly payment then the membership of the group should be set to monthly.

You may also wish to grant membership to another content group for a period of time to allow access to companion resources for your payment group, see Step 4 Options for more information on granting membership of another group.
The recurring payments option can be selected if the payment group membership isn't set to unlimited. The recurring payments option would be used for a payment option that takes payments on a repeated basis e.g.for a "Donate Monthly" option or for a "Quarterly Club subscription"

Further payment schemes can be added by clicking the Add another payment scheme button.
Once you have finished entering information in this area click the Save button before continuing.

Step 4 – Options
The options area allows you to present delegates registering for your conference with a range of questions. You could use this to offer different types of accommodation, to give reduced entry fees for students, or to allow people to choose the payment method e.g.monthly or annually that they prefer. The selections chosen by each delegate can be used to adjust the overall cost.

The options you have created in the options area are illustrated as sub-groups of the main payment group. For example in a conference group if you had options for different types of accomodation you could therefore see how many people have elected to stay in self-catering accommodation by going to the delegates tab of the accommodation: self catering group.

Your payment group will have been created with one option by default. You can edit this option, add further options and sub-options. Below are some example of how these options may be modified:

A conference reduced ticket price for students example

Click on the Option label to reveal its settings.
The description field is the question you are asking the delegate. Edit this text as appropraite e.g.“Please select ticket type”.
Edit the choice 1 field to read “Standard delegate pass”. Set this choice to selected by default.
Click the Add Choice button to add a further ticket option.
Enter “Student delegate pass” in the choice 2 field.
Check the Affects price box for this choice.
Enter an amount for each payment scheme e.g.deposit and balance.
Change the "A user must select between… " setting to between 1 and 1 so that only one option can be selected:
Note: when a booker is registering on behalf of a number of people these options are initially applied to all delegates; options can then be personalised for each delegate in a separate step of the process.
Click the Save button to commit changes to the Options page The registration process will now display the following at the select options stage:

A monthly, annually and one-off donation example

Click on the Option label to reveal its settings.
The description field is the question you are asking the delegate. Edit this text as appropraite e.g.“Select your donation payment method”.
Edit the choice 1 field to read “Monthly Donation”. Set this choice to be unselected by default.
Click the Add Choice button to add a further donation option.
Enter “Annual Donation” in the choice 2 field and also set to unselected by default.
Repeat for the "One-off" donation payment option.
Check the Affects price box for each choice.
For each choice set the appropraite payment scheme amount to Variable and enter a suggested and minimum amount e.g.for the "Monthly Donation" choice edit the monthly payment scheme to these values.
Set the other payment schemes set the amount to Fixed and leave the value empty.
Change the "A user must select between… " setting between 1 and 3 so that one option must be selected but more than one could be selected in the case where they wished to donate a one-off sum but also wanted to give on a regular ongoing basis.
Click the Save button to commit changes to the Options page.

A more advanced example providing choices of different types of accomodation

If the default option had already been used for the delegate pass options e.g."Standard" and "Concession" then to add choices for accomodation you'd firsat need to click the Add Option button.
Enter “Accommodation” in the option name, in the description field enter “Please select from our range of accommodation”
Change the "A user must select between.. setting" so that only one option can be selected i.e..between 1 and 1.
Click the Add Choice button.
Edit the Choices 1 field to read “Self-catering” and check the affects price box.
Enter the additional cost required for self-catering accommodation in the payment scheme fields e.g.deposit and balance.
Click the Add Choice button and enter “Half-board” in the choice 2 field.
For "half-board" accommodation there are three types of apartment – silver, gold and platinum. This can be represented as a sub-option to this choice as follows:
o Click the button to add a sub-option.
o Enter type for the sub-option name, then change the A user must select between.. setting so that only one option can be selected.
o In the description field enter “Please select an apartment type”.
o Click the Add Choice button, and enter Silver in the space provided.
o Check the affects price option and enter the additional cost required for this type of accommodation.
o Repeat this process for the gold and platinum apartments.
o Set the apartment type you wish to be the default to selected by default
Note: you can add a more detailed description of each apartment type by clicking the button
Finally, select which accommodation type will be the default by setting it to selected by default.
Click the Save button to commit these changes. The registration process will now display the following at the select options stage:

Step 5 – Discounts
The discounts area allows you to provide discounts on registration for people matching certain criteria. For example, you can set up a price reduction for registered members of your web site as follows:

Click the Add Discount button.
Change the name of this discount to “Registered Members”. Add a description if required.
Select whether the discount should be a fixed amount or a percentage and enter the value of the reduction for each payment scheme listed.
In the criteria section click on the choose group link next to person is a member of.
In the group selection window click on the contact database group and select OK.
Note: the options checked in your criteria selection must all be fulfilled in order to qualify for the discount. Add further discounts using the Add discount button if you would like to offer the same discount for other criteria.
Once you have finished entering information in this area click the Save button before continuing.

Step 6 – Payment Details

This area allows you to configure what payment methods you would like to allow for this payment group. For exmple by default conference payment groups are set to accept online payments but not offline payments.

There may be situations where a delegate is not required to pay anything to attend your conference. In these situations use the treat as offline payment to bypass the credit card payment screen.

At the payment stage of the registration process, users with a login account will be prompted to select either a credit card already recorded in my wallet, or enter a new credit card number. Users without a login account will be prompted to enter credit card details.

Once you have finished entering information in this area click the Save button before continuing.

Step 7 – Confirmation
The confirmation screen provides a complete breakdown of costs for the conference and requires the booker to confirm their choices.

Registrations require approval - Set whether each registration requires approval from an administrator. For a "donation" payment group it would be appropraite to set this to unselected but usually it would be selected for a conference.
Terms and Conditions - This area also allows you to specify an article to act as a Terms and Conditions document. You should use this article to specify refund conditions and your policy for any changes to the registration.

Once you have finished entering information in this area click the Save button before continuing.

Step 8 – Completion
The final screen in the registration process confirms that registration is complete. You should use this page to thank the booker for their business and explain any further arrangements (such as ticket despatch).

A confirmation email will also be sent to each person registering as soon as the registration has been approved. Enter the text you wish to be sent in this email in the space provided.

Once you have finished entering information in this area click the Save button before continuing.

Your payment group is now ready for use.