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Automated Payment Methods

Automated payments allow your space to collect payments each month automatically - without any of the manual follow-up.

Amanda avatar
Written by Amanda
Updated over 4 months ago

Setting up automated payment methods for your members is a great way to quickly and easily receive payments. We offer several integrations with some of the most popular Payment Gateways.

After your members have entered their credit card or bank account details, payment will run automatically in the background without any action needed from you.

This guide will cover:


Credit Card Payment Gateways

The first step is to check and see which of our integrations are available in your Country. Go to Setup » Payment Methods » Add Payment Method; all gateways listed here are available to you. If you do not see one listed, then this means it is not available in your region.

Once you have decided which one you would like to connect to, you will need to sign up with a merchant account directly with them before connecting it to Cobot.

Adyen

Adyen operates worldwide and lets you accept credit cards and many local payment options. You must process a minimum of 5 Million Euro/Dollars per year to use Adyen. Please reach out to Sascha Schwägele before you sign up on their website to ensure you meet their requirements.

Authorize.net

With Authorize.net, you can accept credit card payments. Before using this, you must sign up for an authorize.net account with CIM (customer information manager) enabled.

Stripe

Stripe offers credit card payments in several countries for a fixed transaction fee plus a percentage. Signing up takes a few minutes. Do you already have members in Stripe? We can import their data. Contact us.

Stripe credit card payments are currently the only way visitors can pay for Drop-in Passes or external bookings.

Veritrans

Veritrans operates in Japan and lets you accept credit cards, direct debit, and many local payment options.


Direct Debit (ACH/SEPA) Payment Gateways

The first step is to check and see which of our integrations are available in your Country. Go to Setup » Automated Payments » Add Payment Method; all gateways listed here are available to you. If you do not see one listed, then this means it is not available in your region.

Once you have decided which one you would like to connect to, you will need to sign up with a merchant account directly with them before connecting it to Cobot.

Adyen

Adyen operates worldwide and lets you accept credit cards and many local payment options. You must process a minimum of 5 Million Euro/Dollars per year to use Adyen. Please reach out to Sascha Schwägele before you sign up on their website to ensure you meet their requirements.

Authorize.net eCheck

Authorize eChecks are based on bank accounts/ACH and have lower fees than credit cards. Before using this, you must sign up for an authorize.net account with CIM (customer information manager) enabled.

Fidelity

Fidelity provides ACH payments, withdrawing money directly from bank accounts instead of using credit cards. They offer much lower fees compared to credit cards and next day payouts. For a custom quote, contact Fishel Goldstein (fishelg@fidelitypayment.com or call 1-718-801-4543).

GoCardless

We work with GoCardless (EU, Switzerland, UK, Canada, U.S., New Zealand) for direct debit payments.

GoCardless charges a processing fee for each transaction attempted whether successful or not. Let us know if you would like us to block recurring charges past the 1st attempt to avoid garnering additional charges as Cobot will send a notice to continue charging the card up to three times before failing permanently.

*This will apply to all payment methods in your space when activated.

Stripe

Not only can you add Stripe Credit Card as a payment option for your members, but ACH Direct Debits as well. We now support ACH in the U.S. and SEPA in Europe.

Activate ACH in your Stripe account, and choose which payment methods your members can see during the setup process.

Head back to Cobot and connect it to your Stripe account under Setup » Automated Payments » Add Payment Method » Select Stripe.

PRO TIP: Name it something generic so your member knows they can add credit card or their bank account, such as "Payment Method."

When your member selects this payment option, they are prompted to choose one of the options you have activated. Recurring payments will be debited directly from their account from then on.

**Currently, this is only available for member payments. It is not currently possible to activate this for non-member payments such as External Bookings or Drop-In Passes.

Veritrans

Veritrans operates in Japan and lets you accept credit cards, direct debit, and many local payment options.


PayPal


PayPal allows your members to pay with any payment methods that PayPal supports, including credit cards, bank accounts, etc. The payment process is semi-automatic, which means each Cobot invoice includes a link to pay via PayPal. When your member clicks on the link and completes the payment, the corresponding invoice on Cobot is marked as paid automatically.

IMPORTANT NOTES

  • You need to have PayPal Business or Website Payments Pro in order to connect Cobot to PayPal.

  • Invoices processed with PayPal require some manually reconciling when refunding or cancellations are present. See this guide for more details.

To read more on how to set up PayPal, as well as how to convert PayPal to a fully automated payment method, check out this guide.


Adding Additional Payment Integrations

If you want to offer other payment methods, you can integrate them using our API and web-hooks. Check out our API here and our relevant guide here.


Manual Payment Methods

Manual payment methods are those which you need to reconcile manually, such as cash or manual bank transfers. You can set them up the same way you set up automated payment methods under Setup » Payment Methods » Add Payment Method » Add Manual Payment Methods.

Add details about your payment method, such as cash or check. If you are adding 'Bank Transfer' as an option, add your bank details in the 'Instructions' field.

Now you can add these to your member's profile under Manage » Members » Click on member name » Payment Method » Change Payment Method.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

If you do not want your members to be able to choose a manual method as an option, check the 'Hidden from members' box. This will keep it for internal use only. You can also make any of your Manual Payment methods visible to visitors booking via the External Bookings Add-on.


Automatic Invoicing & Payment Collection

When an automated payment gateway is connected successfully, your member will be required to enter their credit card or bank account details on registration. We show you the last four digits on the member profile for easy reference. This data is captured and stored on the Payment Gateways secure servers and not on Cobot.

When an invoice is due, Cobot communicates with the payment gateway, and they charge the member's payment method. The payment status is then returned to Cobot and posted on your member's invoice. Cobot never charges processing fees; these will only be charged by your payment gateway directly, usually as a deduction from your overall collected payments.

Failed Payments

After a failed payment, the member is notified by email, and the payment is retried up to three times. If the payment fails the third time, your member will receive a "Permanently failed" email, and administrators will also be notified.

  • You can edit the admin notifications for these under Setup » Administrators » Edit.

  • You can edit the emails that are sent to members under Customize » Emails.

Editing/Removing Member Payment Methods

You can edit or remove a payment method on a member's account by going to Manage » Members » Click on the member name » Payment Method » Remove Payment Method.

Removing Automated Payment Methods

Go to Setup » Payment Methods » Remove to remove a payment method.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Removing an automated payment method will only remove the payment method option for NEW members who sign up after you make the change.

Existing members will not be affected and will maintain their original payment method.

If you would like your existing members to be disconnected from the automated payment method, please get in touch with us at support@cobot.me.

There are some instances where we can help you transfer your members from one payment method to another. In these instances, do not remove your existing payment method yet, but make it "Hidden" so no new members can select it and contact us at support@cobot.me to learn more.

Turning Off Automatic Invoicing Charging

If you want to turn off automatic charging of your invoices, go to Customize » Features and activate "Don't Charge Invoices Automatically."

Once active, your invoices will still be generated, but no automated charge of the member's payment method will occur. This way, you can review the invoice and click "Charge" when you are ready to collect payment from your member.

When activating this feature, you may also want to automatically stop your members from receiving their invoices by email. To do this, go to Setup » Invoice Settings » and uncheck the box "Send members' invoices by email."

If you would like to turn off automated invoicing altogether (so no invoices are created at all), just let us know, and we can do this for you.


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