Payments and Transaction Flow
The flow is a 3 step process, which includes:
- User/Admin link item to user
- User makes payment promise
- Admin processes payment
Step #1:
A user or an administrator links a permit to the user. At this point, there is no payment link and the item is "Awaiting Payment" since the user has not selected a payment method (made a promise of payment). As well, items (permits) are not accessible to any other system user. There is a midnight clearing list which can automatically release permits linked to users that do not have promises for payment.
Step #2:
User or admin links a payment type (ie. cheque, cash, etc.) This puts the user on the Unprocessed Payments list, and that list needs to be checked regularly. This allows a user to mail in a cheque or to stop by the office to make payment. In these cases, a user has "promised" to pay. We suggest that permits be released (Drop Payment) after 2 weeks since that offers users enough time to make payment.
Step #3:
Once payment is received (cheque is received in the mail, or the user stops by the office to make a payment) the transaction is marked as processed and the user is linked to the item. At this point, the item is marked processed and is actually (completely) linked to the user.