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Managing Payment Types

The Managing Payment Types feature allows administrators to control which payment methods are available throughout the system. Its primary purpose is to enable organizations to define new payment options, assign them to specific user types (e.g., Staff, Students, Public), and configure their usage for subscriptions or guest payments, ensuring strict alignment with internal financial policies. This article is intended for OPS-COM administrators responsible for configuring financial workflows and checkout experiences.

Setup and Configuration

This feature is a core administrative tool used to establish the payment gateways and offline payment methods accepted by your organization.

Admin Side: Administrators must have the appropriate system role permissions enabled to access the payments configuration menus and manage the list of payment types.

User Side: End-users interact directly with these configurations during the checkout process on the parking portal. The specific payment options they see are dynamically determined by the configurations applied to their assigned user type.

Using this Feature

Administrators can use the following instructions to navigate the management interface to seamlessly add, configure, and review payment types.

Accessing the Management Interface

  1. Hover over System Configuration, click Payments, then $ Setup Payment Types.

Adding Payment Types

The following example outlines how to set up an offline payment type using the Always Successful provider. This configuration allows payments to be immediately flagged as fully processed with no admin intervention, which is ideal for scenarios like payroll deductions where the actual funds are handled outside of OPS-COM.

  1. Click the Add Type button.

  2. Select Always Successful from the Providers drop-down menu.

  3. Click the Next Step button.

  4. Enter a descriptive title into the Type Name field (e.g., Payroll Deduction).

  5. Select the specific User Types this payment method will be available to.

  6. Navigate to the Settings tab and enable the necessary checkboxes for your requirements.

  7. Review the Allowed Payment Types section to see active payment types listed first, followed by inactive ones.

  8. Click the Update Payment Type button to finalize the addition.

The list of Providers in the drop-down menu is hard-coded and securely controlled by Tomahawk. You cannot manually edit this picklist. Hover over the tooltip below the provider to view an explanation of what each provider entails.

Configuring Payment Types for Subscriptions and Guests

You can easily fine-tune how specific payment types are utilized for recurring subscriptions and guest checkout flows.

  1. Locate the specific payment type you wish to configure in the list.

  2. Click the Pencil icon next to the entry.

  3. Click the Settings tab.

  4. Enable the checkboxes for the items you wish to allow this payment type to be used for (e.g., enable the Text2ParkMe checkbox, the subscriptions to permit renewals checkbox, or the guest payments checkbox).

  5. Adjust the Prompt Information settings to define what data is collected. You can enable only an email address or mandate full address information.

  6. Click the Update Payment Type button to apply your changes.

Full address information is strictly required when the payment provider performs Address Verification using AVS, 3DS, or a similar security service. This configuration also controls what information fields appear on the QR Code reservations screen after the payment type is selected.

Hosted Payment Providers

Setting up a hosted payment provider requires specific credentials from your merchant account. Once you retrieve the required values from your provider of choice, save the credentials securely and contact OPS-COM Support for further configuration instructions.

  • OpenEdge: Requires an Auth Key (multi-digit string), Terminal ID (8-digit numeric key), and an X-Web ID (12-digit numeric key).

  • Moneris Checkout: Requires a store_id, an api_token, and a checkout_id.

  • Bambora Checkout: Requires a Payment Authorization Header and a Profile Authorization Header (both alphanumeric passcodes).

The information obtained from your hosted payment provider serves as the critical security credentials that encrypt the financial information exchanged between OPS-COM and the provider. It is vital that these keys are stored properly and securely to ensure complete operational security for your organization.

Extended Payment Information

For each active payment type, you can view extended information directly on the main management screen. This includes:

  • A general description of the payment type.

  • An indication of what the user will be prompted for when selecting that method (e.g., in a hosted payment scenario like EdgeExpress, the user might be prompted to enter an email address before being redirected to the credit card entry portal).

  • The total number of users currently associated with this payment type.

There are also three columns on the far right that use an X or a checkmark to indicate specific permitted uses:

  • Column 1: Indicates if this payment type can be used for guest payments.

  • Column 2: Indicates if this payment type can be used for permit and invoice renewal payments.

  • Column 3: Indicates if this payment type can be used for Text2ParkMe subscriptions.

Processing as an Admin

When administrators are manually processing payments on the backend, the available payment types presented in the interface will be split into two distinct categories:

  1. The payment types the specific user is normally allowed to use based on their assigned User Type.

  2. The administrative payment types an admin can choose to override with, which often includes additional options not visible to the end-user.

Best Practices and Considerations

  • Implement granular control: Leverage User Types to restrict payment methods. Ensuring users only see relevant options (e.g., only allowing "Payroll Deduction" for Staff users) prevents processing errors and unauthorized selections.

  • Maintain a clear user experience: Simplify the checkout process and reduce confusion for users. Limiting available payment types based on precise contexts or user designations makes the portal much easier to navigate.

  • Ensure refund alignment: Ensure that appropriate refund types are linked to their corresponding payment types. This configuration facilitates smooth and financially accurate refund processing when reversing transactions.

  • Verify subscription compatibility: Verify that the chosen payment gateway provider fully supports recurring transactions. This is a critical step before enabling any payment types for recurring billing subscriptions.

  • Conduct regular reviews: Periodically review your payment type configurations and their associated settings. This routine audit ensures your payment gateways remain perfectly aligned with your organization's evolving financial policies.

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