Setting Up Surcharges with Stripe (v71.25+) and Synergetic: A Step-by-Step Guide

Owned by Brooke Noble
Last updated: Jul 29, 2024
3 min read

Our new Stripe Surcharges feature allows you to manage payment processing costs efficiently while offering a variety of payment options. This guide will help you configure surcharges for Stripe using the Synergetic system, ensuring transparency and flexibility. As always, passing costs to your community is entirely optional and this feature is offered to provide flexibility for our schools.

Why Configure Surcharges?

Implementing surcharges helps you offset transaction fees and provide a range of payment methods. You can set different surcharge rates based on payment methods, such as offering debit card payments for free and applying a small surcharge for credit card transactions. This ensures that costs are managed effectively and transparently.

How to Configure Surcharges

To use Stripe Surcharges, you must be on Synergetic version 71.25+

1.) Access settings in Lookup Table Maintenance

Log in to your Synergetic account and navigate to Lookup Table Maintenance. Here, you'll use the luStripeSurcharges table for configuring surcharges.

2.) Populate luStripeSurcharges Table

Understanding luStripeSurcharges

This setting provides a simplified way to configure surcharges. Fields such as SurchargePercent and SurchargeFixed in luStripeSurcharges correspond to CashReceiptsSurchargePercent and CashReceiptsSurchargeAmount in the luCreditCard table.

Enter your surcharge rates based on the payment methods. SurchargePercent will charge as a percentage of the transaction fee. SurchargeFixed charges a flat fee per transaction. Currently, only one of these options can be used at a time. Be sure to activate the surcharges you wish to apply by ticking the ActiveFlag

stripesurcharges.png

The system will automatically combine the surcharge values from luStripeSurcharges with the pre-populated values in luStripeSurchargesDetails to populate the luCreditCard table.

Synchronisation with luCreditCard

Changes made in luStripeSurcharges are automatically synchronised to luCreditCard, updating records where the PaymentGateway is “STRIPE.”

3.) Verify and Test

  • Review Configurations: Check the configured surcharges to ensure they are accurate. luCreditCard will appear similar to the image below (at your school, the “Country” for domestic card codes will be your own country). Ensure the SurchargePercent and SurchargeFixed values are set correctly to reflect your surcharge policy.

It is not necessary or recommended for schools to update luCreditCard directly, once they have populated luStripeSurcharges

lucrdstripe.png

  • Test Payments: Perform test transactions to verify that surcharges are applied correctly and displayed as intended

Schools / users should not modify luStripeSurchargesDetails and luStripeSurchargeType. These tables are pre-populated with values required to synchronise your configuration with luCreditCard. Please contact support if you believe the values in these tables are incorrect

4.) Communicate with Your Community

Inform parents about the surcharge structure and how it affects their payments. Transparency helps in maintaining trust and ensuring a smooth payment process.

Enjoy the Benefits

With surcharges, you can offer diverse payment methods while keeping costs in check and maintaining financial clarity. Embrace this feature to streamline payment management and enhance convenience for your community.

For further assistance or detailed instructions, please contact our support team.