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Setting up a Stripe payment gateway

Antony Campitelli
Updated

What is covered in this article? 

The steps shown below will assist you  in integrating your Stripe Payment Gateway with ‘Apply’ to allow for efficient payment and processing of online application fees.

Step 1: Create a Stripe Account

 Create a Stripe account by working with your School’s Finance or IT Department since other information, such as bank account details, will be required to complete your setup. Stripe offers a complete payments platform with strong security and flexible integration options. 

Visit https://stripe.com/en-au

Once your Stripe account has been set up, you will be required to set up the payment gateway in Apply. This is done via Admin > App Integration and will require Stripe API keys. An API key is a simple encrypted string that identifies an application without any principal. 

Every account has separate keys for testing and for running live transactions. All API requests exist in either test or live mode. In the first instance, we recommend using Stripe’s Test API keys prior to switching to live information.

There are also two types of API keys: 

  • Publishable: API keys are meant solely to identify your account with Stripe; they aren’t secret. In other words, you can safely publish them.
  • Secret: You must keep your secret API keys confidential and only store them on your own servers. You must not share your secret API key with any third parties and note that Enquiry Tracker does NOT store the secret key anywhere.

Since a secret API key can perform any API request to Stripe without restriction, for greater security, you should also create a restricted API key that limits access to, and permissions for, different areas of your account data.

Step 2: Create Your Keys

Generate the following three TEST API keys via the ‘Developers’ menu:

  • Publishable Key
  • Secret Key
  • Restricted Key

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Note: The Developers menu requires full admin user rights and for this reason we recommend that your Finance or IT Department also complete this process.

ET_Stripe_CreateRestrictedKey.jpg

  • Leave all Resources set to NONE, with the exception of PaymentIntents and Webhook Endpoints which must be set to Write

ET_Stripe_RestrictedKey.jpg

Integrating Your Payment Gateway into ‘Apply’:

To ensure that schools feel confident with the payment gateway processes, Enquiry Tracker recommends commencing your integration in a test environment. As a result, Steps 3-5 will focus on working with test information prior to using live data.

For the purposes of testing, Enquiry Tracker recommends that schools unpublish or hide their live application forms (where applicable and only required for schools who currently utilize a live version of Apply). This will ensure that prospective families are not using your application form during testing.

We recommend contacting your school’s IT Department/Web Developers to determine the best way to disable your live form as solutions will vary depending on your website backend.

If you require additional support with this task, please contact the team at Enquiry Tracker at support@enquirytracker.net

Step 3: Get your Test keys

If you do not have access to Stripe, your IT or Finance department will need to provide you a copy of your Test and Live keys.  These can be retrieved from your Stripe Dashboard.

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Step 4: Add Your Keys to Enquiry Tracker

Once logged into Enquiry Tracker, go to Admin > App Integration and scroll down to the section labelled ‘Stripe’.

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Enter your TEST Publishable Key and Restricted Key in the fields provided.

ET_EnterTestKeys.jpg

  Note: Your Test Key should commence with the prefix ‘pk_test’ and Restricted Key should commence with the prefix 'rk_test'.  Likewise, your Live keys will start with ‘pk_live’ and 'rk_live'

 

If entered correctly, your ‘Gateway Status’ should switch to ‘Active’

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Step 5: Enable the Payment Gateway on your form

Using the sidebar menu, go to Admin > Forms and click the ‘Settings’ cogwheel.

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Step 6: Set Fee & Currency

Scroll down to the Fees & Discounts section and enter your desired application fee and currency (i.e. $1 AUD).

ET_FeesDiscounts.jpg

 

  Note: For the purposes of testing, we recommend setting an initial application fee of $1 in the first instance. Once comfortable, you can amend the fee to your school’s desired amount.

 

You can also determine what the fee should be in the event you do not wish to absorb the Stripe fees.  Please see this article for information on how to compute this number/

Step 7: Enable Gateway

  • Select Payment Gateway as your Payment Type.
  • Click Save
  Note: Schools who opt to use the Payment Gateway method will no longer have the option to utilize other payment methods (E.g. Cash, Cheque). Families submitting an application will only have the option to pay via Credit Card using the Stripe gateway.

 

Step 8: Edit Application Form

You will now be required to update the payment amount on your actual application form which is visible to parents.

  Note: When the payment gateway has been enabled the Credit Card payment section will automatically appear on the Payment Stepper under APP FORM> Edit.
  • Using the sidebar menu, go to Admin > Forms and click the green ‘Editing’ pencil.
  • Click the Payment section of your application form via the top stepper.
  • Open the Field Visibility panel on the right hand side and open up the Payment control.
  • Make sure Amount Due is set to visible - this will add a new Field label and the Amount on your form.
  • Click Save and Publish’
  Note: If you had already been using the Pay Later option, you may need to edit the description for the Application Fee field as it may have previously contained the Amount Due. It is important to make sure that the payment amount information is listed only once.

 

ET_PaymentStepper.jpg

Step 9: Test Your Payment Gateway Integration

Enquiry Tracker recommends running a test transaction through your online application form to ensure the Payment Gateway is working accordingly. To do this, simply complete an application form online via your school’s website or by accessing the Form Permalink through Enquiry Tracker. The latter is preferred and much easier.

  • To access the permalink, go to Admin > Forms and click the settings icon.
  • Scroll down the page and locate the Form permalink section
  • Click COPY URL
  • Open your browser and paste the URL

ET_Permalink.jpg

  • Start an application and enter in all required fields.
  Note: When you arrive at the Payment Section, you must use Stripe test cards to test the transaction; real credit cards will not work.
  • Enter in one of the Stripe test credit cards.
  • Submit the payment and you should get a success message.
  • Complete the application process.
  • Log back in to Stripe and confirm the transaction went through.

ET-Strip_SucessPayment.jpg

As part of the testing process we recommend that you check your personal payment records and Stripe account to ensure that the transaction made has been processed.

 

  Note: You can find a full list of Stripe’s fees and charges via: https://stripe.com/au/pricing

 

Step 10: Go ‘Live’ With Your New Payment Integration

Return to your Stripe account and switch over to live API keys. We recommend working with your school’s Finance or IT Department for this process

You will require live versions of your Publishable Key and Restricted Key.

 

  Note: Your Restricted Key will need to be recreated

 

Step 11: Enter in Live Keys

Repeat Step 3 – replace your existing test API keys in Enquiry Tracker with your LIVE versions.

If entered correctly, ‘Gateway Status’ should switch to ‘Active’

Step 12: Test a Live Transaction

  • Repeat Step 9: Testing Your Payment Gateway Integration
  • Use a real credit card
  • Make sure the transaction was successful in Stripe

Step 13: Update the Fee & Go Live!

As per Steps 4 and 5, you will now be required to adjust your application fee amount. Do this via the sidebar menu in Enquiry Tracker

  • Go to Admin > Forms and click the Settings icon
  • Scroll down to the Fees & Discounts section and enter your desired application fee and currency (e.g. $75 AUD)
  • Click Save.
  • Publish your form one last time to make sure the changes go live
    • Go to Admin > Forms and click the pencil icon
    • Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Publish
  • Last step: push your online form back on to a live page so families can continue the application process

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