How do I set up Offline Payment Methods?

Shift4Shop allows you to set up payment methods which do not need a merchant account (such as Shift4 Payments or PayPal Checkout) to accept payments online. These are intended for when you'd like to accept money orders, checks, cash, or any other form of payments you accept for your store that are not credit card based. All offline payments will have to be manually processed once the order comes through. You can set the offline payment methods to go to the 'Unpaid' status automatically until the funds have been processed. This section will be broken into each method of payment and show you a step-by-step process of how to set up the more common offline methods.

Offline Payment Methods

To setup Offline Payment Methods

1. Go to Settings >Payments
2. Under the "Payment Methods" section, click on "Select Payment"
3. Click on the "+Add New" button located towards the top right
4. Using the available fields, configure the following information:
   • Country:
     This allows you to specify which Country this payment method will apply to
   • State:
     This will allow you to specify which states of the Country selected this payment method will apply to
   • Payment Method:
     Using the drop down menu, scroll to the very bottom of the list and select one of the pre-configured offline payment methods (Money Order, Check, Cash, COD, or Custom)
   • Order Amount Min/Max :
     Use the Minimum and Maximum fields to create a range that this offline payment method will apply to.
   • Customer Group:
     This will allow you to specify if this payment method should only apply to a certain Customer Group
5. Click on the "+Add" button to finish the initial set up.

These steps will complete the initial set up of the offline payment method. To fine-tune the same method, follow these next steps:

Settings

1. Scroll down to the bottom of the page until you reach "Additional Gateways" where you will see your newly added payment method.
2. Look to the far right of the method and click on the "settings" link.

From here, you can add additional requirements to the payment method as needed. For example, for checks, you may require the check number to be included on the order.

To request/require this:

3. Type in the name of the requirement you'd like to have.
4. Specify its length and make it a requirement if needed
5. You can click the "+Add" button on the requirements to add additional fields.

Advanced Settings

Clicking on Advanced Settings will allow you to edit the previous settings (mentioned above) as well as:

• Confirmation Msg:
  This is the message that the customer will see once they have completed an order using this payment method. You can use this field for additional instructions for this payment method (i.e. If it is a Money Order you can specify the address that the Money Order should be sent to)
• Description:
  This is the description that will display to the customer describing this payment method

Check

Your Shift4Shop store comes with a Check payment option pre-installed for you. All you need to do is turn it on

1. Go to Settings >Payment
2. Look for the "Payment Methods" section and click on the "Select Payment" button

You will be presented with a page where your payment options will reside. This includes several pre-installed modules at the very top of the page

3. Look for the payment option labeled "Check"

To the far right of the Check option, you will see a toggle switch. Clicking on the switch will turn the payment option "On" (Green) or "Off" (White)

4. Turn the module ON
5. Click on the "Save" button at the top right to commit your changes.

Settings

There are also additional settings that you can configure on this Check payment method. If you look to the far right of the option, you will see a link labeled "Settings"

Clicking on this link will expand the module to display the following settings for you.

• Caption
  This is the label of the payment option as it will appear on your store's checkout page.
• Input Fields
  Below the caption field you will see a series of input fields that will appear along with the check option. These will be used by your shopper to let you know the check number of the payment that they'll be sending.
  • Name
    The name of the input field
  • Type
    The type of input for the field. This will always be set to "Text"
  • Length
    The character length (number of digits) of the input field.
  • Order
    The sorting number used for the input field.
    Not used in this situation
  • Required
    Mark this checkbox if you require the shopper to input the check number. They will not be allowed to checkout if there is no information added to the input field when they attempt to use it.
  • Hidden
    Mark this checkbox if you don't need to collect check numbers. It will hide this from the store front.

Advanced Settings

While viewing the regular settings of the payment module, you will also see a button labeled "Advaced Settings."

Clicking on this button will let you further customize the payment option to meet your particular needs. Your settings are as follows:

• Order Amount Min: & Order Amount Max:
  Use these fields to set the price range that needs to be on the order for the payment method to display.
• Customer Group:
  Use this to specify whether the customer needs to belong to a certain customer group in order for the payment method to display
• Order Status:
  Use this to specify which status the order will go into once it is completed. For something like a check or money order, you would likely want this to be set for the "Unpaid" status so that the order is not processed as "New" while you wait for the payment to arrive/clear.
• Country/State
  This pre-built payment method is set for all countries and all states. However, you can use the Exclude list if there are certain locations that you would like to block from using this payment option.
• Confirmation Msg
  Type the message that you'd like to display when the order is complete.
• Description
  Anything typed in here will display on the checkout page when the shopper selects this payment option.

Once you have configured your settings, be sure to click "Save" at the top right of the page to commit your changes.

Money Order

To add an offline method of payment for Money Orders:

1. Go to Settings >Payment
2. Click the "Select Payment" button under the Payment Methods section.
3. At the top right of the page, click on the "+Add New" button.
4. In the Add New Payment Type section, select the country and state you would like this payment method available to.
5. In the "Payment Method" drop down menu, select "Money Order"
   (it's all the way towards the bottom of the list)
6. Enter the minimum and maximum value orders can be to use this payment method.
7. Select the customer group you would like this payment method applicable to.
8. Then click on the "+Add" button to continue

These steps will have created the payment method, but you will have additional settings that can be further configured.

9. Locate your newly created Money Order Payment method on the list of Payment methods.
   (It will be listed under "Offline Payment Methods" at the bottom of the page.)
10. Click on the "Settings" link to the far right of Money Order

Once there, you may change the "Caption" of the payment method to whatever you'd like it to read on the store front. Below the caption field, you will see a button labeled "Advanced Settings" which will give you the following configuration options:

• Order Amount Min; & Order Amount Max:
  These were set during the initial creation of the payment method (see step 6 above). Here you can edit them as needed.
• Customer Group:
  This was set during the initial creation of the method (See step 7 above). Here you can edit the setting as needed.
  
  • "All"
    will make the method available to all of your shoppers - regardless of the pricing group they belong to.
  • "None"
    will make the method available to shoppers who do not yet belong to a customer group
  • "Phone Orders"
    will make the method available only when using the Phone Orders function.
  • Individual Group
    Or you may limit the use of the payment method so that it applies only to one of your existing customer groups
• Order Status
  This setting will determine which order status that orders using this method will automatically go into. Your choices are New or Unpaid.
  Since it is an offline payment method, you will likley want it to go to unpaid, since you'll be waiting for payment to arrive.
• Country/State Exclude List
  When you initially added the payment method, you set the country and state that it would apply to (See step 4 above)
  With the "Edit Exclude List" link, you can further limit which countries and/or states that are excluded from using the method.
• Confirmation message
  This will display to the customer once the purchase has been completed – Example: Thank you for your business!
• Description
  This is Optional. The description will display next to the payment method – Example: Make money orders payable to ABC Company.

Once your advanced settings are configured, click the "OK" button to set them. Finally, click on the "Save" button at the top right to commit all of your changes.