MeetMax provides several options for registration events to incorporate payment processing. This post is not specifically about configuring payments in your MeetMax event but instead about the different alternatives for how to process those payments.

• A brief introduction to Payment Processing
• Have MeetMax process payments for you
• Process payments with a merchant account
• Process payments without a merchant account

A brief introduction to Payment Processing

In order to more effectively weigh the options available to you, it is important to understand some of the jargon and structure of the payment processing world.

• Payment Gateway:  The payment gateway is a merchant service that authorizes credit card or direct payments processing. It is not the same as the payment processor which will be described later. You can think of it as the "doorway" that allows you to transfer payment information between a processor and the payment portal (the MeetMax checkout page). MeetMax supports two popular payment gateway providers: Authorize.net and PayFlow Gateway.

• Payment Processor:  The payment processor is typically a financial institution which actually processes the payments on your behalf. Which payment processors are supported is dependent upon your payment gateway. For example: at MeetMax we use the Authorize.net payment gateway with Chase Paymentech as our payment processor.

• Merchant Account:  (also referred to as Internet Merchant Account) This is a special type of account that allows a business to accept debit or credit card payments over the Internet. If you choose to set up your own Payment Gateway account then you will also need to establish an internet merchant account. The process of setting up an internet merchant account can take several weeks so please plan accordingly.

Have MeetMax process payments for you

By far this is the easiest solution, insofar as it is "turn-key". Within the MeetMax application you can simply navigate to "Configure" --> "Event Settings" --> "Enable Features".

In this interface you will click "Yes" to the question "Do you want to use MeetMax to process credit card transactions?". The form will then ask "Will MeetMax hold payments in it's bank on your behalf?". You will want to leave this in the default position of "yes".

This will enable various payment processing menus within the application and place the event in "test mode" for payment processing.

There are several other steps to take within the application to configure your payment structure (not covered here) and you will need MeetMax Technical Services to set the event to "live mode" once you're done testing, but that's it. There are no additional hoops to jump through or vendors to deal with.

Please contact MeetMax Sales for specifics on processing fees when using MeetMax as your payment processor. Funds are remitted to you within 30 days of your event's conclusion, in order to allow for any potential refunds before the final remittance is sent.

Process payments with a merchant account

There are additional options for those of you who either already have an internet merchant account or intend to do a lot of payment processing (which would justify the investment of time and energy to set up your own account).

As noted above, MeetMax supports two prominent Payment Gateway offerings: Authorizet.net and PayPal's PayFlow Gateway.

In order to utilize this option, you will need to first set up your Payment Gateway account and choose a supported Payment Processor.

Once you've completed this, you will need to take some additional steps within the Payment Gateway configuration to allow for API integration. These steps are different for each gateway so we've created some videos to help you along.

• Setting up Authorize.net to allow for API integration
• Setting up PayFlow to allow for API integration

Each of these videos will conclude with specific credentials that you must share with MeetMax Technical Services (which they will need to use for establishing back-end configuration files).

Once all of this is complete, you will go to "Configure" --> "Event Settings" --> "Enable Features" and respond "Yes" to the question about processing credit card transactions. Then select "No" to the question about MeetMax holding payments for you, and select the appropriate payment processor.

Process payments without a merchant account

Somewhere in between having MeetMax process payments on your behalf and going through the process of establishing your own internet merchant account is PayPal Payments Pro.

Signing up for a Payments Pro account will allow you to receive payments directly into your bank account without the need to establish your own internet merchant account or payment gateway.

To learn more about this option, please contact the PayPal Payments Pro sales representative for MeetMax at:  [email] or [phone]

This option, as with the previous one, will require some additional configuration once your Payments Pro account is set up. Please watch the video below to learn what steps need to be taken in order to configure your account for API integration.

• Setting up PayPal Payments Pro for to allow for API integration

Now that you've set up your payment processor, you will need to configure payments for your event. Check out our knowledge base article or submit a ticket to ask for help from MeetMax Technical Services.