Apply for a University trading account

To use the online payment service, you first need to apply for a trading account.

• Read the information about operating a trading account.
• How to apply for a trading account.

Once you have a trading account and you're familiar with the online payment processes, you're ready to create a payment form on your website using SiteBuilder.

Create an online payment form

1. Create a new form with the questions, comments and instructions you require, or browse to an existing form that you want to convert to a payments form.

2. Go to Edit > Edit formsbuilder page:

   

3. Under Modify the form, select Online payment:

4. You see the Configure an online payment form screen. Select Enable payment to expand the options:

   

5. Enter your Trading account ID. The Finance Office provide you with this after you apply for a TTS trading account. It's a long number containing numbers and lower case letters. Take care to enter it correctly.

6. Use the radio buttons to choose your pricing option:

   • Enable custom payment options

   • Use fixed price

7. Select Save.

Enable custom payment options

If you want a list of different items with different prices, select Enable custom payment option.

Note: although your customers can only select one item from a particular list, you can add as many drop-down lists (with different selections) as you like as part of the same transaction. The transaction value adds up all the amounts from the different lists for you.

1. To enable customers to pay for different items at different prices, ensure you choose Enable custom payment options in Edit > Edit formsbuilder page > Modify the form > Online payment.

2. The custom payment options are now available in the list of options under Modify the form. Select the Custom payment link. You should now see the following screen:

   

3. Give the custom payment a name by entering it in the Field name box.

4. Enter any instructions to the customer in the Label box.

5. In the Options section, enter the price of the first item in pounds and pence in the Cost field e.g. 35.00. Do not include the pound sign.

   

6. Add a Description. The price you have just entered in the Cost field does not display on the form to the customer. You could include the full price for the customer in the description field as well – for example:

   1 x night accommodation = £35.00
   

   2 x nights accommodation = £70.00
   3 x nights accommodation = £105.00

7. Select Add new item and continue adding new items to complete your first list.

8. To create a different set of options or new list, start again with a new Add/Edit a custom payment element. Use as many different payment fields as you need. For example, a conference payment form could have separate elements for conference fees, accommodation and food.

9. Optionally, enter a Pre-selected item as the default. If this field is empty, a blank choice (---) is displayed to the customer in the payment options drop-down list.

10. Specify whether this payment field is Required or optional by (un)selecting the Required checkbox. When a payment field is set to Required, the customer cannot submit the form without choosing an option from the required field. For example, a conference payment form could have a required payment field for ticket registration and optional payment fields for accommodation or food.

11. If you want the customer to be able to see the total cost of all payments (advisable as this also provides a record for you on the form submission), select Show transaction total. The transaction total is displayed at the end of the payment form, so it doesn't matter which payment field you add it to – but you only add it once.

12. Once you've finished setting your custom payment options, select Save. The published view looks like this before the customer makes their selection:

    

    …and like this (with the transaction value added) once they have made their choice:

    

13. When the customer submits the payment form, they're automatically taken to the secure online payment screen to enter their card details and complete the payment.

Use fixed price

Fixed price means you're selling one item at a price that does not vary. To use this option, select the Use fixed price radio button, and enter the amount in the Fixed price box:

Enter the amount in the Price field in pounds and pence, for example 14.99. Do not include the £ sign.

Allow any amount

Follow these instructions to let visitors make a donation to the value of their choice - for example, in the Giving or Alumni departments. It also enables you to accept varying amounts that you cannot specify, though we recommend that where possible, you control the amounts people pay and for what.

To use this option:

1. Select the Allow any amount to be entered checkbox at the bottom of the page.

2. The form does need some value in the Cost and Description fields, in the Options section, otherwise the form does not save and will generate an error message. Enter a value in the Cost field. It doesn't matter what it is (the customer will not see it) so e.g. 00.00 (pounds.pence) is fine.

   

3. Provide instructions to the customer in the Description field. In the published view they see, they will need to select Other from the drop-down list and then enter their cash amount in the Other field. So, tell them explicity what to do – for example:

   Select Other from this drop-down list, then enter the amount you wish to donate in the Other field, e.g. 24.99.

Form properties

Once your form is set up, it's essential that you edit the form properties to ensure your form functions as you intend it to.

Payment confirmation

1. Create a new page to act as a Payment success page. This is a normal SiteBuilder page, and can be located anywhere on your site - for example, under the payment form.

   Important: Hide this page from users and search results in the page properties.

2. When you have a trading account, you will be given access to the TTS (Transaction Tracking System) to manage your account at https://onlinepayment.warwick.ac.uk/payments

3. Enter the URL of your payment success page in the Success page box under the Live system and Test system options for your trading account:

   

   Note: It' i's very important that you create a payment success page and set it up correctly in the TTS system. This ensures that TTS and SiteBuilder are talking to one another. If you don't do this, the user receives an error message because there is no page to redirect the user back to after payment is complete. So, although the money is taken, the customer is unaware that the process is complete.

4. To offer users an email receipt of their form submission, ensure that your form has an Email field text box with the Field name and Label email. This email is a payment receipt, which is different from the submission receipt that is sent by the form. The payment receipt includes the transaction ID and payment amount.

5. There is a feature in SiteBuilder which enables you to test your form prior to publishing, so we recommend reading the notes on testing your payment form integration. A new payment account will default to test, so it's important to complete the setup and testing process in order for the account to be made live. Once the test is complete, you then need to change your form in TTS to be live too.

Related articles

• Online payment and TTS (Transaction Tracking System)
• Create a new form
• Form properties & notifications