How do I collect payment methods for my clients?

During the onboarding and transition process, there is a number of different ways payment methods can be collected from your existing clients. Your CSM will guide you through these different methods, but understanding the benefits and risks of each option will allow you to make the best decision for your business during the transition.

These options are not mutually exclusive; we recommend using at least two of these options to ensure as little disruption to your billing process as possible. This is even more important if your business collects payments on auto-pay.

Payment Collection Form

The Payment Collection Form is a pre-built Form in Noto that allows you to collect your client's payment information and store it onto their profile. Typically, we recommend including this in a larger communication to your client base informing them of the change in systems.

Our email template for parent rollout can be found here.

Benefits:

• This form can give your clients ample time before your official go-live to respond to the communication with any questions and to input their payment information.

• This form allows your clients to change their payment method from CC to ACH if your business is passing on credit card fees to them.

Risks:

• Inevitably, not all clients will fill out this form in a timely manner. We always expect there to be some payment methods missing during the first billing cycle.

• Noto's forms use the guardian's email to match against existing members. If existing clients use a different email on the form than the one on file. The payment method may not link properly to the student. In this case, this can be resolved by handling duplicate members or adding new family members.

First Invoice

All invoices in Noto can be paid by CC or ACH through a secure payment link that is tied to that invoice. During the first billing cycle, these invoices will be emailed, clients will pay, and their payment method will be stored directly onto the client's profile for future use.

Benefits:

• Because the payment is tied directly to the invoice, the payment method will always be linked correctly to the student and will be the default payment method moving forward.

Risks:

• Collecting payment methods during the first billing cycle will result in some delays in your first payments as clients would have to pay manually.

• Communications will also need to be sent out so your clients will expect invoices coming from a new system.

Member Portal

Clients can log in to the Member Portal and save a payment method directly to their profile at any time. This is a convenient option for clients who prefer to manage their own payment information on an ongoing basis, not just during the initial transition period.

Benefits:

• Clients can add or update their payment method at their own convenience without requiring any action from your staff.

• Because the client is logged in to their account, the payment method will be linked correctly to their profile.

Risks:

• As with the Payment Collection Form, not all clients may proactively log in and save a payment method, so some follow-up may be required.

Manual Entry from Admin Side

Administrators can manually enter and save a payment method directly to a client's member profile from within the Noto admin interface. This is useful for situations where a client provides their payment information over the phone or in person.

Benefits:

• Payment methods can be added immediately without requiring any action from the client.

• This ensures the payment method is linked correctly to the right profile, as an admin is selecting the member directly.

Risks:

• This approach requires staff time and is not practical as a primary method for collecting payment methods across a large client base.

• Depending on your jurisdiction and business policies, you should ensure you have appropriate authorization from the client before storing their payment information on their behalf.

Stripe Import

If your business is larger and is migrating from an existing system, we typically recommend beginning with an import of payment tokens from Stripe to Finix, Noto's payment processor. This process can take a few weeks, so we recommend kicking off this process at least a month before the scheduled go-live.

You can find more detail about this process here.

Benefits:

• For businesses collecting payment more frequently, this will result in minimal disruption to payment collection.

Risks:

• Because this is a secure process that can take a few weeks, new clients inputting their payment information into your old system will not have their information transferred over.

• There is a risk of some payment methods failing after transitioning to a new processor. New payments coming from a new processor can initial fraud alerts from banks.