MemberPress simplifies user registration and subscription payments by offering various payment options. It supports collecting offline payments and integrates with Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net for online payments.
This document will explain how MemberPress payment gateways work and how payments are processed.
MemberPress Zahlungs-Gateways
When you enable a payment gateway in MemberPress Settings, it adds a new payment option to registration pages.
You can offer one or multiple payment methods, supporting both offline and online payments.
Online vs. Offline Payments
Offline payments will not be collected on your website. Members pay offline via bank transfer or other methods. When a member chooses an offline payment method on registration, MemberPress creates a related transaction and marks it as pending. You must manually update its status once you receive the payment in your bank account.
Online payments are processed instantly by payment processors like Stripe or PayPal. Payment processors act as intermediaries, enabling merchants to charge credit cards. During registration, MemberPress will redirect users to a secure payment page (payment gateway) to complete the payment. Afterward, users are returned to your website. MemberPress creates and updates transactions automatically, activating or deactivating subscriptions based on payment status.
Payment gateways are available as separate pages or embedded payment forms on the MemberPress registration page. Either way, payment processors manage and host them, ensuring users submit their credit card details to them securely.
Setting Up Payment Methods
To accept payments, you must configure payment methods for each gateway. Follow these steps:
- Navigieren Sie zu Dashboard > MemberPress > Settings > Payment tab.
- Klicken Sie auf Zahlungsmethode hinzufügen at the page's bottom.
- Name the payment method. This label appears on registration pages.
- Choose whether to display a Payment Label, Icon, oder Beschreibung for this payment method on registration pages.
- Next, select a Gateway for this payment method. For offline payments, choose Offline und configure the offline payment gateway.
- For online payments, connect the payment method to a processor by choosing between Streifen, PayPal, oder Authorize.net. Each online payment gateway has specific settings und limitations.
- Klicken Sie auf die Optionen aktualisieren um die Änderungen zu speichern.
Processing Online Payments
Offline and online payments are processed differently when collecting user payments. Online payments require communication between MemberPress and connected payment processors.
In addition, the process will be different for one-time and recurring subscriptions.
One-Time Subscriptions
Für one-time subscriptions, processing online payments through the connected payment processor will include the following steps:
- MemberPress sends the current membership terms and user data to the processor on membership registration.
- Die processor will then collect credit card details securely and process the payment.
- Als nächstes wird die processor will return the transaction data to MemberPress after processing the payment.
- MemberPress wird use the received data to create the Transaktion auf Ihrer Website.
The user's one-time subscription will become active and expire once the transaction on your website expires.
Recurring Subscriptions
In the case of a recurring subscription, there are some additional steps:
- Next to sending transaction-related data on membership registration, MemberPress wird also create a subscription on the payment processor.
- Die processor will collect the payment details, process the payment, and return data to MemberPress.
- MemberPress will create the Transaktion und Abonnement auf Ihrer Website.
- MemberPress wird associate the transaction with the subscription.
The user's recurring subscription will become active. Once the current transaction expires, the subscription will be renewed.
For renewals, the processor charges users automatically on renewal dates based on the subscription previously created during registration. MemberPress will add the new transaction to the user's existing subscription on your website when it receives the renewal data. The newly added transaction will extend the subscription for an additional subscription period.
Until the members or administrator cancel the subscription in MemberPress, the payment processor will continue renewing it. Canceling a subscription in MemberPress notifies the payment processor to stop renewals.
Processing Offline Payments
Processing offline payments is more straightforward as it doesn’t require communication with external service providers. On the other hand, you must manage the offline payments manually.
The process will depend on your offline payment gateway settings. You can find the Admin muss Transaktionen manuell abschließen unter der Option Zahlungen Registerkarte at Dashboard > MemberPress > Settings. By default, this option will be deaktiviert.
In this case, the status of the created users’ transactions will be Vollständig. This means that their subscriptions will immediately become active.
This means that your members will immediately gain access to protected member content without confirming that you received a Zahlung.
Manually Completing Offline Payments
On the other hand, the recommended setup includes enabling the Admin muss Transaktionen manuell abschließen option. Accordingly, the status of new users’ transactions will be Pending, and their subscriptions will be inactive.
Therefore, you must manually update the status of users’ transactions after confirming you have received their Zahlungen.
Here, when a user chooses the offline payment method, the process includes the following steps:
- MemberPress will create a transaction with the Pending status auf Ihrer Website.
- In addition, a subscription related to the transaction will be created for recurring subscriptions.
- You will need to manually collect the offline payment from the user (e.g., via bank transfer). This also includes sending a (proforma) invoice to the user if this is legally required in your country.
- Once you receive the payment to your bank account, navigate to Dashboard > MemberPress > Transactions and find the transaction related to the user.
- Klicken Sie auf das Peding Option under the Status column of the transaction record to open the dropdown menu.
- Change the transaction status to Completeund klicken Sie auf Speichern Sie.
As a result, the subscription will become active, and the user will gain access to the protected member content.
In the case of recurring subscriptions, MemberPress will not create a new transaction on renewals.
Deshalb, for each renewal, you must first collect the offline payment from the user. Then, you need to manually add the new transaction to the existing subscription.