Configuring and Troubleshooting with an Offline Gateway

Video Overview

What this video covers:

• 0:00 – 0:35 – Introduction and adding the new gateway option.
• 0:35 – 2:35 – Naming the Gateway and understanding other settings.
• 2:15 – 3:54 – Adding further gateway instructions with the Custom message using the shortcode:

[mepr-offline-instructions gateway_id="abc-123"]

• 3:54 – End – Saving all settings and additional instructions for using the “Admin Must Manually Complete Transactions”  setting for offline gateway.

Detailed List of Gateway Settings

Below you'll find explanations for every setting that you can find for your Stripe Gateway as a reference for both during and after you have set up your gateway:

• Name – The name users will see when choosing this gateway option during registration.
• Gateway – This should be set to “Offline Payment” and will not show up on the front end.
• ID – ID of your gateway used in the database and to be entered if importing subscriptions for this gateway as outlined here.
• Show Payment Label – When checked or unchecked, this will show or hide the Name you entered for this gateway option.
• Show Payment Icon – When checked or unchecked, this will show or hide the Stripe Credit Card symbols for this gateway option.
• Show Payment Description – When checked or unchecked, this will show or hide the description for this gateway option.
• Admin Must Manually Complete Transactions – Check this option to force admin completion of all transactions through this offline gateway. If left unchecked, all transactions will automatically complete on their own.
• Send Welcome email when “Admin Must Manually Complete Transactions” is enabled – This option will force the Welcome email to be sent to the user after they register, even if you have the Manually Complete Transactions option enabled. This is useful if you want your members to have their welcome information –  or maybe you've included some offline payment instructions in the welcome email etc.
• Do not cancel the old plan on upgrades when “Admin Must Manually Complete Transactions” is enabled – If “Admin Must Manually Complete Transactions” is enabled, then enabling this option will keep the old membership plan active when a user upgrades (or downgrades) their membership until the admin completes the transactions. This prevents the user from losing access while waiting for the admin to manually complete the upgrade/downgrade transaction.
• Description – Use the text box here to enter any additional information that may be necessary for you to receive payment through this offline gateway. This could be mailing instructions, bank details for direct payment, etc. What is entered here will show below the gateway option (if selected) on the registration page. Note: The text box does support new lines.

How to Test Your Offline Gateway

To test the setup of your offline gateway, simply visit the registration page while logged out as admin and go through the registration process like a normal user. If you have selected the “Admin Must Manually Complete Transactions” for this gateway option, you can review the above video starting at minute 3:54.

Managing Offline Payments and Subscriptions

Payments and subscriptions created with the offline gateway must be managed manually. In this case, there is no communication with any offline payment system you might be using. Thus, there is no way for MemberPress to track changes automatically.

When your users subscribe to a membership for the first time, MemberPress will generate a transaction. In case the subscription is made for the recurring membership, MemberPress will also create a subscription.

If you enable the Admin Must Manually Complete Transactions option, you will need to complete the transaction manually. This means that once you receive the offline payment, you will need to navigate to the Transactions page. Here, you should search for the transaction generated on registration, and change the transaction Status to Complete.

One-time subscriptions only have one transaction. This transaction is generated on registration, and the subscription will expire once the transaction expires. Accordingly, there is no need for additional actions in this case (other than completing the transaction as previously mentioned).

On the other hand, recurring subscriptions have one subscription and multiple transactions associated with the subscription. Similarly to one-time subscriptions, the initial transaction is also created for recurring subscriptions on registration. Every renewal will require an additional transaction. When an offline payment gateway is used, these renewal transactions will not be generated automatically.

Hence, each time you receive an offline payment for the recurring subscription, you will need to create a transaction manually and assign it to the subscription in question.

How to Process Refunds

With this gateway, the refund would need to take place offline via your preferred method. After you have sent the money to be refunded, be sure to find the transaction associated with that user and mark it as “refunded”.

Gateway Issues

If you have followed the instructions on this page 
exactly for setting up your gateway, then it should work properly. So, if you are noticing issues with your gateway, it is likely going to be related to one of the items listed below. We have also included what to do if you are seeing these issues.

• Your users are seeing this error before getting to the payment screen: ERROR Invalid Payment Method. – This likely means that you have enabled the Customize Payment Methods and left this gateway option unchecked. To fix this, simply uncheck the Customize Payment Methods option altogether, or if you need it to disable other gateway options for your membership, be sure to check this gateway option. 

Help?

Are you still having issues with your Offline gateway 
– even after reviewing the solutions outlined in the Gateway Issues section above? No problem, just send us a support ticket with a brief description of your issue, and what you have found in your tests so far. Please do not send us a support ticket until after you have followed the instructions in the Gateway Issues section to the best of your ability . . . we will ask you to review those things if your issue resembles any of those listed points.