Creating Convenience Fee Best Practices

This article explains how to set up Convenience Fees for a payment type. Utilizing Convenience Fees in CivicPlus Recreation Management allows the agency to add a percentage and/or dollar amount to what they are charging the customer. This allows the agency to collect extra from the customer to offset payment gateway charges.

Important Notes:

Creating a Convenience Fee in Recreation Management will not result in a 100% recovery of payment gateway service fees. When charging a Convenience Fee within Recreation Management for Debit/Credit/ACH payments, the cost of the item plus the Convenience Fee is sent to your payment gateway as a grand total. The payment gateway calculates their transaction fee on top of this total.

For example, if a class registration is $100 and your agency has a Convenience Fee of 2% the customer would pay a $2 Convenience Fee for a total of $102.

In turn, the payment gateway would then charge their service fees (for example 2%) for a total of $102. In that case, the total payment gateway service charge that you, the agency, owe the payment gateway would be $2.04. This is not a complete recovery (loss of $0.04) but charging a convenience fee in Recreation Management will help to offset payment gateway service fees.

Instructions

1. Sign in to Recreation Management

2. Navigate to the Configuration tab, then Financial Settings, and select Payment Types

3. Edit the payment type you wish to add a Convenience Fee to

   

4. Adjust the Convenience Fee settings

   • Convenience Fee ($): Add the dollar amount for Convenience Fees

   • Convenience Fee (%): Enter a percentage for Convenience Fees

   • Min. Convenience Fee: Enter a minimum dollar amount for Convenience Fees

   • Applies Over: A Convenience Fee is applied if the charge to the payment type is at least this amount

   • Convenience Fee GL (General Ledger) code: Select the GL cod for Convenience Fees

   • Convenience Fee In-House: Applies an in-house Convenience Fee

   • Convenience Fee Online: Applies an online Convenience Fee

5. Click the Save Payment Type button