Wild Apricot Payments (AffiniPay)

Wild Apricot Payments is Wild Apricot's own payment processing system, powered by AffiniPay, a payment gateway that specializes in payment solutions for associations.

AffiniPay has over a decade of experience in the payment industry, and an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Both AffiniPay and Wild Apricot Payments are fully PCI compliant.

Why choose Wild Apricot Payments?

There are several advantages to choosing Wild Apricot Payments over another payment processing system.

• No monthly fee
• Only 2.9% + $.30 per transaction (3.5% + $.30 per transaction when using American Express)
• Payments are transferred to your bank account within 48 hours
• Your members are not directed to another site for payment
• Recurring payments (aka scheduled payments) are supported
• Recurring donations (aka pre-authorized donations) are supported
• Integrated one-stop support for both Wild Apricot and Wild Apricot Payments 

Comparing to other payment processors

* 3.5% + $.30 per transaction when using American Express

Are there any limitations?

• Currently, only residents of Canada, the 50 US states, and Washington DC can apply for a Wild Apricot Payments account (US territories are excluded)
• Transactions have to be in US or Canadian dollars
• Payments cannot be accepted from people resident in countries on the US Treasury Department's sanctions list.

Paying using Wild Apricot Payments

When visitors to your site click the Pay online button while applying for membership, registering for an event, or making a donation, they will be directed to a secure Wild Apricot payment screen to make the payment.

From here, they can pay using any of the credit cards that you have enabled as part of your payment settings. They can also pay using corresponding debit cards if their debit account is based in the United States.

On the payment screen, the payer can choose to save their credit or debit card details for future transactions.

The next time they purchase something from your site, they can choose to pay using any of their saved cards instead of entering the card details again.

For more information on the one-click checkout feature, click here.

After the payment is processed, the visitor is returned to the Invoices and payments tab on their member profile, where an invoice will appear, along with a payment entry, if the payment was successful.

For security reasons, credit card information is not stored in Wild Apricot. Instead, it is securely transmitted to AffiniPay where it is processed. AffiniPay then returns the status of the payment transaction, which is recorded in your Wild Apricot transaction details.

Applying for a Wild Apricot Payments account

To begin accepting payments using Wild Apricot Payments, you need to apply for a Wild Apricot Payments account with AffiniPay.

To apply for a Wild Apricot Payments account, follow these steps:

1. Click the Settings menu to display the Global settings screen.
2. Click Payment settings under Your account.
3. From the Payment settings screen, click the Fill in application button.
   If you're not seeing this button, but you do see a Switch now button at the top of the Payment settings screen, click the Switch now button then click the Fill in application form button.  
4. On the screen that appears, complete the application form. You'll need to provide your contact information and organization details. US applicants will also need to provide their organization's federal tax ID and bank account details, and the Social Security Number and driver's license of their organization's authorized signer or beneficial owner. (Arizona residents should enter any upcoming year for their license expiry year.) US applicants will also have to indicate what percentage of the organization they own, unless it is a nonprofit organization. Canadian applicants will need to provide the name, address, and identifying document number (driver's license or passport) for your organization's principal. Canadian applicants will be contacted by email to obtain banking details, including 3 months of bank statements, a copy of photo ID, and the names of your board members. For more information on the application process for Canadian clients, click here. All applicants are required to consent to share their personal information with AffiniPay to verify eligibility. 
5. After you completed the application form, click the Submit application form at the bottom of the screen.

Application from American clients should be reviewed and approved within 1-2 business days. Applications from Canadian clients may take 7-10 business days. As part of the approval process, you may be asked for additional documentation, such as a copy of your photo ID.

If AffiniPay is unable to verify the details you provided, your application might be rejected. Factors that can contribute to your application being rejected include:

• Inconsistencies in the information provided (e.g. business name and address do not match)
• Business name can't be verified
• Tax ID number not registered

Once your Wild Apricot Payments account is approved, you'll receive a confirmation email from AffiniPay. US applicants will also receive a confirmation email from Wild Apricot. After you receive the email from AffiniPay, you can confirm your Wild Apricot Payments account and connect it to your Wild Apricot site.

Confirming your Wild Apricot Payments account

Before you can connect to your new Wild Apricot Payments account, you need to confirm it. To confirm your new account, follow these steps:

1. Within the AffiniPay confirmation instructions email, click the Confirm My Account button.
2. On the screen that appears, choose a password then click Finish.

Now that you've confirmed your Wild Apricot Payments account, you can connect it to your Wild Apricot site using the instructions below.

Connecting to your Wild Apricot Payments account

To connect your Wild Apricot Payments account to your Wild Apricot site, follow these steps:

1. Return to the Payment settings screen by clicking the link within your Wild Apricot confirmation email (US applicants only), or by clicking Finances under the Settings menu then clicking Payment settings.
2. From the Payment settings screen, click the Connect to Wild Apricot Payments button.
   
3. On the AffiniPay screen that appears, log into your Wild Apricot Payments account using the email address you entered when you applied for the account, and the password you chose in Step 2 (above).
4. You'll be returned to the Payment settings screen, where you can adjust various payment settings.
   For details, see Payment settings (below).
5. Click the Save changes button to save your changes.

Connecting using an existing AffiniPay account

To connect an existing AffiniPay account to your Wild Apricot site, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Payment settings screen by clicking Finances under the Settings menu then clicking Payment settings.
2. Scroll down and click on the Connect with existing account button (under Do you already have an account?).
   If you're not seeing this button, but you do see a Switch now button at the top of the Payment settings screen, click the Switch now button then click the Connect with existing account button.  
3. On the AffiniPay screen that appears, log into your AffiniPay account using your email address and password.
4. You'll be returned to the Payment settings screen, where you can adjust various payment settings. For details, see Payment settings (below).
5. Click the Save changes button to save your changes.

Switching from another payment system

If you've already set up another payment system to work with your Wild Apricot site, you can easily switch to Wild Apricot Payments.

When you switch from PayPal Payments Pro or Payflow Pro to any other payment system within your Wild Apricot account, any recurring payments will be automatically stopped. If you are switching from a different payment system, then you'll need to stop those payments through your existing payment processor. In either case, you'll need to then issue new invoices to your members so that they can create recurring payment profiles with Wild Apricot Payments.

To switch to Wild Apricot Payments, follow these steps to switch to Wild Apricot Payments:

1. Go to the Payment settings screen by clicking Finances under the Settings menu then clicking Payment settings.
2. Click the Switch now button at the top of the Payment settings screen.  
3. Click the Fill in application button.
4. On the screen that appears, complete the application form. You'll need to provide your contact information and organization details. US applicants will also need to provide their organization's federal tax ID and bank account details, and the Social Security Number and driver's license of their organization's authorized signer or beneficial owner. (Arizona residents should enter any upcoming year for their license expiry year.) US applicants will also have to indicate what percentage of the organization they own, unless it is a nonprofit organization. Canadian applicants will be contacted by email to obtain banking details and information about your organization's principal. For more information on the application process for Canadian clients, click here.
5. After you completed the application form, click the Submit application form at the bottom of the screen. Your application should be reviewed and approved within 1-2 business days. Once your Wild Apricot Payments account is approved, you'll receive a confirmation email from AffiniPay. US applicants will also receive a confirmation email from Wild Apricot.
6. Once you receive the confirmation email from AffiniPay, click the Confirm My Account button within the message.
7. On the screen that appears, choose a password then click Finish.
8. Return to the Payment settings screen by clicking the Settings menu then clicking Payment settings.
   
9. On the Payment settings screen, click the Edit button.
   
10. Click the Payment system dropdown and choose Wild Apricot Payments / AffiniPay.
    
11. Click the Connect to account button that appears.
    
12. On the AffiniPay screen that appears, log into your AffiniPay account using your email address and password.
13. You'll be returned to the Payment settings screen, where you can adjust various payment settings. For details, see Payment settings (below).
14. Click the Save changes button to save your changes.

Payment settings

The following payment settings are available for the Wild Apricot Payments payment system.

Account name

Allows you to switch between multiple Wild Apricot Payments accounts. For example, you might want to use a test account to verify your setup before switching to your live account.

However, instead of using a test account, we recommend that you test your Wild Apricot Payments setup using your live account but with test transactions of one cent. That way, you are testing your actual account, not a test account that might behave directly.

If you still want to set up a test account, you can request one by calling AffiniPay at 1-866-375-2635 or emailing them at wasupport@affinipay.com.

Allowed card types

The credit or debit cards you want to accept. You can accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express cards. Your choices here should match what you have set up in your AffiniPay account.

Default country

The default country you want to display to customers within the payment screen.

Currency

The currency you want to use in your transactions (and in your reports). The currency you choose should match the currency selected in your AffiniPay account.

Do not change the currency after recording any payments. If you change the currency, existing payment records will not be recalculated and will no longer display correct amounts.

Payment instructions

Here, you can enter payment instructions to be displayed to visitors to your site explaining how to use the online or offline payment methods. You can add different kinds of instructions to be displayed on different screens.

General payment instructions

Appears on Invoices and payments page in the member profile.

For event invoices

Appears on Review and confirm page of the event registration form. You can override these instructions for specific events on the Registration types screen.

For all other invoices

Appears on the Review and confirm page of the membership application or renewal, and on manual invoices.

Recurring payments

Recurring payments (aka scheduled payments) are supported by Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay. No special settings are required, you just need to enable recurring payments for one or more membership levels.

Members can stop recurring payments from their Wild Apricot member profile page. Administrators can stop recurring payments from the member's membership details. 

Recurring donations

Recurring donations (aka pre-authorized donations) are also supported by Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay. To enable recurring donations, you need to check within the Donation settings screen the recurring donation options you want to appear on your donation form. 

Issuing refunds

Refunds cost $0.30 per transaction. This is a card validation network fee. If the payment is refunded earlier than 11:00pm CDT on the day it was received, then the payment transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 will not be applied, only the $0.30 refund fee. If the payment is refunded later than that, then the 2.9% + $0.30 payment transaction fee will be applied, in addition to the $0.30 refund fee.

Issuing a refund on a payment made via Wild Apricot/AffiniPay is a two-step process: issuing the refund in your Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay account, then recording the refund in Wild Apricot.

To issue the refund in your Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay account, log into the AffiniPay portal then follow the steps described here.

Once you have issued the refund in your Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay account, return to your Wild Apricot account and follow these steps to record the refund in Wild Apricot:

1. Open the payment record in question, either from a contact's financial transactions list or from the Payments & refunds screen within the Finances module.
2. If the payment is already settled, click the Cancel settlement button.
3. Now that your payment record has an available balance, you can proceed with the refund by clicking the Refund button.  
4. On the next screen, you can adjust the details of the refund, and record a custom payment tender – the method by which the refund was issued.
5. When you are finished entering the refund details, click the Save button.  

The refund will be applied to the payment and the corresponding invoice will become unpaid. 

Using the AffiniPay portal

From Wild Apricot's Finances module, you can view and export the details of the transactions processed through your Wild Apricot site.

To view all your AffiniPay transactions, including those processed outside your Wild Apricot site, you can access the AffiniPay portal at secure.affinipay.com. From there, you can also issue refunds and chargebacks, and reconcile your transactions with your bank account. For more information on using the AffiniPay portal, go to https://www.affinipayassociations.com/support/support-tools/.

Advantages of Wild Apricot Payments over PayPal

• No monthly or setup fees. PayPal Payflow Pro charges $99 for setup and $25 monthly.
• Your members and customers are not directed to a third-party site to complete their payments. PayPal Express Checkout and PayPal Payments Standard process the payment from a PayPal site.
• Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay will deposit your funds automatically into your bank account. PayPal will accumulate your funds until you manually transfer them to your account.
• Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay’s cross-border fees are lower than PayPal’s (1.45% compared to 1.5%)
• PayPal deducts its service fees from your funds before depositing into your bank account, while Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay will deposit all your funds then withdraw its fees each month from your bank account
• One-stop support for both Wild Apricot software and Wild Apricot Payments

Frequently asked questions

Is the transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 charged in USD or CAD?

If you are a US-based client set up to use USD, then everything in your account is processed in USD, including the transaction fee. Similarly, if you’re in Canada and open an account that uses CAD, your transaction fee will be processed In CAD.

In other words, a Canadian client (whose AffiniPay account is in CAD) will be charged 2.9% + $0.30 CAD per transaction, and a U.S. client will be charged 2.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction.

How are the funds transferred to my bank account?

Funds are automatically transferred to your bank account as a lump sum at 11:00pm CDT each day after they have been successfully cleared. Funds require 24-48 hours to clear the Visa/Mastercard network.

Can I see a report of which transactions were included in this deposit?

Yes, you can run a Daily Deposit Report from your AffiniPay dashboard that lists all of the transactions that were included in a particular deposit.

Why am I being asked for personal information?

We ask for personal information to confirm the identity of the person establishing the account (need to make sure we know who they are and how they are connected to the organization). This is meant to combat money laundering and organized crime. This does not involve a credit check and does not hold this person responsible for the account.

My application was rejected - why?

Your application can be rejected if we are not able to verify and confirm the details provided, such as:

• Inconsistencies in the information provided (e.g. business name and address do not match)
• Business name can't be verified
• Tax ID number not registered

Opening a Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay account is analogous to opening an online bank account, and underwriters will need to verify your identity in order to approve the account. If you think you made some mistakes on the application and want to re-submit with new details, feel free to contact AffiniPay directly.  

Can I accept payments from countries other than the US or Canada?

Yes, you can accept payments from other countries but the transaction has to be in US or Canadian dollars.

Can my members pay using debit cards?

Wild Apricot Payments/AffiniPay accepts debit cards issued by or co-branded by the credit card companies we support – VISA, MasterCard, Discover, and Amex. If the debit card says VISA, MasterCard, Discover, or Amex on it, we can accept it.

I see that AffiniPay offers different rates from yours. Why is yours different?

We’ve made a special arrangement with AffiniPay to offer a rate of 2.9% + $.30 per transaction. While AffiniPay does have other plans available, they often carry additional fees (e.g. monthly subscription fees), so opening an AffiniPay account through Wild Apricot still tends to get you the best deal. 

I already have an AffiniPay account. Can I still use it with Wild Apricot?

Yes, you can link your existing AffiniPay account to Wild Apricot.  

Who pays the 2.9% + $.30 transaction fee? 

As with other payment systems, you, the site owner, is responsible for any transaction fees that are incurred. Each month AffiniPay tracks the number of transactions and payments you received and then charges you the applicable fees on the second day of the month after it is deposited. 

Does AffiniPay send a separate payment receipt as well?

No, for Wild Apricot Payments only the Wild Apricot receipt will be sent. However, if you process a payment directly in AffiniPay (without going through Wild Apricot) then AffiniPay does send a receipt.

Can I cancel a payment?

AffiniPay offers the ability to “void” a payment the same day it is processed (until 12:00 AM EST) so in case a member enters the wrong amount or accidentally charges themselves multiple times, you can void the payment and not get charged the 2.9% processing rate. However, once the money is batched out at midnight, the fees are incurred.

I see only batch deposits in my bank account. How can I see the details for each transaction?

Log into your AffiniPay portal at secure.affinipay.com then click the Reports option and run the daily, monthly, or transaction reports. To view full transaction details from Wild Apricot, click the appropriate transaction, or click the Show Payment Page Field button to view full details within the transaction list. 

When exporting your transactions, be sure to check the All Payment Page Fields option to include all details from Wild Apricot in the export file.

Will I receive statements showing all my transactions and fees?

A monthly statement of your transactions and fees is available online in your AffiniPay portal. You will find them under the Reports area on the Monthly Summary tab.

Why am I getting the error “Wild Apricot Payments - merchant_trans_daily_amount_exceeded: Merchant transaction daily amount exceeded” when my members try to make a payment?

There is a daily (and monthly) limit set up on your account to prevent fraudulent transactions. If you receive this error message, AffiniPay will be automatically notified and will increase your limit after verifying the legitimacy of your transactions.

Helpful links

• Wild Apricot payments reconciliation guide
• How to process a refund in AffiniPay
• Reporting tips
• How to read your AffiniPay statement