Payment Gateway Settings

Configure online payment processing to empower parents to pay school fees directly via the Parent Portal 24/7.

Gateway Availability: The gateways available in this dropdown are globally vetted and activated by the Superadmin. You must establish an account directly with the provider (e.g., Stripe, Razorpay) to obtain your unique API keys.

1. Enable Online Payments & Mode Selection

Core Activation

  1. Toggle the master switch: "Enable Online Fee Payment" to ON. If OFF, parents cannot securely checkout via the portal.
  2. Select the Payment Mode:
    • Sandbox (Test Mode): Forces the gateway into development mode. Ideal for testing dummy credit cards during initial school onboarding.
    • Live (Production): Routes transactions directly to live bank networks. Real money is moved.
[Screenshot: Master Toggle and Sandbox/Live Mode selector]

2. Configure API Credentials

Select your provider from the dropdown menu, which dynamically loads the required credential fields.

  1. Select the Active Gateway (e.g., Stripe, Paystack).
  2. For Sandbox mode testing, populate the Sandbox Key ID, Sandbox Secret Key, and Sandbox Encryption Key mappings.
  3. For Live transactions, input your production Live Key ID, Live Secret Key, and Live Encryption Key.
  4. Certain gateways require a Webhook Secret to cryptographically verify background payment confirmations. Paste the secret generated by your provider dashboard here.
[Screenshot: Form Inputs showing Live and Sandbox credential separation]

3. Processing Fees Configuration

If you wish to pass the gateway transaction costs onto the parents, you can configure an automatic processing fee add-on during checkout.

  1. Under the gateway credentials, locate the Charge Type section.
  2. Select either Fixed (e.g., a flat $2.00 fee per transaction) or Percentage (e.g., 2.5% of the total cart volume).
  3. Enter the Charge Amount. This fee is automatically calculated and appended to the final parent invoice right before they are routed to the gateway.
  4. Leave blank or 0 to absorb the cost internally.
[Screenshot: Charge Type Input showing Fixed/Percentage processing fee setup]
Bank-Grade Security: All sensitive credentials (API Keys, Secrets, Webhook endpoints) are heavily encrypted using AES-256-CBC in the database prior to rest.

Do's and Don'ts

Do's Don'ts
Conduct extremely thorough testing in Sandbox Mode before notifying parents that online payment is launched. Forget to copy the webhook endpoint URL into your payment provider's dashboard or else transactions will stall in a "pending" state.
Generate fresh API keys immediately if you ever suspect unauthorized access to your portal account. Activate Live mode while your provider credentials are still flagged as testing/unverified by the provider themselves.