CampusESP's eCommerce integrations allow you to collect payments for paid event registrations directly in your portal! Integrating with a payment provider requires working with our Solutions team. Understand how eCommerce integrations work, initiate the integration on your campus, and incorporate best practices into your integration setup.

Important acknowledgements

CampusESP's secure infrastructure is backed by SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS compliance, and aligned with HECVAT standards to confidently process payments and protect sensitive data. CampusESP does not store, process, or transmit card data. Visit our security page for more information.

Payment processors/gateways we work with

We can currently integrate with the following payment processors/gateways:

Authorize.Net
Blackbaud
Cashnet
Flywire
Nelnet
Payeezy
PayPal
Stripe
TouchNet

Visit our Integrations page for the most up-to-date list of compatible payment processors.

Initiating the integration process

Our total estimated timeline for integrating with a payment gateway is ~5-6 weeks. Integration requires some planning/preparation and configuration/testing before you can accept payments through your portal.

NOTE: The timeline shared is only an estimate. Based on payment processor and/or time of year, there may be delays in the process.

Plan & prepare (est. 1-2 weeks)

Identify your campus payment gateway
Connect with your Customer Success Manager, Account Manager, or support@campusesp.com, and we'll connect you with our Solutions team
Engage your on-campus stakeholders (i.e., IT, Legal, Procurement, and/or Treasury)

Configure & test (est. 1-2 weeks)

Our Solutions team will configure Test and Production environments for testing the integration before going live.

Test environment

We'll create a dedicated test environment that matches your existing portal
Payments here will be made with test cards only (no real cards will be used during this step!)
CampusESP will validate the integration is successful

Production environment

Once our test configuration is successful, we'll move that into Production in your actual portal, where we'll use real cards to test live transactions
Your team will confirm the payment appears in your payment processor/gateway and is also visible in CampusESP
We'll then refund the payment back to the card used

Launch your event (est. 1-2 weeks)

We'll work with you to set up and test your paid event(s)
You'll confirm payment visibility in both the portal and your payment gateway
We'll do some final validation
Then you can go live with your event to families!

Best practices

Consider seasonality when you plan to reach out to your payment provider. During the summer months, they might have slower response times or longer timelines if they’re balancing multiple vendor integrations at the same time!
Compliance conversations could delay your implementation. If you know your institution has concerns around PCI compliance, you may want to bake that into your timeline and plan for a buffer period.
Every payment provider has nuances. Be sure to look at the guidelines for you provide when getting starting.

Payment processor nuances

Every payment gateway has its specific nuances. We've organized these for you in the table below, so please be sure to review these so you aren't caught off-guard!

Processor	Implementation Notes	Refund Notes
Authorize.Net	If Advanced Fraud Detection Suite is in use in your Authorize.net instance and our server IPs aren't on the allow list, valid transactions can be incorrectly flagged as fraud. This is especially true if you have a high volume of traffic or a surge of purchases.	Refunds can only be issued 24 hours after the payment has been settled in your Authorize.Net instance. Refunds can only be issued up to 180 days after the transaction, afterwards refunds are not allowed. This is a limitation on the Authorize.Net end.
Cashnet/Transact	If you wish to add additional item codes to your event, you'll need to work with our Solutions team to get these added.	Refunds are not supported through our platform. This is a limitation on the Transact end.
Flywire	You'll need to identify who on your campus manages Flywire, as they will work directly with our Solutions team on configuration and testing.	Flywire does not support refunds through our portal, you will need to issue these directly from Flywire. This is a limitation on the Flywire end.
Nelnet Checkout	You will need to reach out to your Nelnet contact to get this integration set up. They will assign an Implementation Manager to move this project forward. They will provide a timeline and set up some calls to kickoff, test, and do a final validation in Production.	Supports line item refunds but not custom refunds.
Nelnet Commerce Manager	You will need to reach out to your Nelnet contact or your Nelnet contact on campus to get this integration set up.	Does not support refunds
Payeezy		Payeezy does not support refunds through our portal, you will need to issue these directly from Payeezy. This is a limitation on the Payeezy end.
PayPal PayPath	You will need to create a user for CampusESP with the role `API_FULL_TRANSACTIONS`
Stripe	You will need access to your Stripe account or know someone on campus with access to it. CampusESP will provide you with a link to connect it.
TouchNet	You will need to reach out to TouchNet to get this implementation started and let them you know you want to integrate with CampusESP which is a TouchNet Ready Partner. TouchNet will charge a fee for implementation. They can take about 2 weeks to put you in their implementation queue. During busy seasons it can take much longer to get in their implementation queue. At this time we do not integrate with TouchNet PayPath due to a limitation on the TouchNet end.

Payment Integration 101