Payments and Transaction Flow

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The flow is a 3 step process, which includes: 

1. User/Admin link item to user
2. User makes payment promise
3. Admin processes payment

Step #1:

A user or an administrator links a permit to the user. At this point, there is no payment link and the item is "Awaiting Payment" since the user has not selected a payment method (made a promise of payment). As well, items (permits) are not accessible to any other system user. There is a midnight clearing list which can automatically release permits linked to users that do not have promises for payment.

Step #2:

User or admin links a payment type (ie. cheque, cash, etc.) This puts the user on the Unprocessed Payments list, and that list needs to be checked regularly. This allows a user to mail in a cheque or to stop by the office to make payment. In these cases, a user has "promised" to pay. We suggest that permits be released (Drop Payment) after 2 weeks since that offers users enough time to make payment.

Step #3: 

Once payment is received (cheque is received in the mail, or the user stops by the office to make a payment)  the transaction is marked as processed and the user is linked to the item.  At this point, the item is marked processed and is actually (completely) linked to the user.

NOTE: In the case of paying online with a credit card, these steps happen virtually at the same time since we get the promise to pay and the actual payment seconds later.