Understanding payment processors and transactions
Payment processor
A payment processor handles charging a person's credit card and sending the money to your bank account.
You'll need a bank account connected to a payment processor to take donations online or process invoice payments.
Payment transactions
A payment transaction is a common term used in various financial systems. A payment transaction represents each communication made between NationBuilder and a payment processor. When a donor clicks the "Donate now" button on your website, they are authorizing NationBuilder to submit the credit card information to the processor.
Prior to submitting the request, a payment transaction object is created in your nation's database to log the communication. NationBuilder updates the payment transaction when the payment processor responds. The response contains a response code, message, authorization code, transaction ID, and other data.
Payment transactions are displayed on the dashboard of a donation. Each donation lives within the Finances section of a profile.
You can see all transactions associated with each donation by clicking on the relevant donation row and selecting the Dashboard tab for that transaction. A successful transaction will have a record that looks like this:
A refunded donation will display two transaction activities: the first for the successful transaction, and the second for the "Credit" to indicate the funds returned to the donor.
If a transaction is unsuccessful, you'll be able to find the failure reason on this page.
Transaction ID or key
A transaction ID, also known as a transaction key, is a unique identifier generated by a financial system to reference a successful payment for a given amount. It is used to reference data between various systems. This ID is not generated by NationBuilder - it is created by the payment processor for a successful payment to identify financial data stored in NationBuilder.
The transaction ID is displayed in the donation dashboard within a payment transaction. Here is an example:
Only successful payment transactions have associated transaction IDs.
Refunds
How to refund a donation
Using NationBuilder’s integrated payment processing, you can refund transactions from within your control panel.
To refund a donation go to the donor's personal profile and click Finances > Donations and locate the donation you want to refund.
1. Hover over and click Edit next to the donation.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the Refund donation button.
When the refund is successful, a 'canceled at' date is added to the payment transaction as the date it was refunded.
Refund problems
Please contact our support team if:
You do not see a "Refund donation" button in the settings section of a donation.
A donor reports that they have not received a refund you sent (after 5-10 business days).
📌 Note: It is currently only possible to refund a transaction in its whole amount. Partial refunds are not supported.
Refund FAQs
Q: Can I issue refunds for all donations in NationBuilder?
A: Refunds can be processed for any successful donation. While a refund can be initiated for a pending traction, the pending transaction will still process and then be refunded
Q: Can refunds be reversed once processed?
A: Refunds cannot be reversed.
Q: Are there charges for processing refunds?
A: While there is no fee for processing a refund, processing fees are not refunded. The donor will receive back the full amount of their initial donation, but the original transaction processing fee will not be returned to your account.
Donation receipts
When a donation is submitted on your website, two receipts are created:
An email receipt is sent immediately to the donor as part of the "Success email".
A PDF receipt is attached to the donation. You can access this receipt from Finances > Donations within a profile.
When a donation is added in the control panel and no "page this donation was from" value is set, only the PDF receipt is created.
Here is an example of where to find a PDF receipt in a donor's profile:
Autoresponse emails
The default wording of autoresponse emails can be changed. A recurring donor's credit card will be charged on the same day every month or, for annual donations, every year. You can explicitly call the date with the Liquid variable:
{{ donation.succeeded_at | date_to_string }}You can change how the date is displayed by what editing the filter that appears after the trunk (i.e. after the " |" above). A full list of date-based Liquid filters is available.
For example, on a donation page accepting one-time payments and recurring payments, you could use the following if Liquid logic markup in the auto-response:
{% if donation.is_recurring %}
Thanks for making a recurring donation.
Your card will be charged on the {{ donation.succeeded_at | %d }} day of every month.
{% else %}
Thanks for making a donation on {{ donation.succeeded_at | date_to_string }}.