Get Started with Payment Processing

eTapestry processes payments through Blackbaud Checkout, Blackbaud's modern, mobile-responsive payment form. Blackbaud Checkout enables you to process payments as you add gifts, provides your supporters with a secure and simplified online payment experience, and securely captures payment details in compliance with PCI regulations.

Set up payment accounts

To process payments through Blackbaud Checkout, you must have:

  • A Blackbaud Payment Service (BBPS) account to securely collect and store payment info.

  • A payment gateway and processor — such as Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS) — to send and receive the information.

  • An account to collect and deposit the funds into your bank.

For more information, including how to set up and manage your accounts, see Payment Processing Overview in Blackbaud Merchant Services Help.

Tip: To offer more payment methods to your supporters — such as direct debit, PayPal, and more — use Blackbaud Merchant Services. With our end-to-end solution, you don’t have to manage a third-party payment processor or gateway. Instead, you can save time and money with automatic credit card updates for recurring gifts, simplified reconciliation and PCI compliance, mobile payment processing, fraud management, fee-coverage options, and more. For details, visit Blackbaud’s website.

Link your accounts

After you set up the payment accounts, you must link both to your eTapestry database. From Management, select My Organization to enter your Blackbaud Payment Service and Blackbaud Merchant Services account credentials and link your accounts.

  1. Select Preferences.

  2. Enter your BBPS UserName and BBPS Password.

  3. From Tasks, select Save And.

  1. Select eCommerce.

  2. From Tasks, select Add BBMS Processor. If this is the default processor to use, select Default.

  3. Enter your BBMS account credentials.

  4. Select Supports EFT if you want to process direct debits (ACH/EFT) from donors who provide bank routing information. Donors can make recurring or one-time gifts.

    Tip: Be aware that ACH only supports the United States dollar. If you process transactions using another currency, do not select this option.

    Note: When you use Blackbaud Merchant Services, direct debits don't process in real time. These transactions are processed in bulk one time each day for seven days. When transactions don't process successfully within seven days, eTapestry automatically generates a gift reversal.

  5. Click Save.

Tip: Forget your password? For your security, only your organization's primary contacts and site administrators can reset passwords through Blackbaud.com. After you reset your passwords, you must re-link your passwords in eTapestry.

Make a test donation

We recommend you make a test donation to confirm payments are successful. You can either process a $2 donation through an online donation form or add a gift to a record in your database.

If you do not use online donation forms, select a record in your database, such as a staff member, and add a $2 gift. From Save And, select Process Transaction.

After you complete either test, verify that the donation appears correctly in your database and in the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal. For more information, refer to Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal Help.

Tip: Bookmark the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal URL in order to be able to issue refunds and verify that all your settings are correct.