Payment processor names: separate internal and external usage
The Name field on payment processors leads to a lot of surprises for users. The name currently appears in four places:
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Obviously, when managing the payment processors on the site.
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When configuring a contribution page or event, you can choose the processor(s) available.
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If more than one payment processor and/or pay later is available on an event or contribution page, the options are labeled with the processor names.
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After completing a contribution or event registration with certain types of processors, the thank you page says it has been submitted to the processor, using the payment processor name.
These four situations are very different in what should display. Moreover, none of these consequences are apparent to the site admin who is deciding on a name for a payment processor.
Many people give the payment processor the name of the bank and/or payment processor, such as "Stripe". This is reasonable in case 4, when donors are told:
Your contribution has been submitted to Stripe for processing. Please print this page for your records.
However, it's a little confusing in case 3 unless it's obvious that it's a name of a payment processor. A donor might be offered a choice between "Authorize" and "Pay Later", and it's not clear to the layperson that the former is going to charge your credit card.
(It's also not obvious to site admins that this is the case. Someone could have a single payment processor on the site, give it a silly name, and be just fine so long as Pay Later is never an option. However, they could add Pay Later on an event or contribution page at a later point and not realize that donors must select "New SunTrust Authorize.net" in order to pay by credit card.)
We usually suggest calling a payment processor "Credit Card", but this is a problem when organizations need to have multiple payment processors in order to support separate bank accounts and/or organizational entities.
It also looks silly to say,
Your contribution has been submitted to Credit Card for processing. Please print this page for your records.
I propose two changes:
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Add a new field for the publicly visible payment processor label. This would allow an admin to know they have "Action Fund Stripe" enabled for a contribution page but call it "Credit Card" on the frontend.
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Fix those "submitted for processing" pieces to say something either generic or defined by payment processor type.