Q. How do I get a BlueFire donation form on my website?
If you haven’t yet, create a new donation form on the Forms page. Then select Get Code in the action drop down. Select the code you’d like to use (such as the Give Now button) and copy it. Next, paste it into your own website. Each website editor is different, but you may need to make sure you are pasting it in as HTML code. For example, in WordPress you would need to edit a page/post in text mode (as opposed to visual mode).
Q. How do I add fund selections to my form?
Go to the Forms page and select Edit Funds in the action drop down. You can drag and drop any number of funds and fund groupings onto your form.
Q. How do I customize my giving form’s colors, font, text, etc?
We cannot perform this kind of customization for you but you can change fonts, colors and the like by going to the Forms page and selecting Edit Styling in the action drop down. With this option you can add custom HTML and CSS to any form (if you’re not quite sure what this is or how to do what you want, we’d recommend contacting a web developer).
Q. What is the API?
The API, or the Application Programming Interface, is a server-to-server communication protocol which gives developers access to resources and services allowing them to extend and integrate their own software with BlueFire. For example, you could build your own, completely custom donation form and send the payment through your server (behind-the-scenes) to BlueFire via the API. More documentation on the API’s capability can be found here.
Q. How can I be notified of donations and payments?
There a couple of ways to be notified of a new transaction. (1) You can set up an email address to be BCC’d on every email receipt that is sent out. This can be setup on the organization Settings page. (2) You can setup an Auto-Report to be emailed out on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can setup your auto-report to include all donations, payments and events or just a subset.
Q. When will our funds be deposited into our bank account?
[Specific to HaloPays Clients] All funds, from both card and e-check, are automatically deposited to your account in 72 hours (exact timing may vary depending on your bank). This deposit is delayed on weekends and bank holidays. You can find estimated deposit amounts and dates on the Batches page.
Q. What’s the best way to reconcile deposits?
[Specific to HaloPays Clients] We recommend starting on the Batches page. Transactions are batched on a daily basis and processed for deposit together. You will find the total for each batch as well as fees, estimated deposit amounts and dates. You can view all the transactions that are a part of the batch by clicking the View Transactions button. Another handy feature is the ability to mark a transaction as reconciled by clicking the checkmark button on the far right of the Transactions page. Lastly, many find our Auto-Reports to be a handy feature for keeping up-to-date with online activity.
Q. How do I get a credit card swiper to use with the BlueFire iPhone/iPad app?
You can order card swipers for $25 (shipping is included) on this page. They typically are shipped out within 2 to 3 business days. If you have special shipping requirements, please be sure to note them in the comments box.
Q. How is a recurring gift updated or cancelled?
There are a few different ways a recurring gift can be managed. (1) The donor will receive an email whenever their gift is processed. In that email there is a link that allows them to manage their recurring gift. This is also true of the reminder email they receive. (2) On every donation form there is a link that says “Update recurring gift.” When a donor clicks on this link they are able to request an email giving them access to their recurring transactions. (3) If a donor created an account and setup their recurring gift with it, then they are able to edit all of their recurring gifts from within their account. They have the ability to change dates, amounts and designations after logging in. (4) Account administrators are able to manage all recurring gifts by going to the Recurring page under Reporting.
Q. How do we generate year-end giving reports?
While we cannot send year-end giving statements directly to your donors (because we have no record of offline transactions), we do provide a year-end giving report for your organization. Go to the Transaction Summary page, change the filter in the top right to Last Year and then click Export. Note that ordering the export by the donor’s name is often helpful in this situation.
Q. We had an e-check transaction returned, what happens now?
[Specific to HaloPays Clients] When an e-check transaction is returned it is usually because the donor entered an invalid account number or routing number or because there was insufficient funds in the account. We do provide the exact reason on the Transactions page under More Info in the action drop down. Within a day or two of an e-check being returned we will automatically retrieve the funds for the original transaction plus a $5 returned e-check fee. Unfortunately we are not able to refund the original 1% e-check fee.
Q. We had a suspicious donation or a donor requesting a refund on a different card, what should we do?
Whenever you have a reasonable suspicion that fraud has occurred, we recommend immediately notifying BlueFire and refunding the transaction in question. If it is not refunded and the cardholder reports it as fraud and issues a chargeback your organization is responsible for the chargeback fee or e-check return fee. (Note that there is no way to refund a transaction to a card or bank account other than the originating account.)
Q. Why do some donor accounts not have names?
When a donor creates an account only their email address is required. If they do not subsequently use their account or choose not to update their name, it will show as blank within BlueFire.
Q. What is the Virtual Terminal?
The virtual terminal is a place where an administrator or accountant can manually enter and run transactions. The BlueFire virtual terminal has the added ability to store payment information for easy recall for future repeat donations and payments. Because you must directly handle credit card information to use the virtual terminal, it is required that your organization be PCI certified. Contact us for more information.
Q. How do I update the bank account where our funds are deposited?
Contact HaloPays at support@halopays.com and they’ll be able to help you with this. Just a heads up, they will need a voided check with the new account information in order to make this change (they cannot accept starter checks).