Payment Capabilities

To process payments through Luminate Online you must have:

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

• A Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS) account to send and receive the information.

• Luminate Online Payment Capabilities settings to configure checkout correctly in registration and donation forms, and other checkout areas.

Warning: Due to PCI v4 standards effective March 2025, credit and debit card transactions must be processed with the new checkout experience via BBPS and BBMS. This includes processing of recurring payments. See the Checkout FAQ and Update Your Checkout Experience for more information.

Note: Access to Setup, Payment Capabilities is restricted to administrators who have Merchant Account Self Provisioning permission. Only advanced site administrators can grant this permission. If you don't see this option and feel you should, contact your top site administrator.

Import Accounts

After you set up required payment services with BBPS and a merchant account with BBMS, an admin with the Merchant Account Self Provisioning permission must import your configurations in Luminate Online.

1. From Setup, Payment Capabilities, select Payment Services.

2. Select Import Blackbaud Payment Services.

3. Enter your Blackbaud Payment Services credentials.

4. Select Import.

Note: Payment Services imports active BBMS accounts that are associated with the BBPS account and use your supported currency. Changes made to BBMS accounts outside of Luminate Online must be re-imported into Luminate Online.

Warning: Due to PCI v4 requirements effective March 2025, for credit and debit card processing you must use a merchant account that supports the new checkout experience. As of October 2024, reimporting existing BBMS accounts will add duplicate accounts (name appended with "Checkout") that meet the new requirements to your Luminate Online payment settings. If you do not already have a BBMS account, you must create one. See Blackbaud Merchant Services for New Users for more details.

Configure payment settings

After the import, you must set up your Luminate Online Payment Capabilities, also called merchant accounts, to accept transactions online and receive disbursements from BBMS.

Note: Your BBMS merchant account is not the same as your Luminate Online merchant account.

You Luminate Online merchant account inherits configurations from your BBMS merchant account.  

• Alterations to your Luminate Online merchant account do not alter your BBMS merchant account.

• You must reimport your BBMS account to pass alterations in BBMS to your Luminate Online account.

• When selecting merchant accounts on donation forms and event registrations, you are selecting your Luminate Online merchant account.

1. Under Setup, Payment Capabilities, Merchant Accounts, select Create Account.

2. Name the new account.

3. Select a security category to control permissions.

4. Enter a tax ID. If left blank, your site's default tax ID will be used.

5. Select payment gateways. The available payment gateways are collections of payment settings imported from your payment services account.

   Tell me more about selecting gateways

   You must select at least one gateway continue. You should not select a gateway for every option.

   • Blackbaud Merchant Services Checkout Account - Select a single gateway that supports all payment capabilities configured in your BBMS account. This may include:

     • Digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo.

       Note: PayPal and Venmo support single payments. Support for PayPal recurring payments is coming soon. Venmo is only available in the US.
       

     • Credit and debit cards

       Note: You no longer need to select specific card types. All cards supported by BBPS and BBMS are automatically included.

     • Direct debit from bank accounts

       Note: Currently only US direct debit is supported. Support for Canadian direct debit is coming soon.

       Note: The upcoming 24.5 release includes support for allowing cash and check offline payments toward a donation form associated with checkout.

   • Credit Card Account - This option is not compatible with the new PCI v4 requirements effective March 2025. This option is available to support legacy forms during the transition to the new merchant accounts and checkout experience. This option is not compatible with the Blackbaud Merchant Services Checkout Account option which already supports credit and debit card transactions.

     • If selected, after selecting Next, you mush also select supported credit cards.

   • Bank Account - This option is not compatible with the Blackbaud Merchant Services Checkout Account option which already supports direct debit transactions.

   • PayPal Account - This option is not compatible with the Blackbaud Merchant Services Checkout Account option which already supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo transactions.

   • Legacy Blackbaud Checkout Account - This option is not compatible with the new PCI v4 requirements effective March 2025. This option is available to support legacy forms during the transition to the new merchant accounts and checkout experience.

   • Blackbaud Mobile Pay Account - This option is not compatible with the new PCI v4 requirements effective March 2025. This option is available to support legacy forms during the transition to the new merchant accounts and checkout experience.

6. Select Next.

7. Select whether this merchant account can process Recurring Transactions.

8. Select Finish.

Tip: Need to add more than one merchant account? See this Knowledge base article.

Move sustaining gifts

To prevent payments from failing, move any sustaining gifts to the new merchant account. See move sustaining gifts.