Interac e-Transfer

Offer your clients the option to make payments via Interac e-Transfer, thus reducing credit card fees. With Interac e-Transfer, funds are deposited into your bank account the same day. Activity Messenger streamlines the automation of managing Interac e-Transfers, including reconciling payments with invoices. It’s a simple, effective, and cost-efficient solution.

Discover how to set up and automate the reconciliation of Interac e-Transfers in Activity Messenger using a registration form. The goal is to enable participants to make their payments via Interac e-Transfer while simplifying tracking through seamless automation.

# Setting up Interac e-Transfer

To enable payment via Interac e-Transfer in Activity Messenger, click on the menu next to your logo and select the Interac option.

Enter the email address where your clients will send the transfer.

We recommend activating automatic deposit for Interac e-Transfers through your banking app. This will prevent you from having to accept each transfer by entering the answer to the security question. Deposits will be made automatically without any intervention. Visit the Interac website to learn more about this feature and the enhanced security measures it provides.

Click on Save, and Interac e-Transfer will be available as a payment option in your payment forms.

# Security question and answer

By default, Activity Messenger will automatically generate the security answer. If you prefer to allow the client to enter their own answer, you can change the option here:

# Automatic cancellation (optional)

You can activate automatic cancellation to cancel a registration if payment is not received within a specified timeframe (e.g., 60 minutes).

Notification Process:

Initial Email: A notification email will be sent to the client, encouraging them to complete their payment before cancellation.

Payment Reminder: If the payment is not received immediately, an automatic reminder email can be sent to the client, prompting them to complete their transfer.

Email Customization: You can customize the email template to include a direct link to the client's invoice, making it easier for them to access and complete the payment.

Final Cancellation Email: If the payment is still not received after the designated time (e.g., 60 minutes), a second email will be sent to inform the client that their registration has been canceled.

# Adding Interac e-Transfer to a registration form

In the registration form, go to the payment options. 

Set the default payment method to Interac e-Transfer or add it as an option alongside other payment methods like credit card.

# Client experience with Interace-Transfer

Activity Messenger will guide your client to complete the transfer from their banking app. During their first transfer to your business, they will need to create a new recipient and enter the email address. Once the recipient is added, future transfers will be quicker and easier.

The Message or Comment field will contain the encrypted invoice identifier. This code will allow Activity Messenger to match the received transfer with the client's invoice, automatically marking the invoice as paid.

The Security Question and Security Answer fields will not be used if you have enabled automatic deposit. However, the client will still need to enter these fields in their banking app.

If you ask the client to enter the security question, the Security Question and Security Answer fields will be displayed. The client will need to input the security question in the designated field.

Activity Messenger allows the client to easily copy the values by clicking on each field. They can then paste them into their banking app.

Once the client has completed the Interac e-Transfer, they can press the button to finalize the invoice. They will receive a confirmation email with the invoice attached.

# Tracking Interac e-Transfer invoices

The administrator can easily track Interac e-Transfers. In the admin portal, the invoice will be marked as "Pending e-transfer". Invoices are visible under both the Respondents table of a Payment Form, or under Invoices in the E-Commerce menu.

# Manually accept an e-Transfer

If you did not activate autodeposit for this email address with your bank, you will be required to type in the security question answer that was auto-generated for the invoice. You can find that by opening the invoice and by clicking on "Reveal e-Transfer instructions". The Interac e-Transfer details will be available there.

# Interac payment settlement

Your bank will send you an email when the Interac e-Transfer is accepted. To mark an invoice as paid, you have two choices:

1. You can open the invoice and click on Make a payment. Choose Interac and click save.
2. You can forward the email to interac@am.lol. It will be settled automatically. Activity Messenger will match the encrypted invoice ID typed in by the client in the message or comment field.

# Automatic payment settlement

To automatically settle an Interac e-Transfer payment against its matching invoice, forward confirmation emails you receive from your bank to interac@am.lol. You can create an automatic rule in your email client (i.e. Gmail or Outlook) to forward those emails to Activity Messenger. That way, the process is fully automatic. Most times it should only take a few minutes from purchase to payment settlement.

# Interac e-Transfer fees

Activity Messenger adds a 1% process fee with a minimum of $0.50 and a maximum of $5.00 plus applicable sales taxes. That amount will be added to your monthly subscription bill. Consult the Billing page for further details.

# Email Interac without an invoice

It sometimes happens that an Interac e-Transfer is not correctly associated with an invoice. This usually occurs when the client forgets to include the message "AmInUmid XXXXXXXX."

In this case, you will receive a notification informing you of the number of Interac emails received without an associated invoice.

Click on this link to learn more. A window will open with a table. You will see that the message "AmInUmid XXXXXXXX" was not included when the client made the transfer. As a result, Activity Messenger was unable to locate the invoice.

Click on View to check the Interac email. 

Copy the reference number. 

Check the invoices for this client. You will find the invoice that indicates a pending Interac e-Transfer. 

Open the invoice and reconcile the payment by copying the Interac reference number and entering the correct amount if it differs.