Civic Review is set up to allow applicants to pay their fees directly from their applicant portal, which streamlines the review workflow. (Check out this article on Payment Timing to see when they can pay.)
However, there are unique situations and circumstances when an applicant may want to pay over the phone or in your office. This article will show you how to deal with those.
Determine Payment Type:
Online payment processors can handle credit card payments and (in some cases) ACH Bank Payments. Method 1 below will show you how to PROCESS payments.
If an applicant would rather pay with cash, a check, or swipe a card in your office then you'll process the actual payment or transaction outside of Civic Review (according to your office protocol) and then RECORD the payment details within Civic Review so that their fees balance out. This is covered in Method 2 below.
To either process or record a payment, you'll first want to navigate to the specific application and click the View/Edit button to enter the Terms and Fees area.
Once there, you'll click "Process Payment" to open up the Staff Payment Portal.
Most processors will have options for Check, Cash, and Card. A few payment processors also allow for applicants to initiate Bank Account Transfers as well.
Method 1: Process a Payment
To process an actual transaction through Civic Review you'll want to use the Card option. This allows you to input the applicant's credit card information directly into your payment processor and they securely process the payment and post back to Civic Review that the payment has been processed.
Method 2: Record a Payment
If you'd just like to record a payment that was made in your office previously, you can click directly on the Cash or Check buttons, or click on Card and select the "record a payment already made" option. Each of these options will open up a mini payment form that allows you to enter in the transaction details without actually processing the payment through the system.
In all cases, ensure that you click the "Save Payment" button at the bottom.
Reporting:
The Transaction Report area in Civic Review will show both processed and recorded payments; and will differentiate the payment type so you can see if it was processed online or simply recorded in the system.