Student Registration - Quick Guide to Setting Up Payments Through MySchoolBucks

We’re happy that you’ve chosen our partner MySchoolBucks to accept online payments from families registering directly through Arbiter Registration (formerly FamilyID).

Arbiter Registration also integrates with PayPal and Stripe. If you are taking payment via PayPal, please click here. If you are taking payment through Stripe, please click here.
 

Sections:
Setting Up Your MySchoolBucks Account
Setting Up Your Payment Methods in Arbiter Registration
Charging an Administrative Fee to Registrants
Refunding MySchoolBucks payments through Arbiter Registration





Setting Up Your MySchoolBucks Account

Before accepting payments through Arbiter Registration, you will need to work with your MySchoolBucks representative to set up your MySchoolBucks account. Keep the following in mind:

  • This will be necessary even if your organization already uses MySchoolBucks.
  • It may take several weeks for MySchoolBucks to complete your account set-up and activation. Keep this in mind when considering deadlines for your program registrations.
  • If you already collect payments for programs and activities through MySchoolBucks, make sure that your pre-existing school store is disabled, or that you have removed the program fees that will be associated with your Arbiter Registration programs and instead direct parents to your Arbiter Registration landing page. This is required for families to complete payments as part of their registration, and for payments to be automatically recorded and for you to issue refunds in Arbiter Registration.


 

Setting Up Your Payment Methods in Arbiter Registration

If you have not already done so, make sure to give your Business Office access to your Arbiter Registration account with the ability to manage payment methods. You can find step by step instructions for adding a user by clicking here.

To begin, log in to your Arbiter Registration account. Next to the program to which you wish to add the payment method, select Edit. You will see tabs 1-8 at the top. Select tab 6, Payment.

In the top right-hand corner, select Create New Payment Method. On the dropdown menu, select MySchoolBucks.

Create New Payment Method window will appear.


 

If you have not yet set up your payments accounts with your MySchoolBucks representative, click the link to notify MySchoolBucks that you are interested in getting started.

Once your MySchoolBucks account is set up, fill in the form. The Client ID, Store ID, Department ID, and Payment Method ID are credentials provided to you by your MySchoolBucks Representative.

  • Name (Required)
    • This is the name your customers and you will see when selecting a way to pay. If you have different MySchoolBucks accounts for multiple purposes (i.e. athletics, clubs, early morning programs), make sure that you create a payment method for each account. Name them so that you can easily differentiate between multiple accounts (e.g. MySchoolBucks for Athletics). Be sure to assign the correct payment method to the correct program.
  • Client ID (Required)
  • Store ID (Optional -- based on the configuration of your MySchoolBucks account)
  • Department ID (Optional -- based on the configuration of your MySchoolBucks account)
  • Payment Method ID (Optional -- based on the configuration of your MySchoolBucks account)

Once you have finished, click Save.

The final step is to assign this payment method to your program. Check the box to the left of your payment method. Then select Save or Save and Continue at the bottom of the page.





 

Charging an Administrative Fee to Registrants

If you have set up your MySchoolBucks account to have parents pay for the processing fee, you should assign an administrative fee to a program. The fee is a percentage of the total cost of the registration. You will add the fee to the field provided at the top of the Payments tab. You may assign an administrative fee to each of your programs. You may only add one administrative fee per program. 

For step-by-step instructions on setting up an administrative fee, please click here.

Please note:

  • Administrative fees must be added to the program before accepting registrations. Fees cannot be retroactively added to existing registrations.
  • Check with your MySchoolBucks representative to verify if your Merchant Processing Agreement (MPA) calls for parents to pay a fee. If so, make sure that the "Program Fee" is disabled in your MySchoolBucks account. An administrative fee should be charged only on the Arbiter Registration form; this will prevent the fee from being charged twice to parents.
  • If you have alternative forms of payment (such as cash and check), you may choose to disable the administrative fee for those payment options. You can do so by selecting Edit next to the payment method, then checking Deduct administrative fee when this payment method is used.

Do a test payment

Complete a test payment before opening up your registration to your participants. This will ensure that your MySchoolBucks account is properly accepting payments and that the funds are being deposited into the correct accounts.

For step-by-step instructions on doing a test payment, click here.



 

Refunding MySchoolBucks payments through Arbiter Registration

You can issue refunds directly through Arbiter Registration for payments made with MySchoolBucks. Please note:

  • All refunds must be processed through Arbiter Registration in order for records on both systems to correlate. If you log into your MySchoolBucks account and process refunds directly from there, the refunds will not appear in Arbiter.
  • If a customer paid via E-Check or ACH, you will need to contact MySchoolBucks to have these payments refunded. These payments cannot be refunded through Arbiter Registration or through your MySchoolBucks customer portal.
  • If the customer paid via a credit card that has since expired, MySchoolBucks cannot issue a refund for that payment. Please reach out to MySchoolBucks for assistance or issue a refund via check.


To refund a customer, log in to Arbiter Registration and select the Programs button in the blue menu bar at the top of the page.

To find a specific student to refund, either hover over your program's filled number and select the section the registrant signed up for, or click the full filled number to see all registrations for this program.

From the list, locate the registration you'd like to refund and select the down arrow next to the View button on the right. Select PAYMENTS.




Select the blue Refund Online Payment button beneath the registration summary and enter the dollar amount you would like to refund.


If you refund the entire amount, then this full refund will update the registration as Canceled and the payment status as Refunded. If only a portion of the amount paid is refunded, then the registration status will remain unchanged, but the payment status will change to Partial Refund.  



A history of payment and refunded transactions are displayed in the registration summary.




 

Now it is time to start collecting payments. Thank you for choosing to use MySchoolBucks with Arbiter Registration!





 

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