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CardinalPay

CardinalPay is an application developed by Stanford that provides additional functionality for Stanford-managed Stripe merchant accounts. Cardinal Pay offers enhanced front-end payment acceptance features that enables customers to transact with individual merchant Stripe accounts. Through this centralized platform, the back-end account management integrates with the Oracle financial management system to provide automated accounting and reconciliation features.

Learn more about the fall 2023 CardinalPay roll out and all Merchant Services enhancements on the Merchant Services Transformation Project news page.

CardinalPay has two primary functions:

  • The front-end merchant ecommerce presence
    • Customers interface with individual Stripe merchant accounts through a centrally managed portal with emailed receipt issuance
    • Dedicated hosted merchant payment page(s) for each defined payment stream with substantial customization options
  • The back-end merchant Stripe account management
    • Collects real time data for streamlined reporting, analytics, and accounting reconciliation
    • Manages payment card refunds lifecycle implemented with record retention and dual controls for approvals

The benefits of using CardinalPay include:

  • Offers a simple and flexible revenue collection solution with diverse payment options
  • Improves customer confidence through trusted Stanford branding and Stanford.edu domain
  • Automates accounting string posting to Oracle Financials for all Stripe-related grossed-up financial revenue data
  • Integration of Authority Manager simplifies management of access to merchant functionality
  • Embeds PCI compliance in payment pages, as opposed to customized standalone pages, which have additional compliance certification steps.
  • Centralizes the management of multiple Stanford-owned Stripe merchant accounts
  • Provides high level reporting capabilities to query transaction activities across all accounts

Consolidating the front-end and back-end capabilities on one platform can increase customer confidence, satisfaction, and conversion through consistent branding, location on the Stanford.edu domain, availability of multiple modern payment methods, and general ease of use.

CardinalPay is designed for departments who have:

  • Stanford-owned Stripe accounts and and use any of the following for payment collection:
    • CardinalPay front-end ecommerce
    • Stripe native payment links or invoicing
    • Integration with approved third-party vendors (e.g., Cvent, Hivebrite, Vivenu).
  • One-off payment needs that do not justify a standalone merchant account.
  • The legacy Certain event platform to collect non-event related payments (e.g., membership, application, course fees).

CardinalPay is not applicable for:

  • Non-Stripe transactions through other payment gateways (e.g., Cybersource, Authorize.net) or point-of-sale terminals (e.g., Clover, FreedomPay).
  • Vendor-owned Stripe merchant accounts managed by an approved third-party front-end vendor (e.g., GiveGab, Slate, Shopify).

CardinalPay will integrate with the following systems:

  • Stripe: Integrated with Stripe via JavaScript library, API, and webhooks. Uses Stripe Connect to centrally manage all Stanford-owned Stripe accounts.
  • Stanford Login Single Sign-On (SSO): Stanford users can log in with SUNet ID and password via Stanford Login without having a different username and password. Non-Stanford payers can create local password-based login accounts.
  • Authority Manager: Four merchant account user role privileges (Owner, Analyst, Operator, Viewer) can be granted through Stanford’s Authority Manager system.
  • Oracle Financials: Automated ifeeder journals are posted daily, routing each merchant’s receipts to designed revenue and expense general ledger accounts.
  • PTAE/PFOO Validation: Leverages existing web services to validate PTAE/PFO strings and verify associated approval authority to eliminate manual lookups and reduce journal failure.
  • Cardinal Cloud Stanford Hosting: Stanford branded visual layout and website domain at cardinalpay.stanford.edu that provides credibility to customers while running on a modern, scalable cloud architecture.

CardinalPay posts revenue and expenses from Stripe transactions to the general ledger via a daily system-to-system feeder journal that does not require staff intervention.

Example: Customer pays merchant department $100 for a Stanford product or service. With CardinalPay, the Stripe transaction accounting flow generates a journal showing a merchant’s Stripe payout containing a single payment gross revenue, processing fees, and Merchant Services fees that are routed to the appropriate PTA:

CardinalPay Stripe Transaction Accounting Flow

There are four CardinalPay merchant user role privileges (Owner, Analyst, Operator, Viewer) that can be granted through Stanford's Authority Manager system.

Please note that the Payer* role is not a grantable privilege in Authority Manager because it is automatically assigned to anyone with a CardinalPay login credential regardless if they are a customer or a merchant user.

Privilege Description What role can do What role cannot do
Payer* Allows remittance of payment to merchant set up to accept payments on CardinalPay. Anyone can access the Payer role with the CardinalPay login credential. Can make payments to any merchant that is set up to receive payment on CardinalPay Cannot see anything other than payer's own transaction history
Merchant Owner Allows for allocation of functional CardinalPay roles at the org code level in Authority Manager Can grant CardinalPay role privileges (Analyst, Operator, Viewer) for their merchant account in Authority Manager
  • Cannot view transactions (payments, refunds, payouts) nor issue refunds
  • Cannot view, create, or edit settings (merchant settings, payment types, payment instructions, PTA assignments, terminal management)
  • Cannot export data and download reports
  • Cannot manage disputes/chargebacks which requires a separate dispute analyst role on Stripe dashboard
Merchant Analyst Allows the highest level of access to individual merchant account(s) on the CardinalPay system
  • Can view, create, and edit settings:
    • merchant settings
    • payment types
    • payment instructions
    • PTA assignment
    • terminal management
  • Can view transactions:
    • payments
    • refunds
    • disputes
    • payouts
  • Can issue refunds
  • Can export data and download reports
  • Can collect payment using Stripe terminal
  • Cannot manage disputes/chargebacks which requires a separate dispute analyst role on Stripe dashboard
  • Cannot grant any CardinalPay role privilege in Authority Manager
Merchant Operator Allows operation of card reader hardware and related functionality on individual merchant account(s) on the CardinalPay system
  • Can collect payments using Stripe terminal
  • Can view payments
  • Can issue refunds
  • Can view users/payers details
  • Can create subscriptions
  • Can view settings
    • merchant settings
      • products
  • Cannot create or edit settings (merchant settings, payment types, payment instructions, PTA assignments, terminal management, products).
  • Cannot manage disputes/chargebacks which requires a separate dispute analyst role on Stripe dashboard
  • Cannot grant any CardinalPay role privileges in Authority Manager
Merchant Viewer Allows view-only access to individual merchant account(s) on the CardinalPay system
  • Can view settings (merchant settings, payment instructions), and transactions (payments, refunds, payouts)
    • Can export data and download reports
  • Cannot create or edit settings (merchant settings, payment types, payment instructions, PTA assignments, terminal management).
  • Cannot issue refunds
  • Cannot manage disputes/chargebacks which requires a separate dispute analyst role on Stripe dashboard
  • Cannot grant any CardinalPay role privilege in Authority Manager

 

Last Updated: Apr 1, 2024
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