Introduction

This guide is designed to help users learn how to brand supported resources used for communication between companies that are represented within the payment gateway.

Intended Audience

This guide will be useful for payment service providers and resellers that want to familiarize themselves with branding of supported resources.

Overview

In the merchant services industry, businesses use a set of marketing and advertising methods to distinguish themselves from competitors and make a positive impression on their clients and business partners. These methods include branding - creation of an entity’s visual representation.

In the gateway, branding is done via the branding module. It allows users to create a branding profile for each company represented in the gateway. Each branding profile is a set of forms that allow for branding of specific resources that a company may use to interact with other companies within the system. A strict hierarchy is present in the gateway that determines how interaction is done.


As some companies may not be aware of the hierarchy, it is important for them to receive information from the entity they are familiar with. Thus, customers receive information from merchants, merchants receive information from resellers and resellers from portfolios. For more information about the merchant services industry, please follow this link.

The gateway allows for branding of three groups of resources:

• Web resources - web pages that can be customized using branding functionality.
• Print resources - documents such as statements and receipts that can be customized using branding functionality.
• Notification resources - email notification templates that can be customized using branding functionality.

Each group of resources allows for customizing of two types of elements:

• Data elements - values that control which content is rendered within a particular resource.
• Style elements - values that control visual representation of a particular resource.

Data and style elements that can be customized using branding functionality are specific for each resource. Let us look at these elements in more detail.

Brandable elements

Data Elements

Depending on the resource, the following data elements can be customized:

• Company name - business name of an entity's company.
• Parent company name - business name of a parent entity's company. It can be used if a company is a subsidiary of the larger entity that needs to be mentioned when notification resources are rendered. For example, PaySoftware is a subsidiary of Pay Solutions Inc.
• Portal URL - URL used by the users associated with an entity to access the system.
• Processing URL - URL used by the users associated with an entity to submit transactions.
• Portal name - name of the company; derived from the Company Name field of the branding profile.
• Merchant services contact information - information used by merchants and resellers to resolve business issues.
• Technical support contact information - information used by merchants and resellers to resolve technical issues.

Style Elements

Depending on the resource, the following style elements can be customized:

• Main Logo (Web) - logo of a company for customizing web resources.
• Main Logo (Print) - logo of a company for customizing print resources.
• Powered By (Web) - optional logo of a payment service provider (PSP) for customizing web resources.
• Powered By (Print) - optional logo of a payment service provider (PSP) for customizing print resources.
• Color schema – colors for backgrounds, headers, sections, etc.
• Icons – a set of images for branding icons. Icons are used for customizing a membership portal.

The Powered By (Web) and Powered By (Print) logos can be used in two cases:

• If a payment service provider is a well-known and established company, merchants and resellers may want to use the logo of the PSP to improve their image in the eyes of their clients.
• If a payment service provider wants to inform other companies or cardholders about itself as a key player in the industry or business process.

To learn how to manage branding settings, review a respective tutorial.

We will explain the branding functionality with the help of use cases for each brandable resource. For our use cases, we will use the following examples:

• SuperShop X – a chain of stores that accept one-time payments. It is represented as a merchant within the gateway.
• SuperShop – a company that provides franchises to open stores under its brand. It is represented as a reseller within the gateway.
• SuperGym X – a chain of fitness centers that accepts recurring payments. It is represented as a merchant within the gateway.
• SuperGym – a company that provides franchises to open fitness centers under its brand. It is represented as a reseller within the gateway.
• PaySoftware – a POS software development company that provides its services to SuperShop and SuperGym. It is represented as a reseller within the system.
• Pay Solutions Inc. – a payment service provider that provides a technical platform for processing transactions. It is represented as a portfolio within the system.

Now that we have familiarized ourselves with data and style elements, it is time to learn how to brand resources supported by the gateway.

Web resources

The following elements can be customized for all web resources:

• Main Logo (Web)
• Powered By (Web)

The following elements can be customized only for specific web resources:

• Company name
• Portal URL
• Portal name
• Color schema
• Icons

Onboarding application

The Onboarding application is a set of forms a user logged in as a merchant sees when the onboarding API is used. The branding profile allows for customizing the onboarding application at portfolio and reseller levels. The following elements can be customized using branding functionality:

1. Main Logo (Web)
2. Powered By (Web)
3. Background (light)
4. Background (dark)
5. Borders
6. Footnotes/Errors
7. Buttons
8. Body Background
9. Header Background

After you are done with branding of the onboarding application, it should look similar to this:


For more information about Onboarding API, please follow this link.


In addition, the branding profile allows to indicate in General/Onboarding section a unique domain name at the Reseller or Portfolio level to be used as onboarding pages URL. The Pages URL field is optional.

Logon page

Logon page is a set of web pages that are available for portfolio, reseller and merchant users without and after authentication. The set of web pages includes:

• Logon page
• Password reset page for a human user
• Password reset page for a service user

The branding profile allows for customizing the logon page at reseller and portfolio levels. The following elements can be customized using branding functionality:

1. Portal URL
2. Main Logo (Web)
3. Portal Name

After you are done with branding of the logon page, it should look similar to this:

Hosted Payment Page

Hosted Payment Page (HPP) is a set of pages a cardholder sees when the HPP mechanism is used as a part of processing API.

The branding profile allows for customizing HPP at all levels within the system. The following elements can be customized using branding functionality:

1. Main Logo (Web)
2. Powered By (Web) - derived from a company name
3. Processing URL
4. Portal URL

For more information about HPP mechanism, please follow this link.

Membership portal

Membership portal is a self-service portal available to merchants’ customers within the system if the recurring billing module is used. The branding profile allows for customizing the membership portal at all levels within the system. The following elements can be customized using branding functionality:

1. Main Logo (Web) (portal-logo.png)
2. New Payment icon (pay-my-bill.png)
3. Account Transaction icon (payment-history.png)
4. Update Account Info icon (update-account.png)
5. Payment Plan icon (view-contracts.png)
6. View Renewal Terms icon (view-renewal.png)
7. Document icon (view-documents.png)
8. Logout icon (logout_icon.png)

Note that all of the elements above can be accessed via the following URL [server-name]/image/get/[icon-name]. For example, to download the image set as the main logo, the following URL has to be used: [server-name]/image/get/portal-logo.png


After you are done with branding of the membership portal, it should look similar to this:

Print resources

The following elements can be customized for all print resources:

• Company Name
• Main Logo (Print)
• Color of section background

The following elements can be customized only for specific resources:

• Merchant services contact information
• Powered By (Print)

Receipts

Receipt is a digital or printed slip provided to a cardholder by email or via a terminal after the transaction is made. The branding profile allows for customizing receipts at all levels within the system.

The following elements within a receipt sent by email can be customized using branding functionality:

1. Company Name
2. Main Logo (Print)
3. Powered By (Print)
4. Color of section background

For a receipt generated by a terminal, the following elements can be customized:

1. Company Name
2. Main Logo (Print)

After you are done with the branding of receipts, they should look similar to this:


For more information about terminal receipt, review this integration note.

Statements

Statement is a set of financial summaries generated by the system. The branding profile allows for customizing statements at all levels within the system. The following elements can be customized using branding functionality:

1. Company Name
2. Merchant services contact information
3. Main Logo (Print)
4. Powered By (Print)
5. Color of section background

After you are done with branding of statements, they should look similar to this:


For more information about statements, please follow this link.

Notification resources (development in progress)

Notifications

Notifications are a set of email templates used to inform entities about specific events within the system. The branding profile allows for customizing email templates at all levels within the system. The following elements can be customized using branding functionality:

1. Company Name
2. Parent Company Name
3. Merchant services contact information
4. Tech support contact information
5. Color of header background

Overriding mechanism

Each company represented in the gateway can use a set of data and style elements to create its own unique branding profile. To create a unique branding profile, it is necessary to understand how the branding module operates based on the system hierarchy.

There is always a default branding profile configured at system level that is automatically applied to all portfolios, resellers and merchants present in the gateway. The purpose of the overriding mechanism is to provide companies with the ability to override data and style elements of a default system branding profile and create their own unique branding style.

To brand an element for a particular resource, the overriding mechanism needs to be activated. To activate the mechanism, please follow these instructions:

• Choose the corresponding merchant, reseller or portfolio and open its branding profile.
• Click the “Override” button.
• Click on the light bulb icons for data and style elements that need to be configured.
• Enter new data and style elements in the corresponding fields.
• Save the branding profile.

The overridden data and style elements are then aggregated together and the resource is rendered. If particular data and style elements need to be rendered from a branding profile of a higher level, the light bulb icons for respective elements should be left turned off.