Custom Payment Amounts

[AllProResidential]

Hello,

This is my first post. I'm exploring Zen Cart to meet a specific need and since it's open source I assume it's adaptable (I'm guessing, I'm not a tech head, IT, or coder). I'm going to express my need and hopefully other members, admin, and coders (if applicable) can answer this and provide me with a solution. This is what I need to accomplish:

I have a residential remodeling and renovation business and I would like to create (or hire someone to create/modify) a page that allows my clients to input their payment information and specific payment amount (it varies client to client obviously) and it be processed by ZenCart to my PayPal, directly to my bank account, or via Square Payment. Not sure how all this works yet - hence why I am on here. I generally accept CC's/Debit's via Square in person but I do accept checks as well. So, my questions are:

1) Is ZenCart a good fit for my needs?
2) If yes, how do I make this come to fruition? Is there already a help file I've missed, do I need to hire a coder, etc?


Thanks in advance for your patience and assistance in this matter.


Sincerely,


L. Crenshaw, Ofc. Mgr.
AllPro Residential, LLC.
[email protected]

[DrByte]

If you've only got one product, then Zen Cart might be overkill for your needs. A PayPal button on your page might be enough.

But yes you can certainly set up a product which allows the customer to enter an amount to pay, and then proceed through checkout with whatever payment choices you configure your Zen Cart store to offer, including PayPal and direct bank deposit, etc.
see: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...ct-or-Donation

[AllProResidential]

There are um, negative associations, with PayPal/Google Checkout as a payment system in most people's minds and as it comes to our field of expertise it is a double whammy (we look less than professional and "amateur hour"). We are already combating the under-qualified and charlatan/shysters out there in our field.... PayPal as a method needs to be "unseen", hence why I am considering Zen Cart. Our clients pay us hundreds to thousands (sometimes 10's of thousands) for our services at a time. While we try to break the overall project cost(s) into increments (depending on overall project size) for affordability.... more and more of our clients are asking if...... "is it possible to pay you online with a credit/debit card?".

Generally, when it comes to CC's or Debits we use the Square reader (2.75% per swiped transaction - slightly more on manual entry) this is a newer technology that is common place in our hometown of Atlanta, GA but viewed with more than a little some skepticism in "little town, nowhere" where we currently reside and operate. People as a whole out here are more than happy to hand over a check (which is a less secure payment method in our opinion since it lists account#/routing number and has a copy of their true signature) but when it comes to CC's/Debits they want to "pay online". Some of our clients feel "safer" with an online payment method vs. swiping via our smartphones. We try to meet any and all needs as they arise which is why I am investigating ZenCart as a online, via our website, payment method.

.......

[AllProResidential]

P.S. @ Dr. Byte... I saw that help file but it's not exactly what I'm looking for. I just need something simple... Name, Billing Info, Invoice Ref Number, Payment Amt, Processed with all fields being required. I need to know exactly which invoice/project number is being paid for as we often do multiple projects for the same client.

L. Crenshaw

[AllProResidential]

For those of you who are reading this thread and want more info...

We have been working from the website of http://allproresidential.webs.com and I am in the process of transferring all the information from that site to our Official site of http://www.alllproresidential.net which is where the payment page will be needed (for coders reading this post). While it is far from finished I have already included a "call to action" button for the needs expressed above.

Also, we are members of a local barter community known as LocalTradePartners.com. Would it be possible to adapt the Zen Cart to reflect Trade dollar increments (known as $T)? I.E. - We just did a job for a client where sales tax was USD but the job itself was $T. While I know it won't actually PROCESS this amount... some kind of notification that they are "paying" the $T amounts owed (for record keeping) and manually debit their $T accounts upon notification?

Just curious on this one....


Leslie....

[AllProResidential]

Urgh.. that was supposed to be http://www.allproresidential.net (one to many "l"'s in the prior post..... bad, bad fingers).

[dw08gm]

Re: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...ct-or-Donation

Where a customer is to pay your invoice online, you can create a product called "Pay Invoice" with text attribute(s) allocated for the customer to insert the invoice reference and any other information you may require. Then, proceeding to final checkout, the customer can be offered "direct bank deposit" and/or other payment options in the select payment methods section.

Once you know how, this is very simple to setup.

[mprough]

Checkout Fresh Books... zen cart is an online "catalog", an ecommerce system.
It is not really a fit for simply being an invoicing or account-payment-collection system.

[AllProResidential]

Thanks I will check it out! Appreciate the input!