Logging payment overview
In LMS, LoanPro has tools to help your employees log payments with ease, accuracy, and efficiency. This article will explore how logging a payment works in LMS—how it's done in the software, what options are available, and how they'll affect loans. We'll also touch on payment processing, how the money actually gets moved from a borrower's account into yours.
LoanPro separates payments into two tasks: logging a payment on an account, and processing payment. Payments are logged in the loan management system (LMS), and if it's a bank card or e-check payment, LMS notifies our PCI-compliant software Secure Payments that triggers a processor to move money from one account to another.
Logging a payment
There are several methods for logging payments in LoanPro, each are outlined below.
Individual payments
This is the simplest way to log a payment, and the one we explain in our Manual Payments article. Just open a loan, click ‘Log Payment’, and let the system walk you through the rest of the steps.
AutoPay
AutoPays can automatically draw money from a borrower's bank card or account at scheduled increments. For more on AutoPay, check out Automated Payments.
Imports
Imports allow you to upload a .csv file with payments for multiple loans at the same time. For general information, read our Importing into LoanPro article, and for the payment import specifically, read Import Example – Payments.
Customer Portal
LoanPro offers a Customer Portal, which borrowers can use to apply for loans, view their accounts, add payment profiles, post payments, and set up AutoPays. For an overview of what they'll see, check out our Customer Portal overview. When payments are logged here, payment defaults are used.
Note that when payments are logged here, they'll use your payment defaults.
API
If you use another software to accept payments, you can integrate them into LMS with our API. Check out the Payments section of our API documentation.
Payment Settings
Regardless of what tool you use to log them, you'll have the same options for how the system calculates that payment on the loan. The following settings and tools help in configuring and altering loan settings. Note that these are saved at the payment level, meaning that you can create payments with different settings on the same account.
| Payment Setting | Description |
| Recovery Payment | If you've already charged off a loan and taken it off your books, but then receive a payment, LoanPro can help you keep your account straight by logging it as a recovery payment. They will still apply towards the loan balance and move money like normal payments, but are distinct in reports. |
| Payment Type | This determines the order in which money goes to different parts of the loan, like principal, fees, and interest. If a borrower pays the full amount on the due date, this won't make a huge difference, but it can have a larger impact when borrowers make partial payments and there's not enough money to cover everything due. |
| Date | You can change when the payment applies to the loan. |
| Amount | You can either enter an amount manually, or select a set amount, like everything that's currently due. |
| Payment Method | This refers to how the borrower is paying you—cash, bank card, checks, e-check, or whatever else. Our Cash Drawer tools can help you manage cash transactions, and we're integrated with several payment processors to handle bank cards and e-checks. If you want to add custom payment methods, like Dogecoin or Applebee's gift certificates, feel free, but LoanPro doesn't have tools to move those into your account. |
| Advanced Settings | These settings control the finer points of payment calculations, like how it affects interest accrual or what the system does when borrowers make early payments. Check out Logging Payments for an explanation of each. |
| Payment Profile | If this is a bank card or e-check payment, then the payment profile is the specific card or account the borrower is using. (You can create and select profiles in LMS, but they're saved in Secure Payments to maintain PCI compliance.) If it's any other payment method, you won't need to enter a profile. |
| Payment Processor | Payment Processors are companies who handle the actual movement of money from one account to another. LoanPro is integrated with several for bank cards, e-checks, or both. |
| Convenience Fee | You can choose to a percentage, dollar amount, lesser or greater of the two, or waive it entirely. |
Payment processing
When payments are logged and processed in LoanPro, they are first recorded in LMS, then sent to a processor via Secure Payments. The following steps outline the overall process.
- The process begins with the creation of a payment profile in LMS. While it seems like you are creating these in LMS, you are actually using Secure Payments via an iframe, which is like a bridge between two websites. The payment profile is then selected as the method for the payment.
- The payment is initiated and processed in LMS, then it's sent to Secure Payments.
Secure Payments then sends the payment information to the corresponding payment processor where it's processed on their end. - Depending on the success or failure of the payment with the payment processor, a response is sent to Secure Payments and then logged. Secure Payments relays this information back to LMS so that your payment records match in both places.
- LMS then updates the loan calculations to reflect the payment.
The safety of your payment information is always a top priority of ours. To ensure your information is always safe, we created Secure Payments, a PCI-compliant product separate from LMS. Your borrowers' payment profile information is stored here, and we tokenize each profile to ensure security. LMS stores only basic payment information and uses the token in Secure Payments to initiate transactions. Like we mentioned, the two products are separate, but they communicate with each other to match payment information.
Secure Payments is also where you will create payment processors—third-party businesses that facilitate the transfer of funds. Once you create a processor in Secure Payments, it can be used for payments in LMS.
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