Feature Updates 05/24/2022
New More Aggressive OnlineGiving.org Algorithm to Locate and Fix MinistryPlatform Widget Transactions Missing MP Payments Records
We're pleased to report that an update is now live that enhances the OnlineGiving.org algorithm that locates and fixes MinistryPlatform Widget invoices missing MP payment records. MP Widgets are a type of PayPal-style payment for MinistryPlatform churches in which the church installed an MP Widget into the church website for paid event registrations and invoice payments. The MP Widget (mpp-checkout) is an MP feature that starts the checkout process for a payment and hands that request to OnlineGiving.org for payment processing. Once OnlineGiving.org finishes the payment processing, the user is returned to the MP church website checkout page. The MP Widget (mpp-checkout) applies the payment records towards the associated MP Invoice.
Per MinistryPlatform MP Widget vendor specifications, OnlineGiving.org cannot record payment records after a transaction since the MP Widget (mpp-checkout) is responsible for performing the payment record creation task after payment. However, over the last 6+ months, church feedback flushed out a use-case scenario in which MP may fail to record a payment against an invoice after OnlineGiving.org returns the user to the MP Widget page.
While OnlineGiving.org did not cause the issue, we desired to develop a tool to locate and fix these invoices to benefit our MP customers. On 10/27/2021, OnlineGiving.org released a feature. called the "OnlineGiving.org MinistryPlatform Payment Handoff Recording Checker" that was designed to locate MP Invoices with a "Canceled" status and an "Invoice Abandoned by Registrant" cancelation reason and automatically apply the missing payment. At the same time we thoroughly documented and reported the issue to MinistryPlatform.
Fast forward, from October 2021 to May 2022 we're the issue is still waiting to be addressed with an MP Widget software release by MinsitryPlatform. We have confirmed with MinistryPlatform that a fix is actively being developed and will be released as soon as possible. However, in the meantime, we continue to receive an increasingly larger load of tickets related to this specific use-case issue as more MP churches adopt MP Widgets. Additional feedback has been collected that shows additional action was necessary to apply a more sophisticated payment fixer feature that could also address MP Invoices with other statuses such as "Some Paid" or similar that did not have payments recorded due to the MP Widget use-case issue above.
Based on church feedback, we took action and developed a significantly more aggressive algorithm that takes a different approach to locate and fixing MP Invoices. Before the update, the OnlineGiving.org MinistryPlatform Payment Handoff Recording Checker would only automatically fix invoices with a "Canceled" status and an "Invoice Abandoned by Registrant" cancelation reason. We are pleased to report we've taking a more aggressive approach and redesigned the feature to check for the presence of payment records matching the transaction code (gateway transaction id) and ensuring those payment records were associated with the MP Invoice.
Moving forward, the OnlineGiving.org MinistryPlatform Payment Handoff Recording Checker will now automatically apply a payment towards any invoice associated with a transaction processed by OnlineGiving.org that is found not to contain an MP Payment record with a transaction code matching the gateway transaction id for the OnlineGiving.org transaction payment. This approach will allow the OnlineGiving.org integration to locate invoices missing payment records no matter the invoice status.
We are committed to ChMS integration excellence and resolving our customer's transaction-related issues even if our system does not cause the issue. We are hopeful that the more aggressive algorithm will reduce church financial labor by automatically fixing invoices as they are discovered.
Please note that the feature above is directly related to completed payments (transactions) that originated from the MP Widgets (mpp-checkout) feature. OnlineGiving.org also offers a dedicated MP Payment feature for households located under the My Invoices page of the OnlineGiving.org church website. The latter is well-loved and has been working wonderfully since its release in 2020 and is not subject to the feature above.