--- title: "Payment Processing Overview" description: "Learn how Spark CRM handles payment processing with gateways, orchestrators, and decline recovery." --- > Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.sparkcrm.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Payment Processing Overview Spark CRM provides a robust payment processing system designed to maximize approval rates and recover failed transactions. This section covers the key components of the payment infrastructure. ## Payment Architecture Spark CRM's payment system is built from several components that work together: ``` Customer Payment ↓ Campaign ↓ Payment Orchestrator (optional) ↓ Gateway ↓ Payment Processor ↓ Transaction Result | +-- Cascade Profile (immediate retry on a backup gateway, same checkout) | +-- Decline Salvage (delayed retries; initial and rebill charges only) ``` ### Payment Flow 1. **Order Created**: Customer places an order through your campaign 2. **Gateway Selection**: The system determines which gateway to use (directly assigned or via orchestrator) 3. **Transaction Processing**: Payment is submitted to the gateway/processor 4. **Result Handling**: Success creates a completed transaction. A decline is first retried in-checkout if a cascade profile applies, and only a still-declined initial or rebill charge is queued for decline salvage (upsells are never salvaged, and a campaign can opt out) --- ## Key Components ### Payment Gateways Payment gateways connect Spark CRM to payment processors like Stripe, Authorize.net, and NMI. **Key features:** - Multiple gateway support for redundancy - Connection testing and monitoring - Monthly processing limits - Last transaction tracking **Supported gateways:** - NMI (Network Merchants) - Stripe - Authorize.net - Finix - ConvesioPay - PayNetWorx - Highwire Payments - Highwire Payments V2 - Bulletproof Checkout - Big Dogs Payments - Swiparas - Breeze (built-in 3D Secure — see [Breeze 3D Secure Checkout](/payment-processing/breeze-3ds-checkout)) - BridgePay - Sandbox (Testing) [Learn more about Payment Gateways](/payment-processing/gateways) ### Hosted card form Collect card data in a PCI-friendly iframe on your own checkout pages, then charge with a single-use token via the Checkout API. [Learn more about Hosted Payments](/settings/hosted-payments) --- ### Alternative Payment Methods Alternative payment methods let you accept payments beyond traditional credit card gateways, including PayPal Wallet, external/offline payments, and more. **Key features:** - PayPal Wallet with redirect-based checkout flow - Whop embedded checkout with Whop-managed subscriptions - Reference transactions for seamless upsells and subscriptions - External payments for manually confirmed offline transactions - PayPal payment sources are vaulted automatically on a successful order, enabling later upsells and rebills - Connection testing with a pass/fail result and a last-tested timestamp **Supported types:** - PayPal Wallet — Full API integration with vaulting support - Whop — Embedded checkout, merchant of record, Whop-owned billing schedule - External Payment — Manual confirmation for offline payments - Cash App, Zelle, Venmo, Bank Transfer — Placeholder types you can create records for; no processing integration exists yet - Cryptocurrency — Coming soon [Learn more about Alternative Payment Methods](/payment-processing/alternative-payments) --- ### Whop Checkout Whop runs its own embedded checkout on your funnel page as the merchant of record, with Spark CRM recording the order, subscriptions, fulfillment, and reporting around it. **Key features:** - Embedded checkout — card data never reaches Spark CRM - One-click upsells against the payment method Whop saved - Whop-managed subscriptions with cancel, pause, resume, and reactivate proxied from Spark CRM - Webhook-confirmed payments, renewals, refunds, and disputes [Learn more about Whop Checkout](/payment-processing/whop) --- ### Payment Orchestrators Payment orchestrators intelligently route transactions across multiple gateways to optimize approval rates. **Key features:** - Multiple routing algorithms - Per-gateway monthly caps and decline/fail limits that pull a gateway out of rotation - Automatic failover on gateway hard failures — connection, timeout, or authentication errors — when Enable Failover is turned on. Ordinary card declines are not failed over; use a [Cascade Profile](/payment-processing/cascade-profiles) to retry a decline on a backup gateway - Custom routing rules **Routing algorithms:** - Highest Approval Rate - Routes to gateway with best historical performance - Round Robin - Evenly distributes transactions across gateways - Ruleset Only - Uses custom rules exclusively [Learn more about Payment Orchestrators](/payment-processing/orchestrators) --- ### Cascade Profiles Cascade profiles retry a declined payment on backup gateways immediately, inside the same checkout, before the customer leaves. **Key features:** - Per-gateway ordered list of backup gateways - Scoped to initials, rebills, upsells, or any combination - Up to three cascade attempts per transaction - Controls for sticky MIDs, forced gateways, and orchestrator precedence [Learn more about Cascade Profiles](/payment-processing/cascade-profiles) --- ### Decline Mappings Decline mappings rewrite the raw decline messages your gateways return into your own customer-friendly wording, with an optional custom decline code for API responses. Match either on your own message text or on a predefined decline reason. **Key features:** - Predefined decline reasons to match against — Do Not Honor, Suspected Fraud, Insufficient Funds, Invalid CVV, Lost Card, Stolen Card, and more - Team-wide mappings that apply to declines from every gateway (mappings cannot be scoped to a single gateway) - Decline analytics [Learn more about Decline Mappings](/payment-processing/decline-mappings) --- ### Decline Salvage Decline salvage automatically retries declined initial and rebill charges on a delay to recover lost revenue. **Key features:** - Automated retry scheduling - Alternative gateway routing - Configurable retry rules - Recovery analytics [Learn more about Decline Salvage](/payment-processing/decline-salvage) --- ## Best Practices ### Gateway Setup 1. **Start with sandbox** - Test thoroughly before going live 2. **Add multiple gateways** - Provides redundancy and optimization opportunities 3. **Set processing limits** - The per-orchestrator monthly cap and the gateway daily limit take a gateway out of rotation once reached. The gateway monthly limit drives usage tracking and capacity alerts rather than a hard stop, and no limit applies to a campaign pointed directly at a gateway 4. **Test connections regularly** - Catch credential issues early ### Orchestrator Configuration 1. **Use orchestrators for multiple gateways** - Let the system optimize routing 2. **Start with Highest Approval Rate** - Good default for most merchants 3. **Monitor gateway performance** - Use the Payments report to spot weak MIDs, then tighten a gateway's decline and fail limits or its monthly cap on the orchestrator, or remove it from the pool 4. **Configure fallback gateways** - Turn on Enable Failover so hard failures re-route to another gateway ### Decline Recovery 1. **Enable decline salvage** - Recover revenue from declines that would otherwise be lost; track actual recovery in the Decline Salvage report 2. **Configure appropriate delays** - Give banks time between retries 3. **Exclude hard declines** - Don't retry fraud or stolen cards 4. **Monitor salvage effectiveness** - Track recovery rates --- ## Quick Reference | Task | Navigation | |------|------------| | Add a gateway | Payments > Gateways > New Gateway | | Test gateway connection | Payments > Gateways > (gateway) ⋯ > Connection Status > Test Now | | Add alternative payment method | Payments > Alternative Payments > New Payment Method | | Create an orchestrator | Payments > Orchestrators > New Orchestrator | | View decline mappings | Payments > Decline Mappings | | Configure salvage | Payments > Salvage | --- ## Related Reports - **Payment Report** - Gateway performance and approval rates - **Salvage Report** - Decline recovery metrics - **Risk Report** - Chargeback and fraud analysis --- ## Next Steps Start by [adding your first gateway](/payment-processing/gateways) to begin processing payments. Source: https://docs.sparkcrm.io/payment-processing/index.mdx