WordPress payments

WordPress payments – what you can do

You do not need WooCommerce, or a store, to take card payments on a WordPress site. With Merchant360 you can collect three ways, donations, one-time payments, and subscriptions, right on your own pages, and every payment lands in the same Merchant360 dashboard as the rest of your business.

The payment form is hosted by Merchant360 and shown inside your page, so the card number is typed on Merchant360's secure surface, not on your WordPress site.

This works with any WordPress site, the block editor, the classic editor, or a page builder like Elementor or Divi, because all you are adding is a small snippet or a link.

Everything is configured on one Merchant360 page, Take Payments → Pay Widget, and it needs your card processing to be active. If the Pay Widget page says Set up payment processing first, finish Billing Tools setup before continuing.

What your customers see

The Pay Widget is one tool that changes shape based on which payment types you turn on. There are six in all: a fixed amount, donations, save a card on file, pay an external invoice, pay a Merchant360 invoice, and subscriptions. The three most common are pictured above: a donation form (the giver picks an amount from preset chips or a custom value), a one-time form (a set price and a Pay button), and a subscription form (recurring sign-up).

Every one carries your business name and brand color, the card is entered on Merchant360's secure form, and the customer never leaves your page. You can put more than one on your site, say a donation widget on your Donate page and a membership sign-up on another.

The two invoice types are a little different, because the customer is paying a bill rather than a set price; those get their own section below (Letting customers pay an invoice).

To see exactly what a customer sees, click Preview on the Pay Widget page, or Preview next to a payment type. If the preview shows the wrong colors, update Brand color under Branding; the logo comes from your business profile.

Two ways to collect

There are two no-code ways to take a payment, and both handle donations, one-time amounts, and subscriptions. Pick whichever fits the page.

1) A payment link. You create a link in Merchant360 and put it behind a button or a menu item. When someone clicks it, they pay on a secure Merchant360 page and come right back. This is the fastest option and needs nothing pasted into your site. The Pay Widget page also has a Pay Now button builder that gives you ready-to-paste button HTML or a plain link to your hosted page.

2) The Pay Widget (embedded). You paste a small snippet onto a page and the payment form appears right there, so the customer pays without leaving your site.

Both go through the same Master switch: when it is off, the hosted page and the embed both refuse charges with an unavailable message.

How the embed works – three steps

Adding the embedded form is three steps, and if you can add a block to a WordPress page you can do all of it yourself: set up the Pay Widget in Merchant360, copy the embed snippet, and paste it into a WordPress page. The snippet renders a Merchant360 payment iframe, so the form updates itself when you change settings in Merchant360; you never need to re-paste it.

The next two sections walk through each part. If the form does not appear after pasting, the snippet was pasted into a normal text block rather than a Custom HTML block.

Step 1 – set up your Pay Widget

In Merchant360, go to Take Payments → Pay Widget and turn it on; this needs your card processing to be active. Then set it up the way you want it to behave on your site.

The page is a stack of cards: Master switch, Payment types, Amount range, Branding, Receipts, API key, Embed snippet, Pay Now button, Subscription plans, and Recent activity. Work down the page once; changes save when you click Save on each card.

You are done when the status badge reads Live and the Embed snippet card shows your snippet. If the badge reads Off, the Master switch is off. If it reads Not configured, the widget has not been activated yet; use Turn on the Pay Widget.

Leave the API key card alone unless a developer asked for a key; it is only for a checkout you build yourself.

1. 1Payment types: choose what the form accepts: a fixed amount, donations, save a card on file, pay an invoice, or subscriptions. You can turn on more than one.
2. 2Amount range: set a Minimum and Maximum. These are enforced on Merchant360's servers, so no one can edit the page to pay outside the range.
3. 3Branding and receipts: set your Brand color, the Success redirect and Cancel redirect if you want customers sent to your own pages, and the From email and BCC email for receipts. Your logo comes from your business profile.
4. 4Copy the embed: click Copy on the embed snippet. That snippet is the whole secure form; you will paste it into WordPress next.

Choose what your widget accepts

The Payment types list is where you pick what the form does. Turn on as many as you like; a visitor can only use the ones you have checked, even if a snippet asks for one you have not enabled.

Each type has a one-line description on the card. A type marked Coming soon cannot be checked yet. Subscriptions also needs at least one plan under Subscription plans before anyone can sign up.

If a customer reports the form says a payment type is disabled, open this card and check that type, then Save.

1. 1Fixed amount: you lock the price in the snippet; the customer just enters their card.
2. 2Donations: the donor picks the amount from preset chips or types their own.
3. 3Save card on file: capture a card for later (a future invoice or subscription) with no charge today.
4. 4Pay external invoice: the customer types your invoice number and the amount.
5. 5Pay Merchant360 invoice: the customer looks up an invoice you sent from Merchant360 by email and customer code.
6. 6Subscriptions: recurring billing on a plan you set up (monthly, quarterly, or yearly).

Step 2 – add it to a WordPress page

Now put the snippet on your site. You are adding it to whichever page you want people to pay on: a Donate page, a checkout page, a membership sign-up, and so on.

You need the snippet on your clipboard from Step 1 and edit rights on the WordPress page. When it works, the Merchant360 form appears exactly where you placed the block, and a test payment shows up on the Pay Widget page under Recent activity.

If the page shows the raw code instead of a form, it was pasted into a paragraph block; delete it and paste into a Custom HTML block. If the form appears but says payments are unavailable, the Master switch is off in Merchant360.

1. 1In WordPress, open the page you want (Pages → edit, or add a new one).
2. 2Block editor: click the + to add a block, search for Custom HTML, and paste the snippet into it. Classic editor: switch to the Text tab and paste it there. Page builders (Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder): drop in an HTML widget and paste it.
3. 3Click Update or Publish, then open the live page. The Merchant360 payment form appears right where you placed the block.
4. 4Do a real test: make a small live payment (or use test mode first). It should show up immediately under Recent activity on the Pay Widget page and in Transactions.

Donations

For a Donate page, set the payment type to Donations (on the Pay Widget, or when you create a payment link). The donor chooses how much to give; you can set an optional minimum and maximum to keep gifts in a sensible range.

It is a great fit for nonprofits, churches, schools, fundraisers, and tip jars. Donors get an emailed receipt, and every gift is tracked against the donor in your Merchant360 customer list.

For a button instead of an embedded form, the Pay Now button builder on the Pay Widget page can leave the amount blank; the customer then chooses how much to pay, using your Donations type. Choose the Donation option to show donation wording, or Open payment for a neutral Pay page.

If the donation form rejects an amount, it is outside your Amount range; adjust the Minimum or Maximum.

1. 1Pay Widget → Payment types → turn on Donations, set an optional Minimum, then embed it on your Donate page (Step 2 above).
2. 2Prefer a button? Create a payment link with the amount left open ($0.00 means the donor chooses) and link it from a Donate button or menu item, or build one with the Pay Now button card.

One-time payments

For a set price, a product, a service, a deposit, an event ticket, set the payment type to a fixed amount. The customer sees the price and pays it on the spot, with no invoice needed.

Use the Pay Widget embed for a built-in checkout on the page, or a payment link for a simple Pay now button. A payment link locks after the first successful payment, so it cannot be paid twice.

On the Pay Widget page, the Pay Now button card builds the button for you: enter the amount and Button text, pick the color, size, and corners, choose whether it opens a new page or a popup on your page, and copy the Button HTML or the Plain link.

If the fixed-amount form shows no amount, the snippet was copied before the amount was set on the Pay Now button card; set it and copy again.

1. 1Fixed-amount embed: Pay Widget → turn on Fixed amount → set the amount on the Pay Now button card → copy the snippet → paste on your page.
2. 2One-off button: Take Payments → Payment Links → New Payment Link → set the amount and (optionally) a description and expiry → Copy URL → link it from a button on your WordPress page.

Subscriptions

To bill on a recurring schedule, memberships, dues, retainers, a monthly box, use subscriptions. You first create a plan (the price and how often it bills), then let customers sign up from your WordPress site. Merchant360 charges the first payment immediately, puts the card on file for the rest, and retries a failed charge for you.

Plans for the widget live under Subscription plans on the Pay Widget page (and on its Subscriptions page). Each plan has a name, an optional description, the amount, a billing period (daily, weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, quarterly, every 6 months, or yearly), an optional number of payments, an optional free trial in days, an optional one-time setup fee, and terms such as your cancellation policy. Archive a plan to hide it from new sign-ups; existing subscribers keep billing.

The Subscribers list shows everyone enrolled with their next charge and status: Active, Paused, Failed, or Cancelled. Pause and Resume stop and restart billing, Retry now re-runs a failed charge once the customer updates their card, and Cancel ends the subscription.

You are done when the Subscriptions type is on, at least one plan exists, and a test sign-up appears under Subscribers. If the widget shows no plans, the Subscriptions payment type is off (the card warns you) or every plan is archived. See the Recurring billing chapter for the full details on plans, free trials, metered usage, and dunning.

1. 1Create the plan: Pay Widget → Subscription plans → + New plan. Set the Plan name, Amount, and Billing period, add a trial, setup fee, or terms if you want them, and click Create plan.
2. 2Offer it on your site: turn on Subscriptions in Payment types and embed the widget on your sign-up page, or send a subscription payment link. The customer enters their card once and is billed automatically from then on.

Letting customers pay an invoice

Two of the six payment types are for collecting on a bill rather than a set price. Both are worth turning on if you send invoices, and they behave differently: one looks the invoice up for the customer, the other lets them type in a reference from somewhere else.

These are loginless: your customer never creates an account or signs in. The lookup itself is the security; an invoice only comes back when both the invoice number and the exact email you sent it to match.

Pay a Merchant360 invoice is for invoices you sent from Merchant360 (Invoicing → Invoices). The customer does not need the emailed link: they can find the invoice themselves. When they open this widget they first see a short look-up step with two fields, the invoice number and the email address the invoice was sent to. They enter both and click Look up.

On a match, the widget shows the invoice, who it is for, the total, anything already paid, the balance due, and the due date, and locks the amount to the remaining balance so they cannot over- or under-pay. They enter their card and pay, the invoice is marked Paid (or Partial) automatically, and both of you get a receipt. If nothing matches, they see We couldn't find that invoice. Check the invoice number and the email it was sent to; no invoice details leak to a wrong guess.

Pay an external invoice is for invoices that live somewhere else (QuickBooks, Xero, a paper invoice). There is no look-up, because Merchant360 does not hold that bill. The customer simply types your invoice number and the amount they owe (and an optional note), then pays. The number is saved on the payment so you can reconcile it back to your own system.

If a customer says the lookup cannot find their invoice, check the email on the invoice in Invoices; a different address, even a typo, will not match. If an external-invoice payment needs to be matched to your books, the invoice number is on the transaction's description in Transactions.

1. 1Turn it on: Pay Widget → Payment types → enable Pay Merchant360 invoice and/or Pay external invoice, then embed the widget (or share its link) on a Pay your bill page.
2. 2Merchant360 invoice: the customer looks it up by invoice number plus email, sees the balance, and pays; the invoice updates itself.
3. 3External invoice: the customer types the invoice number plus amount from your other system and pays; the reference rides along on the transaction.

Receipts, branding & keeping it secure

However a customer pays, donation, one-time, an invoice, or a subscription, they get a branded email receipt, and the payment appears in your Merchant360 dashboard alongside everything else, where you can refund it, see reporting, and follow it through to your bank.

Receipts are sent from noreply@merchant360.net with your business name on the From line. On the Pay Widget page, the Receipts card sets the From email customers reply to and a BCC email that gets a copy of every receipt. Branding sets your Brand color and, optionally, a Logo URL and the pages customers land on after a successful payment or a cancellation.

The card is always entered on Merchant360's hosted form, not on your WordPress site. If your account runs a credit-card surcharge, it is shown clearly to the customer before they pay.

Refund a widget payment from Recent activity on the Pay Widget page (full or partial, with an optional reason) or from Transactions. If a customer says they got no receipt, check the email they typed on the form in Recent activity and resend the receipt from Transactions.