Setting Up Municipal Payments

Before your agency can begin collecting citizen fees via the Municipal Payments Collection (MPC) portal, a few things must be set up first. This is brief list of the steps you must take in order to get your MPC portal up and running.

1. Contact Springbrook
   • The first step in getting your MPC portal up and running is to reach out to your Springbrook Account Manager. They can walk you through all the requirements. If you don't have your Account Manager's contact info, feel free to call 866-777-0069.
2. Set up CivicPay Batch Settings
   • When your citizens make a payment via the MPC portal, those payments must be successfully pulled into Springbrook. The CivicPay Batch Setup window is used to do just that.
   • You will need a Batch Setup that is configured to work with the Municipal Merchant Account Type. See the help page for details.
3. Select Eligible One-Time Payment Modules
   • Along with the standard Municipal Payments one-time payments workflow, the Accounts Receivable, Building Permits, Licenses and Permits, and Special Assessments modules can all receive payments via the MPC portal.
   • See the Miscellaneous Payments section of the help page for more details on how to enable individual modules.
4. Set up CR Type Codes
   • The fees your citizens will pay via Municipal Payments are based on CR Type Codes.
   • There are some limitations on which type codes are eligible, so please see the Type Codes section of the help page for more details.
   • Once you have those type code requirements in mind, you can create new type codes or edit existing type codes for use in MPC. Type Codes are created and maintained on the Type Code Maintenance window (CR> Maintenance> Type Code). See the help page for more information.
5. Set up MPC Groupings and Type Codes
   • Your citizens will find it easier to locate and select the appropriate fees if they are organized in a logical manner. This is accomplished by setting up MPC Groupings on the Municipal Payments page (My Agency> Settings> Municipal Payments).
   • Once you've set up your Groupings, you can assign Type Codes to those Groupings. These Type Codes are based on the CR Type Codes set up in Step 4 above. Type Codes must also be enabled (and, if desired, set up as editable) before they can be selected for payment in the MPC portal.
6. Set up an MPC Portal Custom Message
   • The MPC portal displays a custom message at the bottom of the page. Springbrook recommends agencies use this custom message to direct their citizens to include important permit or license number details in the Memo field when paying fees.
   • The custom message can be edited on the Custom Messages page (My Agency> Settings> Custom Messages).
7. Add an MPC Button (optional)
   • Citizens can quickly access your MPC portal via the login page for CivicPay Online. But you can also drop a "Make a One-Time Payment" button onto an existing agency website page.
   • The HTML required to add this button to an existing page can be copied from the Promotional Materials page (My Agency> General Information> Promotional Materials).
8. Processing MPC Payments
   • Municipal payments will flow into a Cash Receipts batch (or several Cash Receipts batches) each day per agency settings.
   • The payment batches for Municipal payments will be separated from Utility payments.
   • As with Utility payment batches, Municipal payment batches will be automatically closed each day based on the batch cut-off time specified on the CPO Agency Information page (My Agency> General Information> General Information).
   • MPC payments can be tracked in CPO just like other payments. The Payments Summary and Settlement Summary pages are good places to start when investigating MPC payments.