Welcome to Paynow, this page is intended to guide you through common merchant queries on Paynow. If you would like to make payments please follow the Customer FAQ.

Do I need a Paynow account?

In order to receive money you must be a registered Paynow member. Please go to the Sign Up page and complete the Register form.

Who Can Pay Me?

Paynow accepts the following payment methods, you can opt to disable any payment method you do not wish to receive from:

• Visa / Mastercard: Both locally and internationally issued Visa / Mastercard cards will work on Paynow
• Zimswitch: Paynow will accept payment via Zimswitch cards which are enroled for online payments.
• InnBucks
• PayGo
• POS2U Paynow is partnered with a service which allows customers to swipe for payment from the comfort of their home
• Cash Collection Paynow is partnered with a cash collection service allowing customers to pay in cash
• Mobile Money: Paynow will accept payment from any registered EcoCash, OneMoney or Telecash subscribers
• Vpayments: Vpayments is an online payments platform run by Zimswitch and is currently accepting payments from customers banked at CABS, CBZ, FBC Bank, POSB, Trust Bank and ZB Bank.

How And When Do I Receive My Money?

Paynow will settle your transactions, less fees into any Zimbabwean bank account. You do not need a special merchant account and do not need to complete any forms with your bank, simply register your settle account details with Paynow to start receiving payments.

In the case of locally switched payments (Ecocash, Telecash, OneMoney and Vpayments), settlement will be executed one day after the payment is made or the funds clear escrow/Buysafe. Local Visa / Mastercard funds will be settled two days after the payment date and foreign Visa/Mastercard payments will settle three days after the payment is made. Settlement cut off time is 8pm, payments processed after that may be delayed till the next day settlement.

All non-Verified Merchant accounts will have funds settled once per week on a Tuesday.

How Much Does It Cost?

Paynow has no signup or usage fee, the only charge is a per transaction commission. Please view the Fees page for more information. As the merchant you have the option whether to absorb the fees, add them on top of the transaction amount or split the fees with the customer. Large volume customers can approach Paynow directly for a bulk commission discount.

What is BuySafe?

Paynow operates an escrow-type service called Buysafe to protect and reassure buyers. Buysafe protects the buyer by ensuring that the payers funds are only disbursed to the Merchant once the buyer is satisfied that the goods have been delivered or service has been rendered. The Merchant must make a delivery declaration to after which the buyer is afforded a 24-hour window to dispute delivery via a simple process on the Paynow website.

Where a dispute is registered by a buyer, the Merchant may elect to return the buyers funds by reversing the transaction or may challenge the buyer by providing acceptable Proof Of Delivery. If the Merchant and buyer are unable to resolve the matter directly, they may request mediation through Paynow. In complex cases, Paynow may refer the matter to an external body for independent arbitration.

Buysafe is enabled by default on all paynow sellers and may only be disabled by Verified Merchants. Verified Merchant status is reserved for sellers who have been through a stringent process to verify their identity.

How Does the Escrow Service Work?

By default all merchants are setup to use an escrow service. When the customer makes payment money is held in by Paynow until you confirm delivery of the goods or service. The customer then has 24 hours to dispute the goods were delivered in good order. If no dispute is made after 24 hours you will receive your money as part of the next settlement. If there is a dispute the funds remain in holding and Paynow will initiate third party mediation to resolve the dispute. Note that the cost of mediation may be charged to the customer or merchant.

Because the funds are held at Paynow you can be sure the customer has made payment and if there is no dispute you will receive payment. It is vital that you receive some kind of signed delivery confirmation so in the event of a dispute it can be easily resolved. If you do not wish to use the escrow service and can provide a valid business case for it to be disabled please contact Paynow. If you have received payment from Paynow and there is a dispute it is your responsibility to resolve that with the customer.

What is a Verified Merchant?

A Verified seller has provided additional evidence of their identity to Paynow. Verification helps increase trust and safety in our community. Buyers can feel more confident doing business with Verified sellers, who are more likely to be legitimate, trustworthy merchants.

Other Benefits

• - Verified Merchants are permitted to display the Paynow Verified Merchant badge on their website and in their Paynow profile
• - Verified Merchants can request for the Escrow facility (Buysafe) to be disabled on payments made to them so funds are automatically settled to their bank account without them having to confirm delivery.
• - Paynow Verified Merchants are able to receive Visa and Mastercard payments.
• - Verified Merchants receive settlements daily (Monday-Saturday).

How Do I Become a Verified Merchants?

Verified merchants have the advantage of appearing on the verified merchant page and having more details on the transaction page including a logo. To register as a verified merchant please visit the Verified Merchant Portal to validate your company and bank account details.

How Can I Receive Payments?

To setup your bank accounts and payment links please review the Getting Started guide. Questions regarding each payment link are covered below in more detail:

Miscellaneous Payments.

By default all merchants can receive miscellaneous payments and this option is enabled as soon as you have at least one active bank account. To disable miscellaneous payments you must have at least one other payment link setup or contact Paynow. A customer can make use of miscellaneous payments in several ways:

• Browse Verified Merchants: when you signup to become a verified merchant you can link your name to your miscellaneous payments page.
• Find a Paynow Member: a customer can search for you by your registered email address and will be taken to your miscellaneous payments page.
• Email Link or Create a Button: if you click the Button Generator in the Payment Links section it will open up a wizard. You can fill in the top options and Paynow will send a payment request email to your customer or give you code you can copy into your website for your customers to click. If the customer clicks the link in the email or on your site they will be taken to your miscellaneous payments page with all the details already completed and can proceed to make payment.

Paynow Buttons. Paynow Cart.

If you have a website that does not have a shopping cart instead of getting one developed you can use Paynow Cart. This option is also ideal if you are selling a couple of products e.g. a site retailing your book. After creating your Paynow Cart you have two further setup options:

• Shipping Options: If your goods require shipping you can add your shipping options to Paynow and the client will be prompted to select one at checkout. When adding a shipping option you need to provide a Name and optionally a Flat Amount, Per Item charge or Percent of Value. If more than one of these charges are set they will be added together to get a total.
• Cart Item: You must setup one or more cart items with Name, Amount and whether it allows for a quantity and whether it requires shipping. The shipping multiplier field gives you flexibility on handling more complex shipping scenarios. For example if you want to ship based on weight in your shipping options you would set a flat amount of e.g. $10.00, think can be thought of as $10 per kg. Now if you alter the shipping multiplier to be the item's weight e.g. 0.5 when shipping is calculated the system will multiply the shipping multiplier and flat amount to give you $5.00 shipping for the half kg item. A similar method can be employed to cater for volumetric shipping. By default for normal shipping charges leave the shipping multiplier as 1.
  
  Once you have created your cart item you will be shown some Button Code, copy this code into your website to add a Paynow cart button for your customers to use.

Custom Form. Bill Payment.

Custom forms allow you to create a payment form similar to Miscellaneous Payments but with your own custom fields. After creating your custom form you will be shown two further options:

• Add New Bill Payment Line: When adding a bill payment line you need to provide a Name, Value, Type, whether it is required, if there is any validation, Comment and Order.
  
  Type can be Text, a Select drop down list or Autocomplete. For Text the Value field will be the default value if any. For a Select drop down list you must enter a comma separated list of options into the Value field for example [Yes,No] or [Bronze,Silver,Gold] the customer will then be able to select one of these. Autocomplete will require you to expose a service Paynow can pull data from to get data, for example a list of customer name and account numbers. If you would like to use this functionality please contact Paynow for details on setting it up.
  
  Paynow has basic validation which will ensure the data entered is in a specific format eg Account Number must a whole number. If you select custom you can enter a Regex into the field below to custom validate your field format.
  
  Order specifies the order the fields are displayed and should be entered as a whole number.
• Create a Button: Only use the Button Generator after you have finished setting up all your bill payment lines. The button generator allows you to enter values into your bill payment lines and generate code you can copy into your website or email. When the customer clicks this link they are taken to the custom form on Paynow with all the relevant fields filled in.

3rd Party Shopping Cart or Link.

If you have a website with an existing shopping cart you can link it to Paynow by server to server communication. For more information on integrating your site please read the Developer Documentation or contact Paynow for prebuilt plugins for the most popular shopping cart systems.