Charge a member's stored card

This guide shows you how to charge a member’s saved payment card directly from the admin area — for example, when a member is on the phone and wants to pay an outstanding invoice.

Who can do this: Admins with the payments:write-admin-charge permission.

This charge appears in the member’s billing history labeled “Charged by admin on your behalf” along with the reason you provide. Members can see who initiated the charge.

Before you start

The member must have a saved card on file. If they don’t, you can send them a card-update link to add one.
You must confirm with the member that they authorize this charge before proceeding.
MapleGather has no control to reverse a charge; to give the money back, refund the payment (see Process a refund).

Steps

Open the member’s record in the Members area.
Select Charge card from the member detail page.
A notice appears confirming you’re acting on behalf of this member. Review it — this charge is recorded in the audit trail with your name.
Under Card, the member’s default card is selected. If they have more than one saved card, select the correct one (each shows the card brand and last four digits).
Enter the Amount to charge. The form has no invoice selector, so the charge isn’t applied to a specific invoice.
Enter a Reason — this is what the member sees in their billing history. Write it for a member audience.
Check I’ve confirmed the member authorized this charge.
Select Charge $[amount]. A Confirm charge dialog shows the exact amount — review it and select Charge $[amount] to proceed.

Verify

The charge is decided before the form closes, so what you see next is the result:

Charged — a confirmation names the amount charged and the card, and you return to the member’s record. The payment appears in their history labeled “Charged by admin on your behalf.” MapleGather then emails the member a receipt for the payment; the confirmation doesn’t mention it because the email goes out just after.
Submitted — the payment processor accepted the charge but hasn’t finished it yet. The confirmation says so, and the result appears on the payment record. Don’t charge again.
Card declined — the form stays open with every field still filled in, and a Card declined message shows the bank’s reason and what to do next. Nothing was charged.
Verification required — the member’s bank wants them to approve this charge themselves. Nothing has been charged yet; see If the member’s bank asks them to verify below.

(Before this version, this page said a charge was only “submitted” and its result had to be read later from the payment record. That is no longer how the charge works.)

If the member’s bank asks them to verify

Some banks require the cardholder to approve a charge made while they aren’t present. When that happens:

MapleGather emails the member a link to confirm the payment with their bank. The link works for 7 days.
The form shows Verification required and when the link expires. The charge completes on its own when the member confirms — they don’t need to sign in.
While you wait, you can:
- Select Re-send link to email the member a new link. The old link stops working and the 7 days start again.
- Select Withdraw charge if the charge should not go ahead — for example, the member paid another way. Confirm with Withdraw charge. The member’s link stops working, they can’t be charged from it, and the payment shows as Failed (withdrawn).
You can also do both from the payment record later — open the payment from the member’s payment history.

The charge doesn’t expire by itself: if the link runs out, it keeps waiting until you re-send the link or withdraw the charge. Once the member has verified, the charge is settled and can’t be withdrawn — undo it with a refund instead.

If something goes wrong

“No saved card on file” — select Send card-update link. MapleGather emails the member a link to add their card; you never see the link itself. Return to this screen after they’ve added one.
Card declined — the bank’s reason is on the form. For an expired card, or when the bank declined it without a specific reason (“do not honor”), select Send card-update link to email the member a link to update their card. For insufficient funds, choose a different card and charge again.
The member asked for a new card-update link themselves and nothing arrived — if an earlier card-update link is still live, a member who requests one from the link page gets nothing new until that link is used or expires (7 days). You can still send them one: select Send card-update link on this page, or on a declined charge’s payment record.
“This card is no longer on file” — the card was removed after you opened the page. Reload the page to see the member’s current cards.
“Charging stored cards is temporarily unavailable” — try again shortly. Trying again won’t charge the card twice. Until the payment processor answers, the card, amount and reason are locked, so your retry is the same charge. Select I’ve confirmed the member authorized this charge again before you retry — it isn’t kept when you come back to the page.
“The card used for the unfinished charge is no longer on file” — an earlier charge never got an answer, and the card it used has since been removed. MapleGather won’t retry it on a different card, because that could charge the member twice. Open the member’s payment record (the link is in the message) to see whether the earlier charge went through, then select Discard this attempt and check the payment record.
“An earlier charge attempt for this member may have gone through.” — an earlier charge of this member never got a clear answer from the payment processor, so it may have taken the money. It happens two ways: you retried a charge long after its first try (too late for the processor to match the retry to it), or you started a NEW charge while an earlier one for the same member was still unanswered — for example after discarding an attempt that ended in an error. Nothing was charged this time. Open the member’s payment record (the link is in the message) to see whether the earlier charge went through. Either way the form stays locked to this attempt. Once that earlier charge is settled (or 23 hours after it began), either select Charge again without changing anything — it is the same attempt — or select Discard this attempt and check the payment record and start a new one. Don’t charge again while the earlier charge is still unanswered: if it went through, the member would be charged twice.
Discard this attempt and check the payment record — use this when an unfinished charge is stuck. MapleGather asks you to confirm, because the earlier attempt may already have charged the card. Check the member’s payment record first. After you select Discard attempt, the form unlocks, and charging again is a new charge.
“More than this invoice still owes.” — the amount is larger than what’s left on the invoice. Nothing was charged. Lower the amount.
“The payment processor won’t accept this amount.” — for example, the amount is too large. Nothing was charged.
“The payment processor refused this charge. Nothing was charged.” — the payment processor turned the charge down for another reason. Nothing was charged.
Card declined because there’s no email address on file — the member’s bank wants them to approve the charge, but MapleGather has no email address to send the link to. Add an email address to the member’s record and charge again, or ask the member to pay themselves.
Charge cancelled — the payment processor cancelled the charge. Nothing was collected. On the form it reads “The charge was cancelled at the payment processor.” If the charge was waiting for the member’s verification, the payment record reads “The charge was cancelled at the payment processor before the member verified it. Nothing was collected.” This is different from Charge withdrawn, which means an admin withdrew it. Charge again if it should still go ahead.
“Charging this card needs a more recent sign-in.” — for your security, charging a stored card needs a recent sign-in, and MapleGather asks for one only when you submit the charge. Select Confirm your identity, sign in again (you will be asked for your password even though you are already signed in), and you will come straight back. Your card, amount and reason are all still filled in. No charge has been issued — select Charge $[amount] again once you are back. This is not a permissions problem: you do have the permission, the sign-in itself just needs to be recent.
“Withdrawing this charge needs a more recent sign-in.” — withdrawing needs the same recent sign-in. Select Confirm your identity and sign in again; you come back to the payment record, where the charge is still waiting. Nothing was withdrawn.
“This charge is no longer waiting for the member’s verification” — the member may have just verified it. Open the payment to see where it stands; if it was charged and shouldn’t have been, refund it.
Need to undo — MapleGather has no control to reverse a charge. Open the payment from the member’s payment history and refund it — see Process a refund.

Process a refund
Record a manual or offline payment
Billing authz roles reference
Confirm a payment with your bank — what the member sees