Collect online payments

The Adobe Acrobat collect payments feature lets you request an online payment when sending a document for e-signing. You can send a document for e-signing and collect an online payment as part of the recipient experience. The feature is provided by linking a Braintree account, where available, with your Acrobat account.

By integrating a Braintree account as a payment gateway, you can add a payment field to a form you send out using the Request e-signatures tool. You can set up the payment field to use one of the following values:

• A static value, such as a quote for a service
• A dynamic value derived from calculated fields on the form, such as an order form with multiple items, quantities, and shipping methods.
• A recipient-entered value, such as a donation request

Recipients receive a link to the agreement by email. When they open the link, Acrobat lets them review the agreement and add their signature. When they next select the Pay and Sign button, the Braintree integration presents recipients with a payment window to collect all required personal payment information. The integration streamlines payment collection for both the recipient and the sender.

Access and configure the Collect Payments feature

Once you have an established Braintree account, do one of the following to access the collect payments feature:

• In the Acrobat desktop app, go to the Tools center, scroll down to the E-Sign section, and then select Collect Payments.
• Sign in to Acrobat online, select the E-Sign menu in the top navigation bar, and then select Collect Payments.

The Collect Payments page is displayed.

Copy and paste the requested credential information from your Braintree account into the related fields:

• Public Key
• Private Key
• Merchant ID

Save when done.

Once the credentials are validated, and the connection to Braintree is established, a graphical icon showing Account linked is displayed. When the credentials are first added and validated, the Enable payments with Braintree checkbox is checked automatically.

Checking the Enable payments with Braintree checkbox activates the payments feature for use in the account.

Unchecking the checkbox will disable the payments feature, but does not clear the credentials so that the integration can be re-enabled at a later date.

Once the integraion is enabled, the Payment field is made available in your authoring environment.

Using drag-and-drop authoring

Creating a payment form only requires you to use a Payment form field in an agreement.

The Payment field can be found at the bottom of the list of field categories on the right side of the Authoring window when preparing an agreement for e-signing.

Applying the Payment field requires careful attention to the field options to ensure that your form functions properly.

Payment field options include the following:

Assigned to – Make sure you are assigning the field to the recipient that is expected to provide payment.  

Value Type – This is linked to the function of the form

• Entered value gives you a static value, whether it be a stated value like a quote, or an accepted value, like a donation.
• Calculated value gives you a derived value from a formula involving other fields. This is used for a dynamic order form.

Read Only – If checked, the sender must ensure that the field is populated either with a fixed value or through a calculated value.

If unchecked, the value is either the default set during authoring or the value entered by the recipient.

Default value – Used if your form has a set value for static payments or a suggested donation value.

Currency – Set the appropriate currency for your target audience. 1000 Yen is very different than 1000 Pounds.

Value Range – Useful if you want to establish a bounded range for donation values.

Static value (Quotes)

A form with a static value must have an Entered value established during authoring.

• The field should be defined as Read Only
• A  non-zero Default Value should be entered
• Select the correct Currency for the targeted recipient

The user experience shows the field and value, but does not allow the payer to alter the value.

Dynamic value (Order form)

The dynamic value Payment field should be configured as a Calculated value.

• The option to make the field Read Only is required for calculated values, so the option is removed from the properties menu 
• The calculated value will be derived from other fields that the recipient can interact with (quantities, shipping methods, insurance options etc.)
• During authoring, the formula is exposed in the field instead of a numerical value

Select an appropriate Currency

The user experience is to see the field, the values of the field adjust in real time as options are selected, but the recipient is unable to directly interact with it. (Highlight added below)

Recipient defined values (Donations)

A signer defined payment field allows the user to directly enter the value of the payment. It should be configured as an Entered value, and the Read only feature should be disabled.

A default value is permitted, but can be freely edited.

A value range is permitted, and will be strictly enforced.  Meaning if you would like to restrict the lowest value acceptable, you may do so.

The user experience shows the field, and is fully editable, potentially with a default value if so designed.

If an upper or lower bound is defined and a value outside that bound is entered, an error will occur and the recipient will not be allowed to sign until the value is corrected.

Negative values are not permitted

Transaction Records

Ensuring that data is stored securely is a fundamental driving force when dealing with personal information such as payment details. Acrobat and Braintree only share the minimum necessary details to complete the transaction and ensure proper auditability of a payment as it is related to an agreement.

Braintree records

The Acrobat system is the custodian of the agreement documents, and records regarding recipients and interactions. At no time is Braintree aware of the content of the transaction or the full list of recipients. (By necessity, Braintree must be aware of the payer.)

At the time the Pay and Sign button is clicked, an I-frame is opened to the Braintree service, and four data objects are passed:

1. The Currency type - Needed only to ensure that the correct merchant account is used in Braintree
2. The number value in the Payment field – Needed to understand the value of the collection
3. The email address of the Payer– Needed to identify the Payer
4. The participation code of the transaction – Needed to directly relate the payment record to the Agreement record 

Acrobat records

Braintree is the custodian of the payment records, and no records related to the personal information of the payer is ever passed to Acrobat.

When the payment is successfully completed, only the Braintree transaction number is passed back to Acrobat. This transactionID can be found in the agreement Activity section and Audit Report.

Managing the Payments Integration

Configuration options

The Braintree service offers a number of configuration options that can greatly improve your signer’s experience. Everybody has different needs from a payment service, and a thorough exploration of the Braintree features is well worth the effort.

With regards to the Acrobat integration there are a few features that relate directly to the signer’s experience:

• Currency – What currency are you accepting?

Braintree accepts a wide range of currency types, and allows you to make a “Merchant account” for each currency you will accept. This merchant account further allows you to define what types of payments you will accept (PayPal and/or discrete credit cards).

Within Acrobat, the Payment field must be configured for one type of currency. This configured value links to the Merchant Account of the same currency type. 

The values listed in the Acrobat field properties are dictated by the currencies accepted in your Braintree merchant accounts.

Setting a default Merchant account will also define the default currency loaded in the Acrobat Payment field.

• Duplicate Transaction Checking – Prevents a quick double-click from creating two transactions, and double-charging your signer.

Things to know

Known Issue: Payments are disabled after modifying a delegated agreement

There is a known issue that can cause the agreement to bypass the payment process and complete the agreement as successful without payment being secured. The problem manifests only when:

1. the first recipient delegates their signature authority
2. the sender modifies the agreement after that delegation

It is recommended to disable the Modify Agreement feature in any group using the payment integration.

PCI Content and Storage

During the payment process, all information is entered into the Braintree interface.

All payment information is stored solely within the Braintree account.

The Acrobat environment only stores the API credentials to the Braintree account and the Transaction number that is passed back from Braintree (recorded in the Acrobat Sign Audit Trail).

No actual payment information ever touches the Acrobat system, ensuring optimal PCI compliance and signer security.

Disrupted transaction between Payment and Signature

When using payments, the signature process happens in two parts:

• Capture the payment
• Complete the signature

This ensures that the agreement can’t be completed without the payment being captured first.

If for any reason there is a disruption in the process, the signer is able to re-open the agreement from the original link (or a reminder link if reminders are configured), and resume the signature process.

If the payment was captured prior to the disruption, that information will be clearly displayed to the signer.

Duplicate payment prevention

The Braintree service has a Duplicate Transaction Checking feature that prevents multiple transaction to the same transactionID within a set time span.  This prevents multiple payments from being logged due to multiple button clicks.

To configure the Duplicate Transaction Checking option:

1. Log in to your Braintree account

2. Navigate to Settings > Processing > Duplicate Transaction Checking

3. Turn the setting on

Payment Disputes

Recipients that have a payment dispute for any reason should contact the party that sent the agreement by replying to the original "Please Sign" email.

Acrobat provides the platform for the signature process, but hands off the payment process to Braintree.

No payment, or payment information, is collected by Acrobat, we simply expose the payment portal that the sender of the agreement has configured.