Conekta is one of the most popular Payment Providers in Mexico.
Customers can make payments via credit, debit, cash, and interest-free deferred payments from banks like Banorte, Santander, Banjercito, HSBC, and many more. International customers can also pay with a credit card just as easily.
Conekta is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certified, meaning that your customers’ payments are always safe and secure.
A really cool feature offered by Conekta is the ability to offer a subscription-based service for charging customers on a pre-set timescale in multiple payments. This feature can be accessed using the developer API. You can also use one-click checkout and other apps which take advantage of secure tokenization methods to ensure that no actual credit card numbers are ever stored in a compromising manner.
Conekta has a sandbox mode with which you can test their plugins to see what will work for you. Conekta charges a small commission on every sale and makes deposits into your bank account every two days. They are currently only available to businesses incorporated in Mexico with access to Mexican bank accounts but can process credit card charges from anywhere in the world.
There isn't really any setup to perform in Conekta per se, but you do need to access the online portal in order to obtain some API credentials that must be entered into Checkfront.
Log in to your Conekta account and locate the Developers section in the left sidebar.
In here, you see a link labeled API Keys. Click on this.
There are two types of API keys that can be generated for use in Checkfront.
In order to test the integration in Checkfront without the need to use real, live credit cards, you should generate the sandbox mode keys. You will need a Private Key and a Public Key, as seen in the image above.
When you've completed your testing in Checkfront, and if you haven't done so already, you can activate your Conekta account (in the Conekta backend) in order to obtain the Production Keys.
Setup in Checkfront
Back to topTo enable Conekta, log in to your Checkfront account and navigate to Manage > Ecommerce Setup, making sure the Payment tab is selected.
Here you see a list of available payment modules. Locate the Conekta tile from the list.
You find it by clicking on the links in the left side menu labelled Available to [your country] or All. You can also search for the Conekta tile directly in the provided search box.
Hover over the tile, which turns grey, and click.
This opens the Conekta activation window, as pictured above. From here, enter the API credentials you obtain from your Conekta account and click Activate.
Conekta is now successfully integrated with your Checkfront account and is listed under your section of Active Providers.
Testing the Integration
Back to topNow that the integration is complete, it's time to test it!
Create a booking in your Checkfront account and use any credit card to process a payment. Remember, if you're working in sandbox mode, then no charges are actually delivered to the credit card.
For your own peace of mind, there is a fake credit card number you can use to process your test transaction(s). This is as follows:
Name on Card: Whatever floats your boat!
Card Number: 4242424242424242
Expiry: Any date in the future
CVC: Any 3 digit number
After clicking Process, the payment should complete and you will see a copy of the booking invoice with the payment applied. A quick look at the invoice Transactions tab confirms this.
Within this view, you notice a Details button next to the payment details in the table.
If you click on this, then you see a pop-up window appear with additional details on the transaction. This includes a transaction ID with confirms the transaction was processed successfully.
You can now be confident that the Payment Provider integration with Conekta is properly set up and ready to take live transactions.
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Don't forget to obtain your Production Keys from Conekta and enter them into Checkfront before taking live transactions. If you don't do this, you are not able to collect any revenue from your customers. You must also set your Conekta account to production mode, too! |
Processing a Refund
Back to topNext to the Details button in the Transactions tab, is the Refund button.
Click on this to open up the refund box.
The full amount of the invoice is presented for a refund, or you can change this to a smaller amount if you wish.
Since Conekta uses tokens for storing payment details, you do not need to obtain the credit card credentials from your customer again. The payment card should be shown in the dropdown field below the refund amount.
Click Apply to process the refund. The Transactions tab is now updated to reflect the refund you just processed.
