Recurring payments in Slate use Stripe. Migrating your recurring payments to Slate takes two forms:

• If your existing gift or subscription service uses Stripe as its back-end payment processor, you can skip ahead to Migrating from an existing Stripe account.

• If your existing process doesn’t use Stripe, the migration depends on whether the two payment processors can transfer payment method data directly to each other in a way that maintains PCI compliance.

📝 Note

Migrating recurring payments refers in this context exclusively to Slate Payments functionality. Recurring payments can also refer to recurring donations / gifts.

Migrating from a non-Stripe processor

We have worked with clients on many recurring payment migrations, including BBMS, Cybersource, AuthorizeNet, Elavon, CashNet, and Anthology. While these migrations are common, be aware that your payment provider may charge fees.

Stripe has a specialized data migration support team. As the owner of the Slate Payments platform, Technolutions must initiate an import migration request on behalf of your specific connected account. Stripe reviews the data and contacts Technolutions with further instructions, which vary depending on the source payment processor.

Step 1: Reaching out to your current payment processor

First, send an email to your current payment provider’s support team requesting a migration to Stripe.

You can use this template:

Hello,

I’d like to export my customer and payment method data from my account with you for import into Stripe.

Stripe is a PCI Level 1 Service provider, so they have security protocols in place for handling data carefully. 

Stripe’s PCI Attestation of Compliance (AoC) is available upon request, if you don’t already have it on file. 

For security, Stripe requires that the data export is encrypted with their PGP key, which can be found here: https://stripe.com/docs/security/pgp-migration-key

Stripe’s team will provide me with SFTP server credentials, which I will share with you, so your team can upload my data to Stripe’s server. 

Please let me know what my next steps are for getting the export process started.

Step 2: Submitting a ticket to Technolutions

1. Go to Database → Discover Slate.

2. In Level III: Advanced Exploration, select Support Desk.

3. Select Continue to Support.

4. Select the Migrating to Slate Payments category.

5. In the ticket, paste the following questionnaire, along with your answers to each question:

   1. Have you already reached out to your account contact that you want to export your data?

      1. Is someone aware that this is coming?

      2. Do you already have a specific technical PoC?

      3. Do extra contracts have to be signed by you for this service?

   2. Please estimate how many payment method records will be included in the import?

      • less than 100

      • 100 - 100,000

      • 100,000 - 1 million

      • 1 million - 10 million

      • more than 10 million

   3. What payment types would you like to import? Only cards or also ACH data?

      📝 Note

      If ACH data is included, we will need to get some additional data from you. To improve Fraud Detection Standards, Nacha's Web Debit Account Validation rule now specifically requires that businesses initiating customer ACH debits via the internet first validate the customer's account prior to the first debit transaction. However, this rule will not be enforced when the debit account number has been successfully used for a prior payment to the business prior to March 19, 2022, such as through processing of the debit account for WEB payment by your prior payment service provider.

6. Submit the ticket.

Technolutions initiates a data import request with Stripe once all required data is present. While you wait for our response, you can plan to upload data to Stripe and receive mapping files post-import.

Step 3: Encrypting with the Stripe PGP key and uploading

Instructions from Stripe may vary depending on your current payment processor, but they generally take the following form.

Once your current processor has a list of relevant payments/customers/subscriptions prepared, data from them must be encrypted with Stripe's PGP key and then uploaded securely to the Stripe SFTP server. Stripe will create an SFTP account specific to this import.

📖 Accessing the Stripe PGP key.

Some processors share the file directly with you to upload to Stripe, while others may deal with Stripe directly. When the time comes, make sure you know or verify the expectations.

To securely share SFTP account credentials, Stripe requires either your PGP key or a mobile phone number. Be prepared to provide a link to the PGP key or the mobile phone number that you want to use in the support ticket.

📝 Stripe can only import payment data and customer details, and cannot import ApplePay cards, payroll deductions, or PayPal-related payments.

🔔 The uploaded file must be UTF-8 encoded to ensure readability.

How long will it take?

Stripe may take up to 10 business days to import data, starting from when they receive valid data from your current processor.

The time to import will vary based on the number of records and whether any tooling updates are required to process the data Stripe receives. In most cases, these will be known import sources, but be aware of the potential time involved.

Migrating from an existing Stripe account

If you have a recurring payment solution that already utilizes either:

• an existing stand-alone Stripe account (you have access to the account dashboard directly, which might include vendors like Donorbox)

• some other Stripe-enabled setup via a payment facilitator (for example, GiveCampus)

Then you will use a self-service tool (either directly or indirectly) that allows for PCI-compliant copying of customer objects and payment methods.

Step 1: Submitting a ticket to Technolutions

Submitting a ticket helps Technolutions prepare for final tasks, coordinate the sending of mapping files, and outline next steps for you.

To submit a ticket:

1. Go to Database → Discover Slate.

2. In Level III: Advanced Exploration, select Support Desk.

3. Select Continue to Support.

4. Describe your migration needs in the ticket.

5. Submit the ticket.

Because you are copying customer data to a connected account on the Technolutions platform, we need to approve the copy/import request and complete the process on our end. Stripe offers a comprehensive guide for this particular process.

GiveCampus customers

GiveCampus uses Stripe to process recurring payments using their subscription/billing functionality. They appear to be charging an Integration Fee to their existing customers to prepare the relevant filtered customer data export for your particular client account. Reach out to them well in advance to ensure contracts are signed, invoices are paid, and that they can accommodate your desired timeline.

Note your Slate Payments deposit account ID acct_******and let GiveCampus know that this is the recipient account.

Step 2: Copying customer data

📝 This step assumes you use a stand-alone Stripe account, the account dashboard to which you have full access. This includes Donorbox accounts.

Note your own Slate Payments deposit account ID (the relevant acct_****** from your Slate database, if you have multiple). This is the recipient account.

Steps for a full data copy

1. The sender (you) shares their customer data with the recipient (Slate).

2. The recipient (Slate) authorizes import and accepts the customer data from the sender.

3. The copying process finishes, and mapping files are generated.

To share customer data with the recipient (Slate)

1. The sender (you) logs into their Stripe account and navigates to the Customers page.

2. Select Copy customers.

3. In the Copy Method field, select Copy all customers.

4. Enter the account ID (acct_xxxx) of the recipient account (that is, the Slate Payments deposit account ID from your database).

5. Select Continue. If you haven’t previously shared customers with this recipient account, we receive a message stating that the recipient needs to authorize your request before the copy occurs.

6. They/we select Confirm.

7. After successfully sharing the data with the recipient, the sender (you) can see the pending copy request at the top of the Customers page.

8. Let us know you’ve completed these steps by submitting a new support ticket.

9. We Authorize and Accept the data import.

We will then create the relevant mapping files to correlate old and new customer_IDs and share next steps to set up new recurring gifts in Slate. Typically, this follows the steps outlined in Importing Recurring Gifts.