Automated bank transaction import and processing

Today, we are happy to announce a significant simplification of automated processing of incoming bank transfers for event organizers using pretix. Payments through direct SEPA bank transfers have never been easier.

Why direct SEPA bank transfers?

With pretix, event organizers have always had the liberty to choose how to receive payments for items sold. We know that there is no one size fits all for this process – this is why we are offering a variety of payment providers for organizers to choose from. Despite this variety, they all have one thing in common: Payment providers charge a fee for every transaction they process; a business model most are willing to accept for easy and instant payments with immediate ticket issuing once the payment has cleared.

However, sometimes the price for automated payment processing is just too high or not context appropriate. Employees of larger corporations often don't have access to a corporate credit card and thus require payment through the classic bank transfer: the order is placed, an invoice is generated, the finance department pays the bill.

But what happens next?

Ordinarily, someone in the event organizer's accounts receivables will have to check their bank account periodically and then manually mark the transactions as completed within pretix. A very tedious and time-consuming process,
one that leaves much room for customer-satisfaction improvement. Despite the bank-transfer being a manual process, users these days will expect immediate (or at least very fast) processing of the payment and issuance of the purchased tickets.

Unless the event organizer is willing to undertake this task every day, another solution is needed.

Current solutions

pretix already does provide a solution to this problem. Instead of checking your statement manually, you can upload a digital copy of the account statement and pretix will automatically match incoming payments to orders.

However: This approach still requires a person to manually upload the bank account statement on a regular basis – ideally every day.

Introducing: Automated bank transaction import and processing

We are happy to announce that we have partnered with Nordigen to bring you a one-stop solution for importing and processing your incoming bank transfers.

Thanks to the 2015 EU Payment Service Directive II (PSDII), banks are now obliged to offer access to bank accounts through unified interfaces that can be accessed by certified Account Information Service Providers (AISPs). Nordigen is one of them, as they are certified by the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC/FKTK).

To get started, open your pretix organizer account and select "Bank transfer", "Automatic Import" from the menu – or follow this link.

After selecting your country and banking institution, you will be presented with an overview of the information that pretix will receive on your behalf. By default, you will be granting us permission to retrieve the last 90 days of transactions in the bank account that you are connecting. This permission is valid for the next 90 days, after which it will automatically be revoked.

A click brings you to your bank's online banking system where you will need to log-in and actively approve the transfer of transaction information.

Upon approval, we will show you a list of bank accounts which we have received from your bank. Please take a moment to review them as most banks will offer us access to all of your accounts. Select the accounts you would like us to query – all other accounts won't be interacted with.

And with that you're set for the next 90 days: pretix will poll your bank account up to 4 times a day to retrieve and try to match any incoming bank transfer to an order. You will only have to review those transactions where pretix is not 100% certain where they belong.

The best thing about this, though: Your finance department will only have to authorize the querying of the company's bank account once every three months. Everything else can be done by non-finance staff in your event organization office.

Security

As you know, security at pretix is key! We do have a dedicated page outlining all of our ongoing efforts.

As such, it was important to us to be sure that your banking information is safe and cannot be misused in any way. Here's how:

• You will never have to enter your online banking credentials directly in pretix: That way, we cannot even attempt to keep a copy of your login and misuse it.
• Clear scope of requested data: We will only request access to the information that we need to process your bank transactions. We won't request any other permissions - should we need more access in the future, you'll have to actively consent to us having access to that information.
• We cannot issue any bank transfers on your behalf: This goes hand in hand with the above point. Since we are not requesting any transfer abilities, we will never be able to move money from your account.
• Your data, your choice: pretix will never use the data that you are trusting us with for any purpose other than the one stated: to automatically mark your customers' orders as paid. We won't data-mine or sell the data. This is your data, and it's usage is governed by our Data Processing Agreement.
• You are under no obligation to use this service: You do not have to use this service - not now, not in the future. And you can change your mind at any time. Don't like what you're seeing? Just disconnect your bank account from our system and we won't interact with it anymore.

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our friendly support team at any time.

Availability

At the time of writing, more than 2315 banks in 31 EEA countries are covered by our integration. Check the Nordigen Coverage page for a complete list of participating institutions.

Automated bank transfer import and processing is available to all users of pretix Hosted free of charge.

pretix Enterprise customers, please contact your point of contact or our sales team to discuss obtaining this plugin.