Avitar and Invoice Cloud partnered several years ago to provide our Clerk/MV clients with the ability to accept online payments for motor vehicle and dog license renewals. Did you know you can also offer an online payment option for other services your office provides?

Invoice Cloud’s Cloud Store provides customers the option of submitting online payments for non-invoiced municipal services rather than requesting the service in person or through the mail. Unlike a motor vehicle or dog license invoice, a non-invoiced municipal service does not exist prior to the customer transaction. The customer can request copies of vital records (e.g. birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc.) as well as various licenses and permits. The Cloud Store configuration can work in addition to Invoice Cloud’s Invoice Presentment and Payment configuration which is used for invoicing motor vehicles and dogs online. Though Cloud Store is non-invoiced and Presentment and Payment is, all of these municipal services can reside on the same customer portal.

The Town of Derry recently added vital records online in addition to accepting online motor vehicle and dog renewals. You can view the Town’s Customer Portal here to see how these online municipal services are offered.

A link added to your website by you or your webmaster directs the customer to the landing page of your Customer Portal which will list the available online municipal services. When customers select one of the Cloud Store options they will be required to fill out fields predefined by you before submitting their payments. For example, when the customer selects Birth Certificates from the services menu, a secondary menu expands and offers the customer a choice of ordering copies (1, 2 or 3) of the birth certificate. The number of copies the customer selects from the expanded menu automatically charges the appropriate fee for the first and any subsequent copies and appears as a Total Amount Due located at the bottom of the customer request form. The customer then fills out the required fields and submits a payment.

Once you receive notification of an online payment for a vital record and before you process the request, the applicant will need to provide you with a valid form of identification. During the setup process, we will recommend you add some wording on the right hand side of the Cloud Store page and on the confirmation receipt email to your customer about faxing or emailing a valid form of identification to complete the vital record request.

Here’s a description of how the typical Avitar configuration with Invoice Cloud works and the benefits it provides to you and your customers:

• The customer can pay using either a credit card or an ACH/e-check.
• Customers are charged a service fee for using the service which is clearly presented to customers prior to the completion of the transaction.
• All financial transactions are processed through a secure PCI compliant service and the municipality receives 100% of the fees due.
• Invoice Cloud electronically transfers funds collected online to the municipal bank account you designate.
• You receive electronic notification of payments collected from Invoice Cloud.
• You are able to view the payment detail from your municipality’s Invoice Cloud portal that contains the relevant information for all of the municipal services requested.
• You review and examine the service request as with any conventional service request and process the payment manually with a tender type of credit card or ACH.
• You post the payment and service type in the Avitar Clerk program.
• This will reduce your office visits and phone calls from your customers.

If your municipality is currently configured to accept online motor vehicle and dog renewals through Invoice Cloud, there is no additional cost to add Cloud Store items. If your municipality is not currently configured with Invoice Cloud, a standard setup fee will apply.

If you are interested in adding Invoice Cloud’s Cloud Store to your current Invoice Cloud configuration or would like to start accepting online payments through Invoice Cloud, please contact Avitar Software Support.