Capped Card Transactions

Summary:

CashFlow is designed to make selling solar easier. When your business is approved for CashFlow, you can get started collecting payments right away. By default, you can accept any amount through your country’s bank payment option (e.g., direct debit, bank payment). For card payments, transaction sizes are limited to a default size, based on your country:

🇺🇸 $6K USD

🇬🇧 £6K GBP

🇦🇺 $17K AUD

OpenSolar automatically manages the card cap for you, so you don’t have to worry about it. In this article, we’ll walk you through how this card cap is applied, and share details about qualifying for larger card transactions.

How does the card cap work?

OpenSolar automatically manages the card cap on your behalf - so you don’t have to worry about turning off card options before sending out a large invoice. This cap applies to credit cards, debit cards, and Apple / Google Pay. 

If you send out an invoice above your cap amount, we’ll automatically remove any card payment methods from the payment gateway. We’ll also make sure that your local bank payment option is available for that invoice, so your customer will always be able to make the payment. 

Important: Milestone implementation of card cap

The card cap applies to individual milestone invoices, rather than the total project size. Over a project's lifetime, you are able to accept multiple card payments on one project that add up to more than the card cap, but individual transactions cannot exceed the cap.

Each milestone invoice should reflect project progress (e.g., materials ordered, installation scheduled, etc.). 

We do not recommend accepting multiple card payments from the same customer that add up to a combined value above your card cap within a short time frame (e.g., a few days), as these may be combined from a credit risk perspective. 

Qualifying for Larger Card Payments

While the default card cap allows you to get started with card payments right away, you can also apply to increase your card cap. We strongly recommend applying for a higher card cap as soon as you get approved for CashFlow.

You will need to provide a set of materials and information that  demonstrate your business’s track record and help us to better understand your card usage. 

We will request the following documents:

• Most recent 3 months of bank statements
• Most recent EOY financial statement
• Most recent 3 months of processing statements (e.g., from Stripe), if available

We will also likely request estimates for the following:

• Annual sales volume 
• Maximum card transaction size expected
• Average card transaction size expected

Upon request, we will provide a secure, easy link to share this information. We will then assess your individual business’s level of risk. If we are able to increase your cap, we will notify you of a new customized card cap.

If you’d like to apply for larger card payments than the default cap, please submit a ticket to let us know. 

Additional Resources:

• CashFlow Payment Milestone Configuration
• Applying Payment CashFlow Milestone Configurations to Projects