Blackbaud MobilePay & Altru FAQs

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Blackbaud offers a variety of products to meet the needs of all types of nonprofits, but not all of our products come with a point of sale interface like Altru. Because they don't have something like our Daily Sales page, organizations with these products need an additional service  to be able to process payments for nameless donations, parking, or one time sales of concessions.

Blackbaud MobilePay was created to meet these needs. We've had a couple Altru users ask about it, so here's what you need to know:

BBMobilePay

Q: Can you still use MobilePay if you already have Altru?

A: You can, but there are a couple things to be aware of. With Altru, you are able to tie payments to constituent records. And even the transactions that you do not tie to constituent records, if you add them directly to Altru, can be reported on. With MobilePay, payments are not linked to a constituent or recorded in Altru.

Q: Can you report on transactions made using MobilePay, in Altru?

A: Transactions made using MobilePay do not integrate with Altru. You can still report on them using the BBMS portal but you will not be able to use Altru to view those transactions.

Q: Are there any instances where MobilePay could be used instead of Altru?

A: If you are having a one-time, non-mission driven “event,” like a book fair, or selling snacks/coffee from a concession stand, then MobilePay could be used. The benefit of MobilePay in this instance is that users can use their own mobile devices to process transactions and it would not require a Windows based device, like a tablet.

Q: Do the MobilePay credit card swipes work with Altru?

A: Those particular swipes are not compatible with Altru. Altru uses a method of swiping that requires the swipes to be in a mode called Keyboard Emulation. The MobilePay devices are not keyboard emulation and require an application to communicate and decode the card info.

In the end, we think that Altru should be able to cover most of your mobile needs, but if you want to try MobilePay, it is available to you. Just be sure to weigh the pros and cons of working outside of Altru to make sure your situation is a good fit!

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