ChargeOn prerequisite guide¶
Everything that must be true before you start setting up ChargeOn. Work through it once, and the Quick start guide will run without interruption.
Who does this: a Salesforce administrator, with help from whoever owns your payment gateway accounts. How long: about 30 minutes, plus whatever time your gateway provider takes to issue credentials.
New to the words used here
The terminology guide defines every ChargeOn-specific term. Two of them — Payment Type and Payment Method — mean something particular in ChargeOn, so they are worth reading before you begin.
What you will check¶
- Your Salesforce org meets the requirements
- Email and automation settings are configured
- You have gateway credentials in hand
- You know who needs access
- You have decided which record you will charge from
Part 1 — Your Salesforce org¶
| Requirement | How to check | If it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise, Unlimited or Developer edition | Setup → Company Information → Organization Edition | Lower editions cannot support the custom objects ChargeOn needs. Talk to your Salesforce account executive |
| Lightning Experience enabled | You are using it if the interface has the modern blue header | ChargeOn does not run in Salesforce Classic |
| My Domain enabled and deployed to all users | Setup → My Domain | Deploy it before continuing. Payment links will not work without it |
| Salesforce Sites available | Setup → Sites | Sites is how customers reach a payment link without logging in |
What you should see: all four confirmed, with My Domain showing as deployed rather than merely registered.
Part 2 — Email and automation settings¶
ChargeOn sends payment notifications and runs scheduled work. Neither functions if these are wrong, and both fail quietly, so check them now rather than wondering later why no email arrived.
| Setting | Where | Set it to |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning Email Templates | Setup → Email → Lightning Email Templates | On |
| Deliverability | Setup → Email → Deliverability | Access level All Emails |
| Default Workflow User | Setup → Process Automation Settings | Your administrator user |
Deliverability is the one that catches people out
A new sandbox often defaults to System email only, which silently discards every message ChargeOn tries to send. Your payments will work and your customers will hear nothing.
What you should see: Deliverability set to All Emails, and a named user in Default Workflow User rather than a blank field.
Part 3 — Gateway credentials¶
You need working credentials for at least one payment gateway before you can take a payment. ChargeOn supports 20 gateways, and each issues credentials in its own way and its own time — some in minutes, some in days. Start this early; it is the step most likely to hold you up.
For each gateway you intend to use, get from your gateway provider:
- Test credentials, for a sandbox or test account
- Live credentials, for production — but do not use them yet
- Test card and bank details, which the gateway publishes for trying payments safely
- The gateway's web address, which you will authorise Salesforce to contact
Use test credentials until you have finished testing
Live credentials move real money. Set them up only after you have worked through the post-configuration testing guide successfully.
What you should see: credentials for at least one gateway, clearly labelled as test rather than live.
Part 4 — Who needs access¶
Decide this before you install, because it determines what you assign afterwards.
| Group | What they need |
|---|---|
| You, the administrator | Full ChargeOn administrative access, to configure everything |
| People who take payments | Access to charge, refund and view transactions |
| Your customers | No Salesforce access at all — they reach payment links as anonymous visitors |
That last row matters more than it looks. Customers pay through a public page as an unidentified visitor, which means part of your setup is deliberately opening a narrow door for people who have no login. Keep it narrow: open only what a payment needs, and nothing else.
What you should see: a short list of who gets ChargeOn access, and a note of anyone who needs to charge but not configure.
Part 5 — The record you will charge from¶
ChargeOn takes payments against a Salesforce record. Most organisations use Opportunity, but you can use any standard or custom object that represents something worth billing.
Decide now:
- Which object you will charge from
- Which field on it holds the amount to charge
- Which field identifies the customer — the contact or account paying
- Where the customer's address is held, if you need it for the payment
What you should see: four answers written down. You will enter all four during setup, and guessing at that point means starting the step again.
Next¶
Quick start guide — install ChargeOn and take your first payment.
If something went wrong¶
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| My Domain shows as registered but not deployed | The deployment step was never completed | Deploy it to all users, then wait for it to propagate before continuing |
| You cannot find Sites in Setup | Sites is not available on your edition | Confirm your edition in Part 1 |
| The gateway has sent one set of credentials and will not say whether they are test or live | Providers label these inconsistently | Ask explicitly for sandbox or test credentials. Do not guess — guessing here charges a real card |
| You do not know which object to charge from | The billing process has not been decided | This is a business decision, not a technical one. Settle it before installing; changing it later means redoing the mapping |