Plaid
  • 13 Jul 2022
  • 3 Minutes to read
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Plaid

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Article Summary

What is Plaid?

Plaid makes it faster and easier to set up bank payments through a flow designed with the user experience and security in mind. Users enter their online credentials and Plaid instantly authenticates their account. Plaid works with Stripe as an ACH processor to simplify bank-to-bank payments. Read more about Plaid here.

Make sure to upgrade to the latest version of Paylink before trying to process a Plaid transaction.

Plaid Setup Prerequisites

  • A Plaid account
  • An activated Stripe Account
  • For Test Payments - A Payment Gateway record where Test Mode = "True" connected to said activated Stripe account
  • For Live Payments - Payment Gateway record where Test Mode = "False" connected to said activated Stripe account

Integrating with Plaid

Prior to Plaid Integration

Make sure your Stripe account is activated prior to Plaid integration. If you attempt to connect to Stripe through the Plaid dashboard with a test only Stripe account you will not be able to move forward unless you activate the Stripe account.

  1. Sign up for a Plaid account if you haven't already done so.
  2. Navigate to the "Team Settings" menu in the upper navigation bar.
  3. Click Integrations.

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  1. Select your integration provider (i.e. Stripe).
  2. Click 'Enable' next to your provider.
  3. Follow the steps for enabling the provider.
  4. Once integrated you will see the label 'ON' in the lower left-hand corner if the provider's icon.

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  1. Make note of the keys listed in the 'Keys' menu in your Plaid dashboard. We will use those when setting up your Payment Gateway in Salesforce.

Add User Permissions

  1. Create a new Permission Set in Setup. Name it 'Access Encrypted Data'.
  2. Navigate to System Permissions.
  3. Click 'Edit'.
  4. Check the box labeled 'View Encrypted Data'.
  5. Save the permission set.
  6. Navigate to the user record in Setup for the person who authenticated the Paylink app. This is the person who clicked the 'Authenticate' button while running the Paylink setup wizard.
  7. Add the permission set you just created to their user record.

How to Setup Your Payment Gateway

Payment Gateway Setup Notes:
  • For testing using test bank data:
    Configure your Test Mode Stripe Payment Gateway with the Sandbox Secret and Client Id
  • When ready for go live and customer use:
    Make sure your live Stripe Payment Gateway record has the Production Secret and Client Id
  1. Navigate to a Payment Gateway with 'Stripe' set as the Provider.
  2. Add your Plaid keys to the Plaid User ID and Plaid Secret fields. See the table below for field matching.
    • Note: Once you enable Plaid in Production you will use a different secret key. See the Plaid documentation for Production Setup.
Plaid KeysPayment Gateway Fields
client_idPlaid User ID
Sandbox SecretPlaid Secret
Production SecretPlaid Secret
  1. Click 'Save'.
  2. Click 'Connect to Gateway' to re-establish a connection with your Payment Gateway provider.

Creating a Transaction

  1. Navigate to the Transaction object.
  2. Create a new Transaction record.
  3. Enter an Amount you would like to process through Plaid.
  4. Set the Payment Gateway field with the Stripe Payment Gateway that is connected to Plaid.
  5. Click 'Save'.
  1. Navigate to the 'Paylink' section of the Transaction record you just created.
  2. Click the URL in the Paylink field.
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Paylink section on Transaction

  1. Observe the Paylink page. Click 'Pay'.
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  2. Click the 'Bank' tab. Then click the 'Pay $***' button in the lower portion of the modal.
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  3. Choose your bank.
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  4. Enter your bank credentials. For testing use username: user_good and password: pass_good.
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  5. Select checking or savings account and click 'Continue'.
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Select your account type

  1. If the transaction successfully processes you will see a success message.
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Plaid success message

Ever wondered where Plaid is getting the company name used on the consent screen? You could navigate to your Plaid dashboard and customize screens there or you can do this in Salesforce.

Company Info Object

Make sure you have a Company Info record that stores the details to the company name you would like to see on the Plaid consent screen.

  1. Navigate to the Payment Gateway record used for Plaid.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Add your desired lookup record to the Company Info field.
  4. Click Save.

NOTE: You may need to add the Company Info field to your Payment Gateway page layout.

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Why Plaid vs ACH

  • You can use Plaid Payment Methods for future Transactions.
  • You can eliminate the micro deposit verification step.
  • Plaid offers a direct link to your bank account without having to type in a routing number or account number.