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Online FOI fee payments that lift the hold by themselves

Requestors pay deposits and balances from their request's status page, on your payment provider's own hosted page — AccessPoint never sees a card or bank detail. A payment is booked only on the provider's server-side confirmation; then the fee hold lifts, the receipt goes out and the ledger is ready to reconcile. Part of the public portal, in your own Azure subscription.

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Fees are where many access requests stall. The estimate goes out, the request goes on hold, and the money arrives days later by cheque, at the counter, or through a general payment page that knows nothing about the request — leaving someone to match it to the file, record it, and resume the clock by hand.

AccessPoint takes FOI, ATIP and public records fees online through its public request portal. When an estimate is issued, a deposit is raised from the rules on the requestor's fee category; when the fee is finalized, the balance. The requestor sees what is due on their status page — or opens the payment link you e-mail — confirms with a one-time code, and pays on the provider's hosted page. AccessPoint records the payment only when the provider confirms it server to server, then closes the payment request, lifts the fee-pending clock pause, e-mails a receipt and updates the status page.

Your organization contracts with its own payment provider, and the provider receives the payment details. Stripe Checkout is the reference provider, with a full test sandbox; Paymentus is supported and set up with your Paymentus account team; and a configurable generic hosted payment page connects other processors that offer one, set up and verified with your processor. Payments taken any other way — cash, cheque, counter or bank transfer — go into the same ledger. Stripe and Paymentus are trademarks of their respective owners; AccessPoint is not affiliated with or endorsed by either company.

Sound familiar?

Three moments every office that charges fees recognizes — and what each one costs.

The cheque in the mail

The fee estimate goes out and the request goes on hold. Days later a cheque arrives at reception, travels to finance, and eventually someone tells the coordinator — who resumes the clock by hand and updates the spreadsheet.

"I paid — here's a screenshot"

The requestor paid through the organization's general online payment page. Finance sees a deposit with no request number on it. Matching the two takes an e-mail chain and a month-end spreadsheet.

The card number on a sticky note

A requestor offers to pay over the phone. Someone writes the card number down to key in later — and a process that was never designed to hold payment card data now does.

What to look for in online FOI fee payment

Whatever you buy — including if it isn't AccessPoint — these are the capabilities that separate a payment button from a fee process you can defend and reconcile.

Card details never touch the case system The requestor should pay on the provider's own hosted page, reached by redirect. A system that renders card fields itself brings more of your process into PCI DSS scope.
Paid means the provider confirmed it A browser landing on a thank-you page proves nothing. Look for payments recorded only from the provider's signed server-to-server notification or a direct status query.
The payment moves the request Paying the deposit should close what was asked for, lift the fee hold on the statutory clock and update the requestor's status page — without anyone re-keying it.
Fee rules from the fee schedule The deposit threshold, the deposit percentage and the minimum below which no fee is charged should come from the fee schedule your regulation sets, not from someone's memory.
Reconciliation finance will accept A daily match against the provider's settlement, or an imported settlement file, with every difference left for a person to resolve — never silently corrected.
Another way to pay, in the same ledger Cash, cheque, counter and bank transfer recorded against the same request as online payments, so a requestor who cannot use the provider's page is never stuck — and the totals still add up.

How AccessPoint takes fees online

The fee engine you already use, the portal the requestor already has, and a provider you choose — these are the load-bearing pieces.

Pay from the status page

An open deposit or balance appears on the requestor's status page with a Pay button, and Send payment link e-mails the pay page directly. The requestor confirms with a one-time code, sees the amount and any convenience fee, and pays on the provider's hosted page.

Booked only on the provider's word

A payment is recorded from a signature-verified provider notification or an explicit status query — never from a browser redirect. Larger payments are confirmed by a status query even when signed, and a payment reported in another currency is refused.

Deposits and balances from the fee engine

The requestor fee category sets a prepayment threshold, a deposit percent and a waive-below amount: an issued estimate that reaches the threshold raises a deposit, finalizing raises the balance, and a fee under the minimum is waived without anyone asking.

The hold lifts itself

When the payments cover the open payment request, the fee-pending clock pause is lifted automatically, a receipt is e-mailed to the requestor, and their status page shows the fee as paid.

One ledger for every payment

Payments, refunds and adjustments on the request — online, or recorded as cash, cheque, counter or transfer — with method, reference, who recorded it and the provider's transaction id. A refund needs a reason and never alters the original row.

Reconciliation and Fees collected

Daily reconciliation against Stripe's balance transactions, or an imported settlement file for other providers, with every difference left for a person to resolve. Fees collected reports payments, refunds and net by month, method, provider and kind, in each request's own currency.

See it in AccessPoint

Real screens from the product, running in a Microsoft 365 tenant. Click any one to enlarge.

The portal's Pay a fee page with the amount due and payment reference Click to enlarge
Pay online. The requestor pays from the portal and is sent to your provider's own hosted page.
A request's estimate and Payments section with a confirmed card payment and the paid deposit Click to enlarge
On the request. The estimate, the deposit and the payments ledger, with the balance computed from confirmed payments.
The Payment providers settings with a Stripe Checkout provider in test mode Click to enlarge
Your provider. Register Stripe Checkout, Paymentus, a hosted payment page or counter payments, and test before going live.

The structural difference

The fee, the clock and the payment are one record

Online payment in access-to-information work is often a separate step: a general payment page on the organization's website, a receipt in the finance system, and a coordinator who re-keys the amount into the request and resumes the clock by hand. In AccessPoint the payment request is raised from the request's own fee estimate, the requestor pays from the request's own status page, and the verified payment lands in the request's own fee ledger — closing the payment request, lifting the fee hold, sending the receipt and updating what the requestor sees. The pay page runs on your portal in your own Azure subscription, and the provider is one your organization contracts with directly.

Card data never reaches AccessPoint Redirect-only providers: AccessPoint never renders a card field or receives a card number — the model PCI DSS SAQ A describes.
Your provider, your account You register your own provider credentials, protected by your deployment's own Azure Key Vault key or kept in your Key Vault as references.
Included in every plan Online payments are part of the portal module, which every AccessPoint plan includes — no add-on.

From first registration to first payment

The path for an office taking fees online:

  1. Deploy the public portal into your Azure subscription and switch on Payments under Settings → Features.
  2. Register your provider under Settings → Payment providers in test mode, register the notify URL with the provider, and make one sandbox payment end to end.
  3. Set the prepayment threshold, deposit percent and waive-below amount on your requestor fee categories, where your jurisdiction pack does not already carry them.
  4. Issue the estimate: the deposit is requested, the requestor pays from the status page or the payment link, and the verified payment lifts the fee hold.
  5. Reconcile against the provider's settlement daily or by file, and report from Fees collected.

Go deeper

Public request portal The guided form, status page and secure delivery the pay page belongs to. Registering a payment provider Stripe Checkout, Paymentus, the generic hosted page and offline payments — set up step by step. FOI request management The full request lifecycle the fee belongs to — deadlines, collection, redaction, release. AccessPoint vs. Vayle Vayle is a strong Canadian platform with a public online form, integrated payments and Vayle ID verification — how the two compare. Pricing Flat annual pricing by organization size, with the portal and payments included. Security & data sovereignty Where payment records and provider secrets live, and what never leaves your tenant.

Online FOI Fee Payments Questions

Can requestors pay FOI or ATIP fees online with AccessPoint?
Yes. With the public request portal deployed and payments switched on, a deposit on an issued fee estimate, or the balance once the fee is finalized, appears on the requestor's status page with a Pay button, and staff can e-mail a payment link. The requestor confirms with a one-time code, sees the amount and any convenience fee, and pays on the payment provider's hosted page. When the provider confirms the payment, AccessPoint records it against the request, e-mails a receipt and lifts the fee-pending clock pause once nothing remains open. Payments made by cash, cheque, at the counter or by transfer are recorded in the same ledger.

Does AccessPoint see or store card numbers?
No. Every electronic provider is redirect-only: the requestor pays on the provider's own hosted page, and AccessPoint never renders a card field or receives a card or bank account number — the model PCI DSS SAQ A describes. The provider receives the amount, the currency, a short reference, a description with the request number, the return addresses and the requestor's language; Stripe also receives the requestor's e-mail address, a generic hosted page receives it only if you configure that, and Paymentus receives no name or e-mail address.

Which payment providers does it work with?
Your organization contracts with its own provider and registers it in AccessPoint. Stripe Checkout is the reference provider, with a full test sandbox. Paymentus is supported through its fully hosted one-time payment page; it is built on Paymentus's published interfaces, so its hosted-page and notification settings are confirmed with your Paymentus account team before you go live. A configurable generic hosted payment page connects other processors that offer a hosted page and a server-to-server notification, set up and verified with your processor. An offline provider records cash, cheque, counter and transfer payments. Each registration has a test mode and a convenience-fee setting: none, payer pays, or absorbed by your organization.

When does AccessPoint mark a fee as paid?
Only when the provider confirms it. A payment is recorded from a signature-verified server-to-server notification or from a status query to the provider's own interface — never because the requestor's browser returned to the portal. A notification that cannot be cryptographically verified only prompts that status query, larger payments are confirmed by a query even when signed, and a payment reported in a currency other than the one requested is refused. With Stripe, bank debits that take days to settle stay pending until Stripe reports them paid.

Can a requestor pay the application fee when they submit the request?
Payment follows registration. A portal submission becomes a request when your team registers it; the fee estimate is then issued from the requestor's fee category — including an application fee where your fee schedule charges one — and the deposit or balance is raised as a payment request that the requestor pays from their status page or a payment link. A fee below the category's waive-below amount is waived automatically, and nothing is charged online that your team has not issued.

What does online payment cost?
Online payments are part of the public portal module, which every AccessPoint plan includes with no add-on fee. The portal runs as a web app in your own Azure subscription on your existing App Service plan, and your payment provider charges its own processing fees under your contract with it. Whether a convenience fee may be passed to the requestor is a question for your fee regulation and your counsel; AccessPoint supports either choice.

Flat annual pricing, published in full. Every feature in every size — access requests, privacy impact assessments, breach response, complaints, video & audio redaction, the public portal, repository connectors, and AI Assist. No per-user or per-module fees.

  • Under 500 employees$2,990/yr
  • 500–1,999 employees$7,990/yr
  • 2,000–9,999 employees$14,990/yr
  • 10,000+ employees$29,990/yr

See full pricing Build the business case

Take the Fee Online. Let the Hold Lift Itself.

Try AccessPoint free for 30 days in your own Microsoft 365 tenant — online fee payments come with the public portal, included in every plan.

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