Core Docs - Church Management - Intro to Payment Gateways

Rock Version: v20.0
Last Modified: 2026-04-24 11:51 AM

When we start getting into the concepts of how financial transactions work in our modern economy things can get confusing pretty quickly. Don't worry though, we not only want you to understand how to use Rock, we also want to help you to understand the concepts of what's going on behind the scenes. Let’s help to demystify the concept of payment gateways.

We're all familiar with the concept of checking out at the store. The clerk rings up our purchases at the register and once a total amount has been determined, we swipe our card through the credit card terminal and we're done. Using this analogy Rock would play the role of the register and the payment gateway is the digital equivalent of the credit card terminal. Like the register, Rock helps determine what is being purchased/donated and comes up with a total amount. Rock then takes the guest’s account information (either their credit card or checking account information) and sends it through the terminal (aka payment gateway).

At that point the transaction has started its journey through the financial system. In many ways you're done with it, but let's track its journey and note some places that you'll need to initially configure.

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You're probably thinking this is all too much information. Understanding how this works though can save even a small organization tens of thousands of dollars. One large organization recently started saving over $200K per YEAR by understanding how this process works and ensuring they received the best rates.
We highly recommend reading this Credit Card Processing 101 PDF from NMI. They've made the process easy to understand with a visual walk-thru.  

Available Payment Gateways

Rock supports several payment gateways. You can find the current vendors and additional details in the Rock Shop. Rock also comes with some gateways, which we'll talk about a little later.

So, you might be wondering which one you should select? Here are some factors to consider:

Because each giving vendor offers different packages, you'll want to discuss your needs with all of them to determine the best fit.

It's also important to make a strategic decision when selecting a gateway. As you start building a base of scheduled gifts it will be hard to transition them to a new gateway in the future. Their card data is stored in the gateway and most gateways will not give you your cardholder data back if you choose to move. See the Transferring Gateways section below if you find yourself in this situation.