Moving to Cadmium Payments

Cadmium Payments is the centralized payment processing service that brokers credit card transactions across Cadmium products. If your association collects payments in Elevate, your merchant configuration is moving out of Elevate settings and into Cadmium Payments — and you choose when to make the switch, as long as it happens by October 27, 2026.

This article will review:

• What Is Cadmium Payments?
• Why We’re Making This Change
• What’s Changing
• When It’s Happening
• What You Need to Do
• Setup Checklist
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Questions and Support

What Is Cadmium Payments?

Cadmium Payments is our centralized payment processing service. It brokers credit card transactions across Cadmium products, so your merchant accounts live in one place instead of being configured separately inside each product you use.

Instead of entering gateway credentials directly into Elevate, you configure your merchant processor once in Cadmium Payments. Elevate then connects to it. If your association also runs events or education programs on other Cadmium products, the same merchant setup can support them.

What it gives you

• One place for merchant configuration. Add, edit, or retire a merchant processor in a single admin interface rather than product by product.
• Support for multiple gateways. Cadmium Payments continues to support Authorize.Net, BluePay, and PayFlow Pro, and now adds support for Stripe, Cybersource, Braintree, and our in-house merchant processor, Cadmium Pay.
• A dedicated merchant admin role. Payment configuration sits with a named person on your team, protected by a PIN.
• A hosted checkout experience. Card details are captured in a secure payment form, hosted by Cadmium Payments, that is embedded directly in your Elevate cart.

Why We’re Making This Change

Today, Elevate stores payment gateway credentials in its own settings. Every product that receives a payment does the same thing, in its own way. That means duplicated configuration, credentials in more places than necessary, and more work for your team whenever something changes.

Moving payment processing into one service fixes that — whether Elevate is the only Cadmium product you use or one of several. Here’s what it means in practice.

• More processors to choose from. Cadmium Payments supports a wider set of merchant processors — Authorize.Net, BluePay, PayFlow Pro, Stripe, Cybersource, Braintree, and our own Cadmium Pay — so you can pick the one that fits how your association collects payments.
• One team behind your payments. Our teams work in a single payment service instead of several, which means faster answers when you need support.
• A more reliable payment path. One service means fewer moving parts between your learner’s card and your merchant account, monitored and maintained in one place rather than product by product.
• A consistent setup wherever you take payments. Merchant offerings, configuration, the admin experience, and checkout work the same way across Cadmium products. If you add another product later, the same merchant processors will be available and your payment setup is already in place.
• Security built into the payment flow. Card details are captured in a secure hosted form rather than passing through Elevate, and your gateway credentials live in one protected service instead of several.
• More development capacity for new product work. Maintaining one set of merchant connections instead of many frees up engineering time for product improvements.

What’s Changing

Most of the changes happen behind the scenes. Elevate administrators will see a different settings screen, and your learners will see a slightly different credit card form.

For Your Administrators

For Your Learners

Checkout stays within Elevate. On the cart page, the payment form looks slightly different and is presented in a secure embedded frame hosted by Cadmium Payments. Learners enter their card details there and the order completes as usual. There is no redirect to a third-party site and no new login.

What Isn’t Changing

• Your course catalog, pricing, discounts, registrations, and enrollment workflows.
• Your merchant account and your relationship with your payment processor.
• Your learners’ accounts, order history, and access to purchased content.

When It’s Happening

You choose when to activate within the transition window, but every account needs to be live on Cadmium Payments by October 27, 2026.

Choosing Your Timing

Activation takes effect immediately, so choose a window that suits your program calendar.

• Good timing: a quiet stretch between enrollment pushes, early in the business day, when your merchant admin and an Elevate administrator are both available.
• Timing to avoid: the middle of an open enrollment period, a conference registration surge, or the last business day before a holiday.

What You Need to Do

What You’ll Need Before You Start

• The email address of the person who will serve as your merchant admin.
• Your merchant processor credentials — the gateway details from Cadmium Pay, Authorize.Net, Stripe, or whichever processor you use.
• Administrator access to Elevate settings. Your merchant admin needs this too, since Cadmium Payments is reached from inside Elevate.
• A PIN your merchant admin will create and store securely.

Complete the four steps below in order. Each one depends on the one before it.

Step 1: Identify Your Merchant Admin

Choose the person who will own payment configuration for your account. This is usually someone in finance or operations, or whoever manages your merchant account relationship today.

1. Complete the merchant admin request form so we can identify them on your account.
2. Wait for the confirmation email from Cadmium that the merchant admin is set up.
3. Have your merchant admin create a PIN for the account and store it somewhere secure.

Step 2: Configure Your Merchant Processor in Cadmium Payments

Add your merchant account and gateway credentials in Cadmium Payments.

1. In Elevate, go to Settings, then Payment.
2. Select Configure Cadmium Payments. This opens the Cadmium Payments admin interface.
3. Add your merchant account and enter your gateway credentials.
4. Save the configuration and confirm the merchant account shows as active.

Step 3: Select and Activate the Processor in Elevate

Back in Elevate, point your account at the merchant processor you just configured.

1. Return to Settings, then Payment in Elevate.
2. Open the Processing Service Provider dropdown and select your merchant processor.
3. Activate the processor and save.

Step 4: Activate Cadmium Payments

This is the final step. When you activate, all payments in your Elevate account begin routing through Cadmium Payments.

1. Confirm Steps 1 through 3 are complete and your processor shows as active.
2. Activate Cadmium Payments in Elevate.
3. Run a test transaction and confirm it completes and appears where you expect.

Setup Checklist

Use this list to track your account through the transition. The items are in the order you should complete them.

1. Merchant admin identified and sent to Cadmium.
2. Cadmium confirms the merchant admin on the account.
3. Merchant admin PIN created and stored securely.
4. Merchant processor configured in Cadmium Payments.
5. Processor selected and activated in Elevate settings.
6. Cadmium Payments activated.
7. Test transaction completed and verified.
8. Finance notified that processing has switched over.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to move to Cadmium Payments?

Yes. Cadmium Payments becomes the way Elevate processes credit card transactions. Every account needs to complete the transition by October 27, 2026.

What happens if we don’t activate by October 27, 2026?

An account that hasn’t activated Cadmium Payments risks a lapse in payment collection, which means learners may be unable to complete purchases until setup is done. Completing the four steps before the date avoids any gap. If the timeline is difficult for your team, reach out to us early.

Does this change our merchant account or our processor?

No. You keep your merchant account and your processor relationship. Cadmium Payments routes transactions to the processor you configure.

Do we need a new merchant account?

No, as long as your current processor is one Cadmium Payments supports. Review the Accepted Payment Processors article for the current list.

Who should be our merchant admin?

Someone who already owns or understands your merchant account — typically in finance or operations. They need to be reachable, and they need administrator access to Elevate settings.

Can the merchant admin and the Elevate administrator be the same person?

Yes. Many accounts use one person for both. These are separate responsibilities, not necessarily separate people.

What is the PIN for?

The PIN protects payment configuration on your account. Your merchant admin creates it during setup. Store it securely and make sure more than one trusted person can reach it.

We lost our PIN. What now?

Your merchant admin can reset the PIN inside Cadmium Payments. Follow the steps in the resetting your merchant admin PIN article. If you need more help, contact Cadmium support at payments-support@gocadmium.com.

Can we configure more than one merchant processor?

Yes. If your association collects payments under multiple merchant accounts, you can configure more than one in Cadmium Payments and select the one Elevate should use.

Can we undo activation?

No. Activating Cadmium Payments is permanent for your account. Once activated, all payments route through Cadmium Payments and the account cannot return to a legacy processor. Complete Steps 1 through 3 and confirm your configuration before you activate.

Will our learners notice a difference?

Most likely not. Checkout still happens inside Elevate, but the payment form looks slightly different. There’s no redirect and no new login.

What happens to transactions processed before we activate?

Activation changes how new transactions are processed going forward. Transactions you collected before activation are not affected by this change.

We use other Cadmium products. Does this affect them?

Cadmium Payments is a centralized service across Cadmium products, and this article covers the Elevate transition specifically. If you have already configured merchant processors in another Cadmium product, you can skip Steps 1 and 2.

Questions and Support

Email payments-support@gocadmium.com with any additional questions about your transition to Cadmium Payments.