We need to offer the hubs an e-wallet option as a payment system. It’s a requirement at least in France, as lots of hubs can’t be considered as “intermediates” (they can’t collect money and pay the producers), they are considered as “service prodivers” for the producers, and legally paid by the producers to find them clients. Cf: Generating a compilation of one invoice per producer for more details.
Also, some very good points with an e-wallet solution like Mangopay:
- it simplify the life of the hubs manager as he doesn’t have to manage payments (receive money and pay the suppliers) > time saved
- they are much cheaper than Paypal (Mangopay starts in france for low volumes at 1,8% + 10cts and then less, while Paypal is at 3,9%+0,25cts)
So I know both Norway and France want to be able to offer Mangopay (and/or Stripe, similar products) as a payment gateway option. I saw also UK might be interested (@lin_d_hop you mentionned it somewhere I think) We would like to evaluate the work needed to be done and the time/cost estimate, to see if we can crowdfund / find volunteer, or a bit of both.
How it works: the money paid by a byer is kept on a “virtual provision account”, and given the process we encrypt in Mangopay, for exemple, when the sales is validated by the hub manager the money is dispatched in the right amount to the different producers, the hub account, and the instance account.
Here is what I see as a job:
A- Understand and connect the Mangopay API
Here is the technical document to integrate the API: https://docs.mangopay.com/
B- We need to develop some pieces of code to adapt the processes to this new option:
1- If we agree about the process (=the money is dispatched when the sale is validated, so that if adjustments, are done before the money is send everywhere) it means that we need somewhere a button (in the order cycle?) "validate delivery and send money"
2- As the commission taken by the hub and paid to the instance is managed through entreprise fees, we need to be able to tell the API the rule about the calculation for sending the money to the hub e-wallet and the instance e-wallet. Alternatively, if it’s simpler, we can keep the instance fees out of this and stay on a seperate invoicing process… In that case I guess that all entreprise fees will be dispatched to the hub e-wallet… Or if we can manage the instance as an entreprise and give the possibility to all hubs to add in their order cycle the fee from the instance, then the rule could be “the entreprise behind the entreprise fee receive the money”
For info, Mangopay will contract with the instance, not with every hub, and the invoice from Mangopay will be sent to the instance, so the instance need to be able to collect the money (either directly, or added in the invoice sent to the hub using Mangopay > invoice to hub system to adapt in that case)
3- The invoicing system must be adapted, as in that case, we need to have the good invoices sent in every direction: the client receive an aggregation of one invoice per producer, the producer receive an invoice from the hub for the business provider operation, the producer (or the hub?) receive an invoice from the instance for the use of the platform.
4- We need to change the supplier registration process, as every legal entity using a e-wallet is legaly required if they have more than 1000€ in their wallet (will be quickly reached) to be officially registered (the e-wallet is like a bank account) so we need to add some fields in the producer registration process (copy of some official paper, by-laws, etc).
5- For buyers, the threshold is 2500€ per year. When reached, the buyer is asked to upload a copy of its ID (we can customize the email sent and explain why)
C- We can have a degressive tarif based on the global volume made with Mangopay on all the OFN instances
So for example, if Norway, France and UK sign a contract with Mangopay, the rate applied will be based on the global volumes.
Complement document from a year ago (has probably changed a bit, but clear to understand): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_HDFsX1e_2VYmZGdWtVQ1o5WEE
@danielle, @oeoeaio, @maikel, it would be great to have your feedback and an idea of the time needed to do all th job, and an estimated budget? Then we can see with @nickwhite and maybe other smart guys if they have a bit of time to dedicate to it on a volunteer base (I know Nicolas is still on the internationalization job) or else we can see if/how we could crowdfund the job. Some hubs in France are starting to apply for funds for their project, maybe they can add a line to develop that feature they need 
I talked about Mangopay here, but I know Stripe offers comparable services (but I feel Mangopay is more famous used in Europe)
Ping @CynthiaReynolds, @sigmundpetersen and @LucieB
And also it’s not legally possible and that’s why we need that tool, the hub cannot be considered as a middleman in lots of cases in France, but should be considered as a business provider for producers, the money can’t transit through the hub… So we need to “map” the flows of money, but I don’t know how this is done technically and if it’s complex or not, I suggested some ideas for the processes above… So the purpose here is to detail the job needed to be done so that we have an estimate of costs/time and see how we can co-finance that with the instances interested… but having a look at the way the mapping is technically done through the API might be needed 
And I guess we need to agree on the process for those e-wallet types of payments (cf my proposal)
