Everything from connecting your CardPointe account to what happens when a subscription charge fails — written for merchants, not developers.
Paradox runs on top of your own CardConnect / CardPointe merchant account. You bring the merchant account; Paradox brings invoicing, subscriptions, payment pages, and a ledger that reconciles itself. Setup is three steps:
Sign up at paradoxsolutions.io for $10/month or $100/year. Your first charge happens at signup, renewals are automatic, and there is no contract.
Paste your CardPointe credentials into Settings and hit Test Connection. This is the account your customers' payments settle into — see the next section.
Create a customer and send your first invoice, or spin up a payment page and share the link. Money lands in your Fiserv account on your existing schedule.
Go to Settings → Gateway and enter the four pieces CardPointe gave you:
| Site | The short host name for your gateway, like “fts”. If you paste a full URL, Paradox trims it down for you. |
| Merchant ID | Your MID — the number your processor knows you by. |
| API username | The API credential from CardPointe support (this is different from your CardPointe website login). |
| API password | Stored encrypted, and never shown back to anyone — including you. To change it, just type a new one. |
Then press Test Connection. Paradox asks the gateway to confirm the credentials and shows you what your merchant account has enabled — address checking, security codes, and so on. You can keep separate sandbox and production credentials and switch which one is live.
Already processing on CardPointe? Settings → Import pulls your past into Paradox. Pick an end date and how many days to look back; Paradox walks your settled batches, brings each transaction into the ledger, and — where the gateway stored a card on file — recreates the customer with their saved card, ready to bill again.
Create an invoice from the Invoices screen: pick a customer, add line items with quantities, tax and discounts, choose terms (due on receipt, Net 14, Net 30), and send. The customer gets a branded email with a secure pay button — no account or login needed on their side. You'll see when the invoice is viewed and when it's paid.
A customer record holds contact details, their invoices, subscriptions and payment history — and optionally a saved card. Cards are saved through the secure entry frame and stored at the gateway as a token; Paradox never sees or keeps the number. Saving a card runs a $0 authorization to verify it's real.
Attach a schedule to any customer with a saved card: weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, or a custom interval. Paradox charges on schedule, sends a renewal heads-up email three days before each charge and a receipt after it. Plans billed on the 29th–31st handle short months correctly.
Build a hosted page from the Payment Pages screen: heading, description, your logo (clickable), button and background colors, footer text — with a live preview as you edit. Offer preset amounts, an open amount with a minimum, or both, donation-style.
For phone orders and walk-ins: type the amount, key the card into the secure entry frame, charge. The approval comes back with the real authorization code and the address/security-code check results, and the charge appears instantly in the day's running list beside the terminal.
The Transactions screen is the single ledger: invoice payments, subscription charges, payment-page collections, terminal sales, refunds, voids and chargebacks, each labeled with its source. Filter by date, status or source; search by customer, amount, card digits or invoice number; export any view to CSV.
Six lifecycle emails — invoice, payment reminder, receipt, renewal notice, failed payment, and card update — all editable in the Email Templates builder: subject, heading, body, button text, accent color and footer. Changes are live the moment you save, and you can send yourself a test any time. Merge tags personalize every field:
| {{customer_name}} | The customer's name |
| {{business_name}} | Your business name |
| {{invoice_number}} | The invoice number, like INV-2026-0417 |
| {{amount_due}} | The amount due, formatted |
| {{due_date}} | The due date |
| {{payment_link}} | The secure pay link behind the button |
Your logo appears on every email and links wherever you choose. The per-template footer holds your own disclaimer text.
Everything about your own account lives under Account settings (click your avatar): change your name, email or password, edit the business profile, and manage teammates — invite them by email, adjust roles, or remove access. Invites are single-use links that expire.
Card numbers never touch Paradox. Every card entry — invoices, payment pages, the terminal, signup — happens inside Fiserv's own secure frame, which hands back a token that is worthless to anyone who steals it. That design keeps your business in the lightest PCI scope (SAQ-A).
One plan, everything included: $10/month, or $100/year with two months free. Your card is charged at signup and renews automatically. No contracts, no per-invoice fees, and never a percentage of your volume — card processing costs stay between you and Fiserv at your negotiated rates.
/ Questions about your subscription or need to cancel? Write to support and it's handled the same day — no retention scripts.The API username/password pair is wrong or expired. These come from CardPointe support and are separate from your CardPointe website login — your rep can verify or reset them.
Deposit history for past years is a gateway reporting service that may need to be enabled on your merchant account — ask your CardPointe rep about funding reports. Recent dates typically work right away.
Payment links are single-invoice and long-lived, but a re-sent invoice generates a fresh email — have them use the newest one. The page works on any modern phone or desktop browser.
Paradox checks the charge's real settlement status first. A charge that hasn't settled yet gets voided instead of refunded — same money back, cleaner path. If neither is offered, the transaction is already fully refunded.
Emails render at send time — anything sent after a save uses the new logo. Already-delivered emails keep whatever they were sent with.
Looking for feature overviews instead? Start with Invoicing or browse all six from the menu.