Dwolla transfer_ID for facilitator fee

[eli.marchbanks]

I think my issue is a big picture conceptualization of the “Send money with fees” function.

The documentation states you can use this function to “make transfers from user to user with fees included.” However, because you need to reference the transaction_id I don’t see how that’s possible. I have successfully set up “Sending Funds to Customers” without fees associated with no issues. In that scenario I can input the buyer’s funding source information as the source, and the seller’s funding source information as the destination. I can successfully transfer money from one user to another, without the money ever having to be transferred to my platform, which is what I want. However, when I try to do this with the Send money with fees function, I am required to first make a transaction_ID. How can I reference a transaction that won’t be created until the end of my workflow?

[alexandru]

Hi @eli.marchbanks,

Thanks for reaching out. I’m glad you can successfully use the regular action with no issues, but could you please specify what transaction_id you refer to?

Because if you want to use plugin’s Send money with fees action, you just need to use the Get Transfer By ID action - first. Then you can use the action with fees.

Please check our demo editor here to preview how it is set up, as well as plugin’s documentation here.

Hope it helps.

Best,
Alex

[eli.marchbanks]

It’s a field in the Get Transfer by ID function:

Additionally, you need the transaction_id to get the platform ID:

I don’t know how I can reference the transfer before it’s been created in Dwolla.

[alexandru]

Hi @eli.marchbanks,

Thanks for feedback. This transaction ID needs to be grabbed from your Dwolla Dashboard. I’m afraid it is not possible to reference before it is created in Dwolla, because you actually need to create a transaction - first, then you’ll be able to reference it. You can do it whether in your app or your Dwolla account.

Best,

[eli.marchbanks]

That’s where I’m confused. I’m trying to send money with fees. I’m assuming that the act of sending money with a fee is the transaction. So how can I reference the transaction I want to initiate, in the set-up to initiate it?

I’m assuming that every transaction id is unique. Meaning everytime I initiate a transaction the transaction id is new. Is that where I’m misunderstanding?

[alexandru]

Thanks @eli.marchbanks for feedback.

Yes, it might be confusing at first glance, but this is the sandbox instructions for testing purposes, meaning you can get a transaction ID from any transaction from your Dwolla Dashboard:

So just copy one, or if you don’t have any transactions yet, then just create a regular one for testing purposes and paste here:

Then simply follow our docs with exact steps, and also check the demo editor to preview how everything is setup.

Best,

[eli.marchbanks]

Thanks, Alex. However, I’m getting a new error now that I can’t understand. There error is as follows:

It’s says it’s a Validation Error and the issue seems to be the link destination href. I believe I’ve followed the documents “to a T.” Below is my workflow:

Any idea why it’s not going through?

[alexandru]

Hi @eli.marchbanks,

Thanks for feedback. This error comes from Send money with fees action, saying it is an InvalidDestination. I am not aware of how it is getting data, but you can debug it to be sure it is receiving all necessary information to pass into all these fields.

Note: if your source_ID is a Balance ID, then destination_ID must be a Balance ID as well; if you send from a Bank ID as source, then destination must be a Bank ID. It is not possible to mix.

Just make sure these URLs are in place and correct:

And after / you just insert the Bank/Balance IDs for source and destination.

Best,

[eli.marchbanks]

That’s not the issue. Both source and destination are accounts, not balances. The links are also correct. I double-checked the funding source link saved in my database.

According to the error message it seems that the destination_fee field is the problem. The error states “Unable to charge fee to specified destination.” I can’t see how my workflow varies from the way the tutorial sets up that section. The “platform_id” seems to be created in the exact same manner. I grabbed it from the Dwolla - Get Transfer by ID action. In that field I grabbed the transfer_ID from a transaction involving my platform account and the authorization is grabbed from tge Dwolla - Get Access Token function. I then saved the “_links destination href” from the outcome of Dwolla - Get Transfer by ID and use that for the platform_ID. The error message indicates that’s where the problem is and I can’t find it.

[eli.marchbanks]

Alex,

I believe I solved this problem and wanted to leave a note on the Dwolla plugin documentation because I think it may either be incorrect or misleading. The issue in the Send money with fees function was in the destination_fee area. I was trying to grab the platform_ID by using the Dwolla - Get Transfer By ID function, as instructed by the plugin documentation. I kept getting the same error so I read through Dwolla’s API documentation on how facilitator fees work. The API documentation do not require a platform_ID, which I was interpreted as where the fee would end-up. It requires you to input who the fee should be charged to. Further, it requires you to indicate the customer (as opposed to the funding source) of the entity the fee will be charged to. This can be seen in the code below:

So I simply entered the Dwolla customer resource link for the party I want to pay the facilitator fee for the destination_fee and everything worked as I wanted. I wanted to transfer a $750 fee from the buyer to the seller, and charge the buyer a $6 platform fee. All of that happened with the way I explained above, and I never needed the transaction_id and/or platform_id as the plugin documentation require.

If you see some problem with how I’ve set this up please let me know. Otherwise, I wanted to let you know in case the documentation is out of date.

Best,
Eli

[alexandru]

Hi @eli.marchbanks,

Thanks for feedback. Regarding destination_fee, in our docs it is stated this way:

That it is the link to to the associated source or destination customer resource, so it is the address of recipient’s %. And just as an example, we set it to be recipient’s own platform and further instructions of how to accomplish it. So it is just an example.

Perhaps you’ve been mislead by ‘To send funds you need to get Transfer ID’ so it is better to say ‘To send funds you may need to get Transfer ID’. I guess we’ll have to recheck and update our docs a bit.

So if everything is working on your side as expected, you should be good to go by now.

Best,