Creating customised pre-filled URLs for QR codes

Modified on Thu, 3 Sep at 12:48 PM

Payreq can use customer-specific URLs to pre-fill selected fields on a FastForm registration page or payment page. A mailhouse or document-composition system can turn each URL into a QR code and place it on the corresponding notice.

There are two common uses:

QR code Where it takes the customer
Digital Subscription A Payreq FastForm where the customer can complete a registration for digital delivery
Payment A Payreq payment page with the account or payment reference pre-filled and, optionally, the amount

Before building either type, ask Payreq to confirm the biller-specific path and field mapping. Do not copy another biller's URL structure into production.

Digital Subscription QR codes

The production FastForm address follows this structure:

https://go.payreq.com/fastform/<biller-path>/create

A FastForm may support pre-filled authentication fields. The available fields and their parameter names depend on the biller's configuration.

For a FastForm configured with an account or reference field and a customer-name field, the structure may be:

https://go.payreq.com/fastform/<biller-path>/create?aN=<account-number>&a1=<customer-name>

In this example, aN maps to the account or reference field and a1 maps to the customer-name field. These names are not universal. Confirm the actual parameters and mapping with Payreq before production use.

TEST example

Base FastForm:

https://test.payreq.com/fastform/demo-council/create

Pre-filled FastForm:

https://test.payreq.com/fastform/demo-council/create?aN=12345&a1=Mr%20S%20Smith

The customer still reviews the form, supplies any other required details and completes the registration.

Payment QR codes

The production payment-page address follows this structure:

https://go.payreq.com/pay/<biller-path>?accountNumber=<account-number>&amount=<amount>

The supported parameters are:

Parameter What it pre-fills
accountNumber The account, payment or biller reference used for reconciliation
amount The payment amount in the biller's currency

The amount is optional. To pre-fill only the account or payment reference, omit the amount parameter:

https://go.payreq.com/pay/<biller-path>?accountNumber=<account-number>

Payreq handles payments to the nearest cent. If the URL supplies more than two decimal places, the pre-filled value is rounded to the nearest cent. Use a valid positive amount expressed in dollars and cents. Zero and negative URL amounts are not documented and should not be relied on.

TEST examples

Account or payment reference only:

https://test.payreq.com/pay/demo-council?accountNumber=1234567890

Account or payment reference and amount:

https://test.payreq.com/pay/demo-council?accountNumber=1234567890&amount=250.75

Encode the values correctly

Apply standard URL percent-encoding to the values inserted into the query string. For example:

Character Encoded value
Space %20
Ampersand %26
Forward slash %2F

No separate Payreq-specific character allowlist has been confirmed. Test the characters expected in the biller's real account references and customer names as part of implementation.

Only include information already shown on the notice containing the QR code. Do not add unrelated personal, payment or account information to the URL.

Build and test the QR codes

  1. Ask Payreq to confirm the correct biller path, page type and field mapping.
  2. Identify the values already present in the notice data that will populate the URL.
  3. Construct the URL using the confirmed parameter names.
  4. Percent-encode each value before inserting it into the query string.
  5. Generate a separate QR code from each customer's final URL.
  6. Test representative examples before production.

The test set should include:

  • typical account or reference values;
  • the longest expected values;
  • names containing spaces and the special characters expected in the biller's data;
  • an omitted optional payment amount;
  • an amount with two decimal places; and
  • an amount with more than two decimal places, to confirm rounding.

For each test, confirm that the QR code opens the correct biller page and that every pre-filled field contains the expected value. The customer must still be able to review the page and complete the required action.

Place and label the codes clearly

Where a notice contains more than one QR code, separate and label them so the customer can tell what each one does. For example:

QR code Example label
Payment Scan to pay this notice
Digital Subscription Scan to receive future notices digitally

Test the final composed notice, not only the URL. Confirm that each code remains scannable at the printed size and is not confused with another code on the page.

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