Fresh Tracks Canada — Greenfield Payment Service for High-Value Travel
Design and build a greenfield payment service for Fresh Tracks Canada's operations platform — handling the full payment lifecycle for high-value, multi-leg train vacations: instalment scheduling, Flywire payment links, automated reminders, statement generation, and reconciliation. Because payments flow directly between the platform and travellers, data security and payment integrity were central requirements from day one.
Payment lifecycle, owned end to end
The service handles everything from schedule creation through automated collection, statement generation, and reconciliation. When an itinerary is created, deposit and instalment schedules are generated automatically, a Flywire payment link is attached the moment each schedule exists, and links stay in sync as schedules change — no stale or incorrect amounts ever reach a traveller.
Engineering pillars
- Auto-created deposit and instalment schedules from itinerary data
- Flywire payment links generated and kept in sync automatically
- Saved card and auto-pay support for scheduled instalments
- Daily cron-driven reminder emails via Postmark, with delivery, bounce, open, and click tracking surfaced in-platform
- Auto-generated statement PDFs with reconciled payor data and full upcoming payment calendar
From brief to build.
Background
Fresh Tracks Canada is one of Canada's leading travel operators, offering expertly curated train vacations, polar bear expeditions, and Northern Lights experiences. Their trips are high-value, multi-leg journeys that often span several months from booking to departure — and the payment experience needs to reflect that complexity.
TechCirkle was engaged to design and build a greenfield payment service for their operations platform. Payments flow directly between the platform and travellers, so data security, payment integrity, and a reliable end-to-end experience were non-negotiable from the first design conversation.
The challenges
The existing payment process was largely manual and deeply fragmented. Sales agents were hand-generating individual payment links, sharing them with clients, and chasing payment IDs to manually reconcile transactions back in the platform.
There was no structured instalment scheduling, no automated reminders, and no automatic statement generation. Salesforce was being used as a secondary layer for payment reminder management — creating duplication and inconsistency between systems, with no single source of truth for payment state.
- Manual payment link creation and hand-reconciliation of transaction IDs
- No instalment scheduling for journeys booked months before departure
- Reminder management split across the platform and Salesforce, with drift between them
- High-value, trust-led bookings exposed to friction and error risk at the exact moment money changes hands
The solution
TechCirkle built the payment service as a standalone microservice, integrated with the platform's existing architecture and designed to own the full payment lifecycle — from schedule creation through automated collection, statement generation, and reconciliation.
The service integrates with Flywire, a payment platform built for high-value, cross-border transactions — a natural fit for Fresh Tracks Canada's international traveller base. Reminder lifecycle is fully automated: reminders are created, updated, and deleted as schedules change, and Postmark webhooks feed delivery, bounce, open, and click events back into the platform so agents can see exactly what happened to every reminder without leaving the system.
Why Flywire (instead of a generic payment gateway)
The integration choice was driven by the shape of the business — high-value, cross-border, instalment-based travel payments:
Built for high-value cross-border payments
Fresh Tracks Canada serves an international traveller base booking multi-thousand-dollar journeys. Flywire is purpose-built for exactly this transaction profile.
Payment links as a managed lifecycle
Links are created, attached, and updated programmatically as schedules change — the platform never exposes a stale amount to a traveller.
Saved card and auto-pay
Travellers can save a card and have instalments collected automatically on each scheduled date, removing the biggest source of chase-up work.
Reconciliation-grade transaction data
Flywire transaction data is persisted on each payment schedule, giving a complete audit trail for reconciliation without manual ID-matching.
How it came together.
Automated payment schedules
Deposit and instalment schedules are generated automatically when an itinerary is created — no manual setup in Salesforce required, and schedules stay the single source of truth for payment state.
Flywire link automation
A payment link is created and attached the moment a schedule exists, and updates automatically when the schedule changes. Agents and travellers receive correct, current links with zero manual steps.
Reminder lifecycle & email tracking
A daily scheduled job sends reminder emails via Postmark. Reminders are created, updated, and deleted automatically as schedules change, and webhook events (delivered, bounced, opened, clicked) are surfaced in the platform.
Statement generation
When a payment syncs and a schedule is marked paid, a statement is created and linked automatically. PDFs carry accurate traveller and payor data reconciled against Flywire, and statement emails include the full upcoming payment calendar.
Audit trail & reconciliation
Full Flywire transaction history is persisted per schedule, and agents manage all statements for an itinerary from a single payments screen — complete visibility without external tools.
Outcomes & benefits
A payment system that runs itself
Nearly every step that previously required manual agent effort — schedules, links, reminders, statements — is now an automated, system-managed process.
Agent time back on selling
A considerable reduction in time spent per client during the payment phase, freeing agents to take on more clients and focus on high-touch, personalised service.
Single source of truth
The platform owns payment state end to end, with full visibility into every reminder, statement, and transaction — no dependency on Salesforce workflows to stay accurate.
Less friction at the moment of payment
Travellers booking once-in-a-lifetime trips get a payment experience that matches the product: correct amounts, timely reminders, clear statements.