Element451’s platform is designed primarily to manage student engagement, admissions, enrollment and retention data. It has limited payment workflows for activities such as application fees, event registration fees, enrollment deposits, and other form-scoped payments.
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To ensure secure payment processing and minimize the handling of sensitive financial data, Element451 integrates with trusted third-party payment processors that maintain their own PCI DSS–compliant payment environments.

These integrations allow institutions to collect and process payments securely while ensuring that payment credentials are handled directly within the payment processor’s secure environment.

Element451 is designed so that cardholder data is not stored, processed, or transmitted within the Element451 platform infrastructure.

Specifically, Element451 does not collect or store:

When a payment is initiated, users enter payment credentials directly into secure payment interfaces hosted by the selected payment processor. The processor then handles transaction authorization, settlement, and any applicable storage of cardholder data.
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Because Element451 does not directly handle cardholder data, the cardholder data environment (CDE) is maintained by the payment processor rather than within the Element451 platform.

While payment credentials are handled by the payment processor, Element451 may store limited payment transaction metadata to support admissions and enrollment workflows.
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Examples of metadata stored may include:

This information supports operational processes such as application tracking, reconciliation, reporting, and automated communications.
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This metadata does not include cardholder data and is not considered PCI-regulated payment card data.

Because Element451 fully outsources cardholder data collection and processing to PCI DSS–compliant payment processors, the platform’s PCI scope is significantly reduced.
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This architecture aligns with the PCI DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) A model, which applies to merchants or service providers that:

Under the SAQ A model:

By contrast, SAQ D applies to systems that store, process, or transmit cardholder data directly, which would require significantly broader PCI DSS control coverage and infrastructure controls.
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Element451’s payment integration architecture is intentionally designed to avoid direct handling of cardholder data, thereby reducing PCI DSS scope while enabling secure payment workflows.
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Our latest PCI DSS SAQ questionnaire is available at trust.element451.com.
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Institutions remain responsible for determining their own PCI DSS obligations based on their broader payment environment and institutional compliance requirements.

Beyond PCI DSS requirements for a platform such as Element451, we maintain a SOC 2 Type II audited security program, which includes safeguards designed to protect platform data and maintain secure system operations.

These safeguards include:

Although Element451 is not part of the cardholder data environment, these controls help ensure that payment-related metadata and all other platform data are protected through strong operational security practices.