Credit card authorization and processing

Active transactions

In Sales Order Entry, when you open the Collect Payment view, the system checks for credit card transactions that were submitted and have either timed out or have not been responded to. If any transactions are found that meet this criteria, a message is displayed: Submitted Credit Card Transaction(s) Exist That Remain Active. Do You Wish To Cancel Them?

If you select No, the transaction remains as is. If you select Yes, the submitted transaction is changed to Inactive, and you will have to resubmit the transaction to the credit card processor. You may want to research a transaction prior to inactivating the transaction.

The purpose of this check is to prevent transactions from remaining active during authorization-holds when a session has been, for example, terminated abruptly while tendering the sales order, or if there are response issues from the credit card processor. Transactions that remain active "in limbo" may affect a customer's credit limit or other held funds.

Invoice processing

After shipping, the order is invoiced and moves to the Paid stage. Invoicing creates a new transaction with a transaction code of fsal. The transaction is sent to the processor for settlement. The settlement process starts the transfer of money from the credit card company to the merchant bank. Invoice processing also updates the GL accounts to correctly show the money being transferred to the merchant.

The system updates the order’s credit card history to show the processor’s response to the fsal line. The Credit Card Details in Sales Order Inquiry do not have a code to show that the funds were successfully received. However, you can verify this by reviewing the settlement report generated by the credit card processor and comparing the report to the Customer Credit Card Manager Report when the option, Print Summary, Detail, Neither, is set to Detail.

During invoice processing, exceptions are created for any orders where the authorization expired after the order was entered and tendered. This allows you to correct the order (re-tender the order) before the order is picked up by Customer Credit Card Manager Report and settled with the processor.

When a back order occurs and the authorization has expired, a new authorization is initiated. This information is determined by bank rules and the credit card company. Typically, authorizations expire on the 7th day.

If the order is put on hold because the credit card authorization has expired, the order is displayed on the Sales Entry Processing Back Order Fill Report exception report with an “A“ hold, indicating a hold from the back order processing. The order is displayed in Sales Credit Release Inquiry and is automatically picked up for reauthorization by invoice processing. Reauthorization will not occur by filling the order manually.

Authorization approved

The order goes on authorization hold with a legacy hold code of A in Sales Credit Release Inquiry. The Customer Credit Card Manager Report process automatically picks the order up during the next batch run for AUTH hold orders. If the authorization is approved, the authorization is assigned an authorization number.

Authorization fails

If the authorization fails, the order approval legacy hold code changes to F and the order remains available in Sales Credit Release Inquiry. You can view the transaction detail to determine why the transaction failed and take the appropriate action.

You can use Sales Credit Release Inquiry to resubmit a transaction that failed due to a time-out. You have the option of holding for authorization or setting the transaction back to A hold to be picked up next time the Customer Credit Card Manager Report is run for authorizations.

If the card was denied or cannot otherwise be processed, you must change the order in Sales Order Entry-Collect Payment. The simplest way is to “untender” the amount from the credit card transaction: reverse-tender the entire amount from the credit card using the same information as when the order was entered.

Reverse tendering the amount from the credit card sets the credit card transaction to inactive, and the order is no longer tendered. The legacy hold code is reset to Y. At this point, the order may be tendered using a different payment type. The failed transaction does not affect the order after the order is untendered; the transaction does not prevent shipping and invoicing.