Credit Card Processing - Processing, Refunds, Testing and Expiry Emails

Owned by Mahnoor Khan (Deactivated)
Last updated: Sept 24, 2021 by Greg Walsh
8 min read

Summary

This article outlines the general methods for processing credit cards, refunding, and testing after upgrades or general confirmation on the ability to process credit cards.

Note: This document does not explicitly describe the setup and configuration of your specific credit card processor, please review pertinent documents in the knowledge base related to your specific processor. Additional information and samples can be found in the article: Credit Card Payment Processing Using iBiz.

Payment Processor Test Modes

When testing the credit card processor on your system, there are two test modes available. On the processor page (Setup / Card Processors / Add/Edit) as shown, there is a test mode check box. This is an EngageIP specific test mode, all cards whether real or fake will receive a successful response when using this check box. This is best used if you simply want to confirm that billing is attempting to process cards and should NOT be used in a production system scenario.

The second method is to set your processor gateway up in test mode (i.e. the test mode check box in EngageIP would NOT be checked). This configuration will be specific to each process and is not completed in EngageIP. You will need to login to your processors gateway directly and configure this. Please refer to your processor company documentation for the configuration and how to use the test mode in this scenario. When you are satisfied that credit cards are processing with this setup, simply login to the processor gateway and turn off test mode. In most cases the processor gateway test mode will be more robust then EngageIP allowing you to enter specific amounts to test a successful  debit, or other amounts to test processing failures. (i.e. AuthorizeNet allows you to use 1 dollar for a success, and any other amount would return a failure, in this way you can confirm that success messages and failure messages and operations are working correctly).

When confirming that your processor is working, the best method is to set the processor gateway to test mode, process some cards and run billing on your development server to confirm credit cards are charging as expected.

A good way to test a live credit card processor is to setup a personal account with a real company credit card, and process a $0.10 transaction. This is a small dollar amount that is easy to test and if successful, any larger amount for other real credit cards will be successful. This is an excellent method for quickly confirming the credit card process is functional.

Adding a Credit Card to an Account

See the article: Managing Payment Methods on an Account.

Processing Credit Cards

Note: Payment collection will occur on the account that has the invoice, and ONLY from the payment method on the account that has the invoice. The amount of collection will be based on the collection type, whether it be due date, full balance etc.

Note: If you're adding a payment method of credit card and you chose 'Same As Billing Info', you need to ensure that the Billing Contact has the following Contact Points defined on it:

  • Address

  • Home Phone

  • Email Address

These are case sensitive and need to be in place otherwise EngageIP will produce an error when saving the credit card stating that not all required fields are filled out. As well, ensure that the Contact Type of 'Billing Contact' has not been altered. If you need to rename this, use the language dictionary to apply a different label in the interface

 

To test credit cards or process a payment, complete the following:

  1. Click Tools

  2. Under the Tools and Utilities heading click on Make Payment

    • Ensure that there is a payment method available. There should be one that is set to default as denoted by the bold lettering for the active payment method if there are more then one.

  3. Select the payment method to use - this is the case where you may have a Cash payment method and a credit card payment method or some other combination. Note: This is where you can select a credit card to process real time even when credit card is not the default payment method

  4. In the Amount field enter dollar amount to charge, the credit card to be used will show above

  5. Leave the AutomaticDisbursement check box checked if  you would like the payment disbursed automatically against any existing invoices. If unchecked, you will need to manually disburse this payment to the invoice desired

  6. Click Save

One-Off Credit Card Processing

To process a credit card without saving the detail, i.e. as a one off scenario on the account, click on Tools, and then click 'One-Off Credit Card Payment'. If you do not see this, check your role permissions to ensure you have access to this feature.

A related error you may see will contain this text if this is the issue:

System.Exception: Credit Card Online Payment type does not exist.

Refunding Credit Cards

Refunding now allows full or partial refunds

For Full Refund:

  1. Find user account

  2. Click Tools

  3. Click Credit Card / Credit Card Token Refund

  4. Select a processed amount to refund from the list of successfully processed dollar amounts - click check box

  5. Click the Refund button

For Partial Refund (see images below for reference):

  1. Find user account

  2. Click Tools

  3. Click Credit Card / Credit Card Token Refund

  4. Instead of checking the box beside the processed amount you want to apply a partial refund to, click its ID

  5. Enter any amount, partial or full

  6. Click the Partial/Full Refund button


Any previously successful credit card charges will be listed as in the image below. From these you can select which you would like to refund in full.

In the scenario below, a credit card payment of $100 was processed. A partial refund of $30 was then processed. The resulting transaction shows on the payments list, the original 100 reversed, and a new payment of $70 (the balance of the payment), and the refund screen simply shows the original $100 marked as 'REFUNDED = YES'.

Automatic Expiry Email Notification

EngageIP will email the customer 1 month before a credit card will expire, based on its expiry date automatically. The expiry process runs each night (at midnight if the EngageIP Job service is running - timed job schedule ) looking for any expiry dates 1 month from that date.

Quick Rule List:

  • The expiry email check is performed at midnight each night

  • A canned email has been setup and selected on the Email Settings screen

  • The EngageIP Event Manager service is required to be running on the webserver

  • Only one email is sent per credit card per expiry date

  • If the expiry date is updated, the customer will receive another expiry email reminder 1 month in advance of the new expiry date

  • Only Active accounts will receive emails (they must be active at the time when the EngageIP Event Manager runs)

To configure:

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Under the Communication Services heading click on Email Settings

    • Note: Email Messages are setup under Communication Services / Email Messages. Messages stored in that section house all canned emails for your system (not just those related to tickets).  See below for a sample cc expiry email message

  3. Under the Credit Card Expiry Reminder Email Message field select which canned email message will be sent for credit card expiry notices

  4. Finally, ensure that the EngageIP Event Manager service is running on the webserver - you can check this by using the configuration link in the top right corner of the AdminPortal which is accessible when on the main owner account.  Under the "System Check" section of the page you should see a green checkmark next to the "Event Service"

Sample Credit Card Expiry Email Message

Reporting and Reconciliation

Questions might arise as to why an account is not charging via their credit card or what the total amount charge was etc. Here are some reports and methods to determine what's happening in your billing system.

How do I determine if and why a customers credit card is not processing?

  1. Load the account

  2. Click on Tools

  3. Click on Payment Methods

    • The name of the default payment method should be in BOLD. If its not default, the billing system will not process against it. Billing only processes against methods marked as 'default'

    • Is the card expired? Click on the credit card, and check the expiry date which is in the format mm/yy

  4. If the above is good, access the Reports page and check the Payment Decline report. Do the payment attempts show up there? If so, review the error listed and correct as needed

How do I determine the total amount of cards processed for a period of time or during the bill run?

  • The Bill Run History report will provide a good high level view of the number of payments collected during a specific bill run

  • Bill Run History can be found under the Reports page / Owner Reports / Bill Run History

  • Use the Payment and Payment Decline reports filtered on date to determine how much was charged and what the errors were if the cards were declined.  These reports can be found under the Reports page

Error Messages

"The referenced transaction does not meet the criteria for issuing a credit" -  When you receive this error message, one potential reason is that there are two cards on file and one is not located in EngageIP which is why it can not be refunded.  One way this issue occurs is when a customer requests a card change and EngageIP is not updated.

Also call your CC Gateway Support to verify the error.