16 February 2012, Authorize.net: We are pleased to announce that we have released new reporting capabilities for merchants using our Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) service. Merchants can now use the new Transaction Status tab on the Monthly Subscription Status Dashboard to see how many ARB transactions have been or will be processed in a given month, or anytime within a 12-month timeframe. The report only pulls recurring billing transactions and now includes detailed ARB payment information, such as payment number, subscription ID and the date the actual payment was submitted for authorization.

For merchants to run the report, they need to log into the Merchant Interface and click Tools from the main toolbar. Then click Recurring Billing to get to the dashboard where they can simply click the new Transaction Status tab and select a timeframe from the Month dropdown, or click View Transaction Status Report from the Search and Reports section.

We hope this new report will better help your merchants manage their recurring billing transactions.

Reminder for Merchants to Download Transactions 14 February 2012

Important: On February 21, 2012, all your merchants’ transactions from 2009 will be permanently archived and no longer accessible through the Merchant Interface.

Authorize.Net retains your merchants’ transaction history for a minimum of two years, which is accessible though the Merchant Interface. As a standard business practice, we highly recommend that your merchants download and save their online transactions on an annual basis. That way the data will be available for their records, even after it has been archived.

For detailed information on how to search for and download transactions within a specific date range, please refer your merchants to the Download Transaction File Guide.

This graphic table illustrates some of the key differences of CenPOS vs Authorize.net. Using a Catholic High School for items needed, CenPOS crushes the gateway competition and it’s easy to see why schools are flocking to CenPOS.

There’s no question that Authorize.net is a solid product from a reputable company. I’ve actually recommended and used them for over a decade. However, for years they failed to innovate and CenPOS provides better value in every key area, including automated recurring billing. Authorize.net only just entered the multi-payment source market, primarily through acquisition and tying different products together, whereas CenPOS was designed from the ground up to support all payment methods. This is key to why CenPOS is much more flexible to be customized and deliver real-time data that merchants  need to increase efficiencies in operations.

Following up on last weeks Virtual Terminal checklist, here is the new Paypal vs Authorize.net vs CenPOS virtual terminal comparison chart. It highlights some key differences whereas the last article asks, “which Virtual Terminal features do you need?”.

The chart is hardly exhaustive, but is a good starting point to understand some key differences between the terminals. Nearly all virtual terminals fit the “basic” model. I’ve omitted listing most things that are common to all and instead focus on their differences. The ADVANCED VT has many more features not listed that are not in the others, but again, the idea is to identify what key elements you must have in order to choose the best solution for your business.

Download the PDF Virtual Terminal Comparison.

Read more articles about Virtual terminals.

Which is the best virtual terminal for card not present merchant accounts? I’ve looked at and used many including Paypal, Orbital by Paymentech, authorize.net, and CenPOS. I created a spreadsheet to compare them, and it’s still hard to put into plain english why I like one so much more than all the rest.

I’m going to eliminate any small business discussion for detailed comparison because the needs are vastly different. Paypal Payments Pro Virtual terminal and authorize.net are fine for small businesses. Orbital can only be used if you have a Paymentech merchant account. CenPOS can be used with any merchant processor, but it was created for larger businesses so they have a high minimum to keep the client base on target.

In this article I show why I like CenPOS more than any other for day to day user management. Even where virtual terminals have the same function, I prefer the easy navigation and user interface of CenPOS.

Easily add, delete and modify users. Total control over what permissions each user has. You can decide who can perform voids, refunds, auths, force and much more. You can set parameters for dollar thresholds to alert management via email for refunds over a certain dollar amount. There are probably dozens of ways to set up a user, but most importantly, I can do the most common tasks- who has access, and resetting passwords, in about a minute.

SCREEN SHOTS

Figure 1. CenPOS Basic fields to add a new user, including security control for transaction types. Sale= card swipe. MOTO = key enter. There are more advanced controls on a second page if desired. This user is allowed to process key entered transactions, voids ( delete a transaction same day), look up past transactions, and pull a report of their sales dynamically for any date range.   This type of tight security is perfect for new employees and other scenarios where you want to limit job functions.

If you check Return, the user can only complete a refund if the original transaction (any user) is recognized, and it cannot be credited for more than the original charge.

Let’s compare the above to authorize.net.Figure 2. Authorize.net adding a new user with “User Role- Administrator”. The administrator adds new users by first adding what type of role the user will have.  The group of options are pre-determined based on the role. This image shows the permissions automatically assigned for the administrator role. There is no option to edit them.

How much protection do you have from internal fraud? In CenPOS, you can provide just the right access to data needed, without giving the users access to anything more. Certain controls are at the merchant level (not shown), not the virtual terminal administrator level. The controls can be set for all merchant accounts within an entire organization, within a division, or at the merchant account level.  Plus, with the CenPOS Executive Dashboard, management can also quickly identify potential internal fraud with dynamic graphic illustrations.

Figure 3. Authorize.net adding a new user with “User Role- Transactions”. Part 1, Select role type. Again, all checked boxes are standard- you can manually turn any of them off.

Figure 4. Authorize.net adding a new user with “User Role- Transactions”.  Part 2, enter the user information.

Note the significant differences between the level of permission choices for this type of user, vs even the basic permissions you have for the CenPOS user? Especially In a larger organizations, these types of controls are essential to reduce risk.

This is part one of a series on Virtual Terminals.

What is CenPOS? CenPOS is an innovative host-based payment processing platform. It is not a gateway and it’s compatible with all major processors. Although there are many features and benefits, at the heart of the technology is the intelligent switch. It routes payment processing via the least cost method by identifying what it is and knowing the least cost way to process it. This all happens faster than a traditional desktop credit card terminal.

Merchants have hit a wall in reducing credit card processing costs via negotiating reduced merchant discounts. Real cost management today is achieved through interchange management which CenPOS does intelligently and automatically. CenPOS resides virtually between the merchant and the Acquirer- ie the merchant payment processor (merchant account), Amex, check processor, loyalty card etc. All transactions hit CenPOS via high speed internet connection before being routed automatically. Real time cash flow reports, fraud prevention, and PCI Compliance are other key benefits.

Email received from authorize.net updates MasterCard partial authorization requirement. “In late March, we sent an e-mail regarding MasterCard and Discover’s modifications to the rules concerning the processing of debit, pre-paid and gift cards for merchants located in the United States.

Recently MasterCard and Discover relaxed the requirements for e-commerce merchants so that support for partial authorizations and balance responses are no longer required, but recommended best practices. All retail and mobile merchants, however, must still support the requirements.

Additionally, all merchants are still required to support authorization reversals for any non-settled authorizations. The deadline for all Authorize.Net merchants to support the requirements is still June 30, 2011.

IMPORTANT: Although no longer a requirement for e-commerce merchants, Authorize.Net intends to support partial authorizations and balance responses for all merchants. We highly recommend that your merchants provide support for these features as they can help decrease declined transactions and potentially increase sales.

You can review the timeline of when we expect support for each processor in our Partial Authorization FAQs at < http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs#when>http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs#when.

We have also updated our FAQs to reflect the latest changes. If your merchants have questions, please refer them to the FAQs at http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs/ for additional information, including integration updates, value-adding services and more.”

Calls have been coming in about new MasterCard and Discover processing requirements. Some outlandish, some dead on.

MasterCard and Discover are modifying their rules concerning the processing of debit, prepaid and gift cards. MasterCard’s rule changes go into effect May 1, 2010, and Discover’s rule changes go into effect April 16, 2010. However, MANY ECOMMERCE HOSTS, INCLUDING VOLUSION, AND GATEWAYS, INCLUDING AUTHORIZE.NET,  have gotten an extension.

” MasterCard and Discover have worked together to extend these dates for all merchants using (INSERT VENDOR NAME HERE). Our merchants will now have until June 30, 2011, to implement support for the requirements within their systems.

What are the requirements?
MasterCard and Discover are requiring that all merchants support the following:

- Balance response transactions: For prepaid and gift cards, once the card has been used, the remaining account balance will be transmitted along with the authorization response. The remaining balance must be printed on the customer receipt, displayed on the Web page or point-of-sale terminal, or both.

- Partial authorization transactions: When a customer’s transaction amount exceeds the balance available on their debit, prepaid or gift card, instead of declining the transaction, a partial authorization for the amount available to the customer will be returned. This will allow the customer to pay for the remaining amount with another form of payment. This is called a split-tender transaction.

- Authorization reversals: An authorization reversal is a real-time transaction initiated when the customer decides that they do not want to proceed with the transaction, or if the merchant cannot complete the transaction for any reason. Authorization reversals free up the customer’s available balance on their debit, prepaid or gift card.

Ecommerce companies and gateways are dependent upon processors to exchange the data needed to support the above requirements. Shopping carts need to be able to accept and interact with updated gateway parameters. Gateways need to interact with various processors,  passing data to the gateway, receiving a response, and passing that back through to the shopping cart/ consumer. This is a huge undertaking to ensure all the data passes back and forth correctly.

Excerpt of email received today:

What steps is Authorize.Net taking to support these requirements?
Authorize.Net will be updating our systems over the coming months to support the requirements, but will be dependent on each processor’s readiness. For a table of when we anticipate we will support the requirements with each processor, please visit http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs/#when.

What do I need to do to support the requirements?
The steps that you will need to take to support the requirements depend on how you connect to the payment gateway. For example, if you connect using a shopping cart, point-of-sale device, or other solution, you will need to contact your solution provider to confirm that they will be supporting the requirements. If you connect using a direct integration, you should contact your Web developer for assistance. Please direct your Web developer to http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs/#do for information on the changes they will need to make.

Do I have to support the requirements?
MasterCard and Discover are requiring all merchants to support the requirements with the exception of merchants that exclusively process transactions via batch uploads, mail order/telephone order (MOTO), or recurring payment transactions. Your Merchant Service Provider (MSP) is ultimately responsible for determining if the requirements apply to your business, so please contact them for assistance in determining if your company is exempt.

Once again, these requirements will not be enforced for Authorize.Net merchants until June 30, 2011. However, we wanted to bring them to your attention now so that you have plenty of time to plan for their implementation.

For more information on the requirements, including how they affect our value-adding services, please visit our FAQ page at http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs/.

Fire Damages Data Center for Authorize.Net

July 3, 2009 — Authorize.net, a payment gateway service provider for over 238,000 businesses was the victim of a major fire in the early morning hours Friday at its location in Seattle resulting in a major disruption for online retailers.

Approximately 11 a.m. central time, Authorize.net set up a twitter account to keep its customers and their customers up to date on the outage and attempt to provide some information about the expected return to service.
The company confirmed that the fire had not only damaged the primary data center, but that a secondary data center seemed to have been impacted during the outage and was causing additional problems in getting the gateway back up.

authorize.net twitter

Many online articles refer to authorize.net as a credit card processor. They are not. They provide a gateway service that enables merchants to accept online payments. However in 2007, they were acquired by Cybersource, an electronics payments company. So while Authorize.net is not a merchant processor, their parent company is.