Payment Processing FAQ

Payment Processing is a Sage 300 program that lets you process credit card payments from your customers. You use it with Sage Exchange, a secure payment-processing application that integrates Sage 300 with Sage Payment Solutions.

For an overview of product features and integration with Accounts Receivable, see Payment Processing Overview.

For an up-to-date list of features included in Payment Processing, see Payment Processing Overview.

Sage Payment Solutions provides complete, Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant payment processing solutions for all business types. Sage 300 Payment Processing works exclusively with Sage Payment Solutions to enable merchants to seamlessly process credit card transactions directly in Sage 300.

For more information, see About Sage Payment Solutions.

Sage Virtual Terminal is a secure website that you can use to process credit card transactions, and to view and export reports on transactions, batches, and expiring credit cards. For more information, see About Sage Virtual Terminal.

Yes. When you add a credit card, general information about the card is stored in the Accounts Receivable customer record, and card details (card number and expiration date) are stored in a secure online "vault" managed by Sage Payment Solutions. For more information, see Adding, Editing, or Deleting a Credit Card for a Customer.

A sale transaction authorizes a payment service provider to initiate a payment from the cardholder's issuing bank to the merchant account. A sale is typically settled within 24-48 hours, before which time it may be voided by the merchant if there was an error or if the customer wishes to reverse the transaction.

A pre-authorization temporarily reduces a cardholder's credit in order to guarantee that funds are available for a pending transaction. For example, a service station creates a pre-authorization when you swipe your credit card at a gas pump and authorize a fill-up.

For more information, see Pre-authorizing a Credit Card Payment.

When a pre-authorization exists for a credit card payment, you "capture" the pre-authorization to complete the sale.

When you capture (process payment for) a pre-authorized credit card payment, the amount captured can be different than the amount that was pre-authorized. For example, if a customer at a restaurant adds a tip, the amount captured will be greater than the amount that was pre-authorized.

You can capture a pre-authorization only once. After the capture, the pre-authorization is always released in full, regardless of whether the amount captured is equal to or less than the amount that was pre-authorized.

For more information, see Capturing a Pre-authorized Credit Card Payment.

You can void a pre-authorization if it has not been captured and has not expired. (Pre-authorizations typically expire after seven days.)

Merchant service providers charge a fee for voiding a credit card pre-authorization. However, this fee is lower than the fee that is charged if you do not void or capture a pre-authorization and allow it to expire. For this reason, we recommend that you void any pre-authorization that will not be captured.

For more information, see Voiding a Credit Card Pre-authorization.

Voiding a sale prevents the sale from being processed, whereas a credit (refund) is applied against a sale that has already been processed. You can void a sale only if the sale has not been settled by the payment service provider.

For more information, see Voiding a Credit Card Payment.

The fees you pay as a merchant using Payment Processing depend on the details of your merchant account agreement with Sage Payment Solutions. This can vary depending on many factors, including the number of transactions you process per month.

For more information about Sage Payment Solutions merchant accounts and fees, visit www.sage.com/us/sage-payment-solutions.

Sage Payment Solutions credit card transactions are typically settled within 24-48 hours.

Pre-authorizations typically expire after seven days.

If it is likely that more than seven days will pass before an order is shipped, you should not pre-authorize a credit card payment for the order. If you do, the pre-authorization may expire, in which case your merchant service provider will charge a fee. (Credit card pre-authorization in Sage Payment Solutions expires after approximately seven days.)

Rather than pre-authorize a credit card payment, you can process an initial prepayment when the order is created, and then process the balance when the order is shipped.

When processing credit card payments in Sage 300, you can use a supported card reader device to swipe a customer's card, eliminating the need to manually enter card information and reducing the risk of data entry errors.

Sage Payment Solutions offers new and refurbished Class A-Certified card reader devices from leading industry manufacturers, including countertop and wireless solutions. For more information, visit www.sage.com/us/sage-payment-solutions.

For instructions on processing a credit card payment, see Processing a Credit Card Payment.

For instructions on pre-authorizing a credit card payment, see Pre-authorizing a Credit Card Payment.

For instructions on voiding a credit card pre-authorization or payment, see Voiding a Credit Card Pre-authorization and Voiding a Credit Card Payment.

When you pre-authorize a credit card payment, credit card information is validated in Sage Payment Solutions, and the cardholder's credit limit is reduced by the amount of the pre-authorization until the pre-authorization is captured or expires. For these reasons, it is rare for errors to occur while capturing a payment. However, the following issues may cause a capture to fail:

• The pre-authorization has expired and cannot be forced. Pre-authorizations usually expire after seven days, and you may be able to "force" payment for an expired pre-authorization up to 30 days after expiry. If more than 30 days have passed since the pre-authorization expired, you may be unable to process payment.
• The pre-authorization has expired and credit card information was not saved. If credit card information was not saved when the pre-authorization was created, you cannot force payment after the pre-authorization expires.
• The pre-authorization has been voided. If you or another user voided the transaction in Sage 300 or in Sage Virtual Terminal, you cannot capture payment.
• The receipt amount is zero. You cannot capture a pre-authorized payment if the receipt amount is zero.
• Another user modified the order or shipment during payment processing. If another user changes the order or shipment information during processing, the transaction may fail.
• The Internet connection was lost or interrupted. If a capture fails due to issues with your Internet connection, you should be able to process the transaction again successfully when the connection is restored.
• Merchant information has been changed. If you or another user changed the merchant information or processing codes for your Payment Processing system, capture may fail for pre-authorizations created using the original merchant information or processing codes.

No!

Do not record credit card details in the Comments field, including card number, expiration date, and CVV number. Storing details in this way can compromise credit card security and may constitute a violation of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

If a security breach occurs, merchants that do not comply with PCI DSS may be subject to fines, card replacement costs, forensic audits, and other penalties.