Merchant Console Recurring Billing

The Recurring Billing page enables you to set up and monitor recurring billing cycles for multiple customers. Recurring billing cycles can be set to charge a customer's card automatically according whatever schedule you choose to set. Each time a recurring charge is run, a report is generated and a receipt sent to your email and the customer's email. To set up the address at which you would like to receive these reports, please go to the Settings section of your Merchant Console.

The Customer Database section contains all customers who have been entered into the recurring billing database including customers who are no longer active, or who have been temporarily disabled. The database is indexed by the customer's last name, but you can change the index by clicking on the name of the field you would like to use that the top of the list. The database will display 100 customers per page (there is a tab at the bottom of the screen to move to the next page).

The default settings for this page include the following:

Note: If a Due Next date that does not exist within a given month is entered (e.g. February 31st), the transaction will be billed on the first day of the next month.

The display page can be customized by clicking the Customize button at the top of the page and adding or subtracting fields to be displayed. Possibilities in addition to the default options are:

You can search the recurring billing customer database to find a particular customer, or group of customers, by entering the CustNum (a gateway assigned customer identification number) or the customer's last name.

Clicking the Edit button to the right of a customer's row will bring you to a screen that allows you to edit most aspects of a customer's information. You can use this screen to change a customer's recurring billing status and update payment and address information.

The Edit form is identical to the Add Customer form and includes the customer's billing history beneath the form. Please refer to the Add Customer documentation for more details.

Located to the far right of the information table, the Delete button allows you to quickly and easily delete customer's are no longer enabled for recurring billing and remove them from the recurring billing customer database. When you click the Delete button you will be asked to confirm the deletion. Upon deletion of customer, all customer information stored in the recurring billing customer database will be erased. You can not undo this action.

The recurring billing customer database may be exported by selecting the type of file you would like to export (cva or tab delimited) and clicking the “Export” button. The data can then be accessed via an offline program such as Microsoft Excel, Quicken or Quick Books.

The customer database is organized by color according to each customer's recurring transaction status.

• If a customer is enabled for recurring billing and their credit card or checking account is in good standing, their row will be shaded blue.
• If a customer's charge did not go through, or encountered an error, the system will retry for up to three days from the initial transaction allowing enough time to edit and update the customer's payment information, and the customer's row will be shaded orange.
• If a customer is not enabled for recurring billing, or if a customer's card has been fully declined, or the three day period has expired, their row will be shaded red.
• If a customer has complete their recurring billing cycle (and either reached the set end date, or total number of transactions to run) their row will be shaded gray.

To change the status of a single customer or a batch of customers, click the small check boxes to the left of each customer's row. You can also change the status of an entire group of customers by using the Check All button located at the bottom left of the customer table. Any checked customers can then be deleted, enabled or disabled for recurring billing, using the Delete, Enable, and Disable buttons located at the bottom right of the customer table. These tools can also be used in conjunction with the “Find” tool if you want to delete or change the status of a specific batch of customers.

You can upload batches of customers using the Upload Customers button at the bottom of your screen. Clicking the button will take you to a new screen where you can browse for the file you wish to upload into the database. It is recommended that you use a comma separated text format for importing. Please note, if you are using Excel to create your file, make sure to set the cell format of the ccnum column to text before entering numbers. Switching the format after entering card numbers could corrupt the numbers.

In addition to adding new customers, you can also update existing customer data via upload.

This button will take you to a form that contains fields for all of the information necessary to enter a new customer into your recurring billing database. The Add Customer page includes the following fields:

These fields can be customized to include any information you would like to have in the customer's record. Click on the Edit Custom Fields link at the bottom of the box and you will be taken to a page into which you can enter the names of any fields you like.

After each transaction is run, it is added to the Billing History database and also to the Reports section of the Merchant Console.

This page includes the following transaction data:

To view any of the transactions listed in the Billing History, click the Details button to the right of the transaction. The details page includes all of the data for the specified transaction including Transaction Results, Verified by Visa Authentication, Transaction Info, Billing Address and Shipping Address.

The Transaction Details page also includes a Quick Credit option which allows you to issue a credit to the customer whose transactions you are viewing. There is also a Quick Sale option, through which you can charge a customer a one time fee or charge that will not affect the customer's recurring transaction schedule.

Please note: The Quick Credit, and Quick Sale options DO NOT ask you to confirm the transaction once you submit them, they will be processed immediately.

The Source Summary page provides you with a snapshot of all customers currently contained within your recurring billing customer database. They are organized by Enabled/Running (all currently enabled customers whose cards are in good standing), Declined/Retrying (customers whose transactions have encountered temporary errors, will be retried within a three-day period), and Failed/Disabled (customers whose cards have been permanently declined or whose recurring billing status has been disabled).