This article will discuss best practices for error free processing using two features within Payeezy Gateway:
- Partial Shipment Processing –Partial shipment is the ability to complete an authorization for the full order amount and perform multiple tagged Completions for the amount of each item shipped.
For some merchants, a case may arise where a customer has ordered more than one item using Payeezy Gateway, but one of these items is out of stock and cannot be shipped immediately. The merchant may want to only charge the customer for the available item, but would also like to reserve the option to bill the customer for the other item once it is back in stock and can be shipped to the customer. In this case they would perform a tagged Pre-Authorization Completion for the amount of the first item shipped and then another Completion when the second item is shipped.
- Tagged Pre-Authorization Completion Maximum Adjustment – This feature provides the ability to submit a Completion for more than the pre-auth amount, for example a restaurant adding a tip.
Until September 30, 2014 the total tolerance level for all adjustments on a Pre-Authorization transaction was 15% for all card brands. In the event of Partial Shipment processing, the total of all Pre-Authorizations completed against the original Pre-Authorization could exceed the original Authorization amount by only 15%. The benefit to this practice is that the merchant is protected from authorization related disputes up to the settled amount (where the total settled amount is within 15% of the authorized amount).
Best Practices should the final amount exceed the 15% threshold would be for the merchant to either:
- Complete another authorization for the amount that exceeds the 15% allowance or
- Void the original Pre-Authorization for the original amount (note that although First Data sends a real time request to reverse the transaction, it is at the cardholder’s bank discretion to reverse it or not in real time) and submit a new purchase transaction via GGe4 for the full amount.
This is still the recommended best practice however:
The maximum allowed variance for a Tagged Pre-Authorization Completion(s) was increased to a maximum of 199% or twice the original transaction amount. This variance is applied to the total of all Pre-Authorization Completions performed on a Pre-Authorization. Additionally, the display below the Completion amount text box has been updated to indicate the new maximum amount that would be accepted (as shown in the example below). The Completion amount will display the original transaction amount* and below it will be the maximum allowed adjustment. If the maximum is exceeded, an error message will be displayed as shown. The client can then re-enter the correct transaction amount or follow the best practices outlined above if the final amount will exceed the new variance percentage.
* Transactions that originated prior to September 26, 2014 will still have the 15% maximum variance rule applied to them. These should automatically age out of the system, by being completed or being voided. In these transactions the amount displayed in the Completion text box would be the 15% difference (i.e. a 32.42 original transaction would show a completion amount of 4.86) and the Maximum Amount USD would display the maximum (15%) that this transaction can be adjusted to (i.e. 37.28). The client can re-enter the original amount or an amount up to the maximum displayed. If a final amount greater than the 15% is required best practices should apply.
It should be noted that there is a possibility of duplicate transactions being processed as referenced below.
After the first Pre-Authorization Completion on a Partial Shipment, subsequent Completions (if attempted) come up with $0.00 in the amount field, the user must enter the amount for this part of the shipment the system does not calculate nor provide this data. The user and has to re-enter the same amount again (this would take them to the 199% threshold in the transaction list) resulting in the apparent duplicate transactions.
If contacted by a client reporting this issue the remedies available are:
- Perform a Tagged Void the subsequent Pre-Authorization Completion and process another Pre-Authorization Completion with the corrected amount if needed or, if already settled.
- Process a Tagged Refund of the Pre-Authorization Completion and process an Authorization (Purchase) with the corrected amount if needed.
Disclaimer: The best practices presented in this article represent what we have observed across our portfolio of eCommerce merchants. First Data does not endorse any particular method of amount adjustment.