Add a Credit Card Processing Process

1. From Revenue, select EFT.

2. Select Credit card processing, then select Add.

3. On the Charge process tab, enter a unique name and description to help identify the process.

4. Under Account, select the merchant account to use to authorize and process credit card transactions in the transmission file generated with the process.

   Note: The list displays all merchant accounts set up for your organization with gateways that allow batch processing. For more information, see Blackbaud Payment Service Merchant Accounts.

5. Under Where are the credit card transactions coming from?, select whether to use an existing batch or generate a new batch that contains the credit card transactions to include in the transmission file.

   • If you select Existing batch, enter the number of the uncommitted batch with the transactions to include or search for the batch. The selected batch can include both direct debit and credit card transactions. When you run the credit card processing process, the process includes only the credit card transactions in the transmission file.

6. To automatically validate the projected totals, select Validate protected totals before processing transactions. If you set up rejection handling to remove rejected transactions, Altru updates projected totals when it removes rejections from the batch.

7. To automatically commit the batch when you run the Credit Card Processing process, select Automatically commit this batch and add these payment transactions to the database. If you prefer to review what was processed before committing the payments, leave this option unmarked.

   Tip: We recommend that you select to validate projected totals before processing transactions. If the projected total revenue amount or number of transactions doesn't match the batch data, an error occurs and you must correct the batch before you can process its transactions.

8. If you select New batch, select whether to include pledges, recurring gifts, or both. To include only a selection of revenue records, select Only include payments in this selection and search for or create the selection of revenue records to include. To adjust the ad-hoc query or smart query instance used to create the selection, select Edit Query.

   Note: If you select Only include payments in this selection and specify a selection, Altru includes the revenue records of the selected type in the selection that are due on or before the date entered in the Payments due on or before field. Otherwise, Altru includes all revenue records in your database that are due on or before the cut-off date.

9. Under Payments due on or before, enter the date you want Altru to use to select the transactions to include. You can select “Date this process runs,” “Specific date,” or “X days after this process runs.” Altru compares this date to the selected transaction types and revenue selection, and includes those that are due on or before this date. When you run the process, you can change the cut-off date as necessary.

10. To combine all commitments from the same constituent into one payment, select Consolidate multiple commitments to a single payment by constituent. The process consolidates only payments with the same account number.

11. Altru automatically creates a batch of the payments generated by the process. Specify the parameters of the batch.

12. Under Payment batch template, select the template to use with the new batch.

    Note: Only batch templates eligible for credit card processing and Generate Payments appear.

13. Under Payment batch owner field, select the user to own and process the batch.

14. To automatically commit the batch when you run the Credit Card Processing process, select Automatically commit this batch and add these payment transactions to the database. If you prefer to review what was processed before committing the payments, leave this option unmarked.

15. Select the Rejection handling tab.

16. Under What would you like to do with permanent rejections?, select whether to export transactions that have permanent rejections and remove them from the batch.

    • If you select Export transactions that have a permanent rejection and remove them from the batch, search for the export definition. Altru adds the batch number to the selection name.

    • If you select Also create a selection of the commitments to which the exported transaction apply, enter a name for the selection and select whether to overwrite an existing selection with the same name. You can use this selection to create targeted communications to constituents whose credit card transactions were rejected, such as to request updated credit card information.

    • If you select Take no special action, transactions that have permanent rejections are not removed from the batch and no export is created.

17. Under What would you like to do with provisional rejections?, select how to handle transactions from this batch that have provisional rejections, such as transactions of credit cards that exceed the maximum balance limit or are rejected due to a banking server error.

    • To create a separate batch of these transactions so you can attempt to process them again, select Create a retry batch of all transactions from this batch that are given a provisional rejection. If you select this option, enter the maximum number of attempts to allow transactions with provisional rejections to be retried. The attempt count is not applicable for transactions successfully authorized the first time the credit card process runs on a revenue batch. When a transaction is placed into a retry batch, the attempt count increases. After a transaction has been attempted the maximum number of attempts, it is handled as a permanent rejection.

      Note: If you choose to retry provisional rejections, your payment processor or gateway may charge fees for additional transaction attempts. To minimize fees, enter a lower maximum number of attempts. After transactions have been retried the maximum number of attempts, they are treated as permanent rejections.

    • To handle these transactions as permanent rejections, select Treat the provisional rejections the same as permanent rejections.

    • To leave these transactions in the batch and not create a retry batch, select Take no special action.

18. Select Save.