E-commerce FAQ - Configuring E-commerce Accounts

Overview

E-commerce Account is a payment-processing "e-commerce" account to handle online payment transactions in the Certain platform.
The e-commerce account will be available to all events and registration forms within the Certain account that is selected in the account "owner" list.

The e-commerce account will be available to all events and registration forms within the Certain account that is selected in the account "owner" list.

The Descriptive Name is the name that will appear in the Certain application when referring to this processing account.
The Exact Business Name is the DBA ("Doing Business As") name listed with the bank on your merchant account; and is the name that will appear on the payee's credit card statement.

The merchant ID / account username is the unique identifier assigned by the online payment processor.
The merchant key / account password is the secret code required to access the processing account.
Click the "Generate New" link in order to create a random, secure password automatically.
The account partner Id is used by PayPal to identify the partner company who set up the PayPal account.

Use the PayPal Manager link in order to access the detailed transaction information for your account.
PayPal stores information not available in Certain, such as the card issuing bank's authorization number and voice authorization information.
It is useful for reconciling bank statements and tracking down discrepancies.
You should also periodically (quarterly or annually at least) change the password to your PayPal account, and then update that password in Certain.

If you perform AVS on the transactions processed in your account, then each individual sale processed by Certain will record 3 transactions in PayPal: an Auth for $0.01, a Void of the $0.01 Auth, and a Sale for the full amount.
In order to only see the actual Sale transactions, use the PayPal custom report generator to create reports that do not display these Auth and Void transactions.

Certain passes the event code and registration code with each transaction processed through PayPal.
The event code is passed in the "Comment1" field, and the registration code is passed in the "Comment2" field.
Include these fields in your custom reports created in PayPal Manager in order to easily track payments and refunds to their original registration, or group payments by the event code.

How to Create a New Processing Account: Only Administrators can create new processing accounts.
If you have this level of access, then you can create a new processing account by clicking the "Add New" button to the right of the E-commerce accounts list.
The processing account form fields will become blank, and then you may enter the information for the new processing account.
Note that each processing account's merchant ID/account username must be unique, so you may have to try several times to find one that is available.

Note that field names may vary depending on the terms and requirements of individual payment processors. See E-commerce Account Details for greater detail.

Only Administrators can create new processing accounts.
If you have this level of access, then you can create a new processing account by clicking the Add New button to the right of the E-commerce accounts list.
The processing account form fields will become blank, and then you may enter the information for the new processing account.
Note that each processing account's merchant ID/account username must be unique, so you may have to try several times to find one that is available.