Authorize.net

ABA will be transitioning all IndieCommerce stores currently using ABA’s shared credit card processor off of ABA’s merchant account and onto their own credit card merchant account. As part of the process, stores will be required to create their own Authorize.net account. Many merchant service providers will help members with setting up their Authorize.net accounts, so check with the merchant service provider you currently use for in-store sales. Please use the information in this help document to configure your Authorize.net account and to plan the switch over.

ADVANTAGES FOR USING YOUR OWN AUTHORIZE.NET ACCOUNT

1. Receive payments from sales on your website daily, rather than twice a month.

2. More control over your settings (address verification, regions, fraud protection, issuing card countries, etc).

3. Have your store name reflected on the customer credit card statement, rather than "INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE".

4. Refund customers directly.

5. Use of the Automated Recurring Billing feature

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW AND DO

1. You are signing up for a Payment Gateway account (Please check https://www.authorize.net/ for the latest rates). Many merchant service providers will help members with setting up their Authorize.net accounts, so check with the merchant service provider you currently use for in-store credit card processing. If you are setting up your Authorize.net account on your own, you have to obtain the “Merchant Software Parameter Sheet” from your merchant service providers.

2. If you already have an Authorize.net account, please confirm with Authorize.net and your merchant service provider if you can use the same for your IndieCommerce site

3. Confirm that your existing merchant account can be used to process all 4 major credit cards (Visa, MC, Amex and Discover). Sometimes stores can have different merchant accounts for each card type, for in-store credit card processing. However,  Authorize.net will accept only 1 merchant account for all card types.

4. There are two value-added services offered by Authorize.net that you should have for your IndieCommerce site

   • Advanced Fraud Detection Suite: Although your gateway account comes with a basic fraud protection suite, the ‘Advanced Fraud Detection Suite’ is highly recommended, as it gives you more granular control over the address verification settings and you can also set filters against specific countries or IP addresses.

   • Customer Information Manager: The Customer Information Manager (CIM) securely stores customers' credit card profile on Authorize.net’s secure servers, for future reuse. In particular, it is needed to reauthorize expired authorizations or to edit an existing order if that is higher than the original amount. It’s important to note, if you have been using the shared gateway offered by ABA and are switching to your own, existing CIM profiles saved for your customers cannot be carried over to your new account. 

SIGNING UP FOR YOUR OWN AUTHORIZE.NET ACCOUNT

1. When you’re ready to sign up for your own Authorize.net account, you may do so using the Authorize.net online form. Check with your merchant service provider and they might help you with the process.

2. Once you have your new account, you will receive an email from Authorize.net to activate your account. Please activate your account before proceeding.

CONFIGURING YOUR AUTHORIZE.NET ACCOUNT

1. You must be able to log in to your Authorize.net account as an Account Administrator or Account Owner.

2. When following some of the steps below, Authorize.net may prompt you with the Secret Question you have set up for your account.  Make sure you know the answer to your secret question (or can talk to someone who does). Please make sure you have access to the email associated with the account.

3. Configure the Fraud Detection Suite filters for your Authorize.net account. Please scroll to the end of this page and open the attached pdf to review the required settings or watch our webinar on switching over, queued directly to fraud detection. If you need assistance after reviewing the document and webinar, contact us to schedule a walk-through of them. These settings are important for processing credit card orders on your IndieCommerce website, so please check with the IndieCommerce team if you have any questions. (Please note: previous instructions mentioned a list of blocked IP addresses. These are no longer necessary.)

4. Contact Authorize.net to help you place a test transaction to confirm that the processor information is correct.

5. Set your Authorize.net account to Live mode. In structions for doing so can be found on the Authorize.net site

PREPARING TO SWITCH OVER TO YOUR AUTHORIZE.NET ACCOUNT

1. Please have ready the following information for your Authorize.net account

   1.  'API Login Id'  instructions for obtaining these can be found here on the Authorize.net site

   2. 'Transaction Key'  instructions for obtaining these can be found here on the Authorize.net site

   3. ‘Live Public Client Key

      1. Sign in to Authorize.net

      2. Click the "Account" link in the upper right corner

      3. Click the "Manage Public Client Key" link

      4. If you already have a public key, you will see it here.  (Skip to Step 6.)

      5. If you do not have a public key, choose to create one. Authorize.net may ask for your secret answer.

2. Please do not email these to the Indiecommerce team, they are confidential information. When you are ready to switch over, please enter your Authorize.Net credential into the secure form located under Store > Configuration > Account Information and Preferences > Store Authorize.Net Information and notify us when you have entered them. Entering these does not initiate the switch; you must contact us.

3. All pending credit card orders on your site must either be payment received, completed, or canceled, as these authorizations cannot be imported into your new account.  If you have too many open orders, please contact the IndieCommerce team and we can go over options.

4. Disable wholesaler fulfillment temporarily to make sure no new orders are sent to Ingram for fulfillment. After an order is sent to Ingram for fulfillment, it usually takes 3-4 days for us to get an invoice from Ingram and complete the order. So, the IndieCommerce team will disable wholesaler fulfillment on your site at least a week before the switch.

5. Disable Credit card payment the day before the switch over is scheduled for. You can do this by deselecting ‘Credit Card’: Store > Configuration > Payment Methods. Your staff should take care of existing credit card orders. For this period of time, customers will not be able to use a credit card as a payment method. If so inclined, you may post a notice on your front page letting customers know.

6. Schedule a date with the IndieCommerce team for the switch over, please write to [email protected]. We will confirm that all the steps are clear to you and help you complete them if necessary. We do not schedule this on Fridays, or before a long weekend.

GOING LIVE WITH YOUR OWN AUTHORIZE.NET ACCOUNT

At least one week before you plan to switch to your new account, please email us at [email protected] or call 800-637-0037 (option 2) to schedule a date for the switch. We’ll confirm that the steps below are clear to you and help you complete them if necessary.

1. We will contact you on the day of the switch and make sure everything is in place. We will confirm that all existing credit card orders have been taken care of. 

2. Please make sure someone at the store with access to your Authorize.net account is available to work with us as we make the switch over to your Authorize.net account

3. We will disable credit card payment on the site, if not already done

4. We will switch your IndieCommerce site to use your Authorize.net account. This process will take about 30 mins.

5. You should be ready to place a couple of credit card orders on your IndieCommerce site, be your first customer to your own online credit card processor and Authorize.net account

   1. Place a real order with a real credit card.

   2. View the order (Store > Orders > View Orders, then select the specific order). In the order comments, you should see a 'Transaction Id' under the authorization information.

   3. Login to your Authorize.net merchant interface, search for this authorization using the 'Transaction Id' from the above step or the ‘Bill to’ customer name. The status should be 'Authorized, pending capture'.

   4. Go back to the order page (on your website) and mark the order as 'Payment Received' - This step will charge the credit card.

   5. Again, check the status using Authorize.net merchant interface.  The status should now be 'Captured, pending settlement'.  The status will change to 'settled successfully'  by the end of the day.

   6. When that has happened, everything is working fine with your Authorize.net account.  If you do not want the charge on the credit card to be permanent, go to the order page on your site, and cancel the order. This will do a 'credit' transaction on your credit card.  You can now go back to Authorize.net merchant interface and verify that the authorization has been 'refunded' or ‘voided’

   7. Lastly, after one day, if there have been online credit card purchases made, you should verify that funds are being transferred to your bank account.

6. When you are satisfied that everything is working fine, let us know and we can enable wholesaler fulfillment on the website and you can resume sending orders to Ingram for fulfillment.

If at any point before, during, or after setup you have a question, please let us know.