FAQ: Payment Processing

An Authorize.net gateway is required to process credit card transactions and refunds on phone and internet orders. What is an Authorize.net Gateway?

A. Authorize.net is a secure gateway used to transfer transaction information to your merchant processor for processing credit card transactions. This is necessary to process credit cards in any third party system such as Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™.

I can process orders in Yahoo! Merchant Solutions manually without a gateway, why do I need one for a third party system?

A. Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store actually does have a gateway, but it is transparent to the merchant as part of the built-in Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store cart. Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™ can charge Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store orders automatically through your existing Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store gateway. Authorize.net is required to process Phone orders in Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™.

Will I be able to reject orders before the order is submitted from the customer if the authorization fails using Authorize.net?

A. At the present time, if charging credit cards in Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store, you can set the option to authorize before confirming an order at the shopping cart level. If the authorization is declined, the customer cannot submit the order. This setting will need to be disabled at this time to use Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™. Currently you will have to allow orders to be placed prior to authorization in the cart.

Why do I have to disable the setting in Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store that allows me to reject declined authorizations?

A. If you allow the authorization to occur in Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store, the charge would also have to happen in Yahoo! Merchant Solutions store through the same gateway. If you were to authorize through Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, and capture the charge through Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™ (via Authorize.net), you are at risk of being charged a forced transaction fee, possibly getting labeled as high risk and increasing the per transaction fees from your merchant processor.

Can I choose to allow declined cards to go through?

A. Yes. By disabling the setting in Yahoo! Merchant Solutions to authorize before confirming orders, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions will submit orders and Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™ will do the authorization through the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions gateway.

Does Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™ automate decline notifications?

A. Yes, Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™ will send an email notice to the customer when the card declines. The order will be held until payment is received.

I have multiple Yahoo! Merchant Solutions stores, do I need more than one Authorize.net account?

A. You may want a separate Authorize.net account for each store depending on your business model. The setup ultimately will effect what the customer sees on their credit card billing statement. Typically, the name of the merchant account is what appears on the billing statement. If you have different merchant accounts for each store, you will need a separate Authorize.net account for each merchant account.

What is the cost of an Authorize.net account?

A. You can apply for an Authorize.net account from Solid Cactus costing only $20 per month and $.08 per transaction as well as the one time setup fee of $99

Can I use a pre-existing Authorize.net account?

A. Yes. You will need to obtain the API Login Id and Transaction Key from the Authorize.net account to enable it in Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™. This can be acquired easily in the Authorize.net interface, or by contacting Authorize.net.

Are test transactions charged?

A. Yes, the standard rate for transactions applies even in test mode. Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™ provides a simulated gateway for test mode. If you wish to avoid the charges for test transactions, you can use the simulated gateway in test mode. This will allow you to place test orders without submitting to your Authorize.net account.

Does my Authorize.net account have to be in test mode? What if I am using it currently in live mode?

A. The account itself can be live, and will need to be live before taking Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™ out of test mode. The type of transaction sent by Cactus Complete Commerce Order Management™ will dictate that it is a test transaction when in test mode regardless of whether Authorize.net is in live mode or test mode.