The twelfth lesson in this Learning Series, Supervisors and Managers, is designed to get you familiar with processing credit cards and/or bank accounts from multiple families at one time. You may wish to review the articles listed below before beginning.
The review articles in the bullet list below will open the Help article in a new tab. When you are finished reviewing the material, close the tab and return to this page to access the next article using the links below.
What are ePayments, you ask? ePayment is simply the short form of electronic payment. It basically means paying for goods or services on the internet.
ePayments in Jackrabbit allows you to process your customers' credit cards or bank account drafts from within your system, known as integrated payments. This integration saves you time. You'll no longer have to go in and out of family account in Jackrabbit to record the payments you've had to process manually outside of Jackrabbit. Payments processed through Jackrabbit are automatically posted to your families' accounts, and their balances are updated accordingly. BAM!
Don't want to be tied to your computer? Set it and forget it with Automated ePayments, which allows you to schedule your credit card/bank account payments.
For you and your customers, the ePayment process is seamless, and the best part is Jackrabbit doesn't charge any extra fees to process ePayments!
ePayments is a pretty large topic, so we've broken it down into smaller pieces here for you.
Get Set Up for ePayments
Jackrabbit offers an ePayments Wizard to guide you through the process of getting set up to accept credit cards and/or bank account drafts from within your system!
The wizard, located under the Gear (icon) > Set Up > ePayment Wizard will walk you through the following steps:
Select an ePayment Partner | Choose an ePayment Partner. Jackrabbit is the only class management software that partners with three providers to offer you a choice between three credit card processing merchants. |
Manage User ID Permissions for ePayments | Decide which of your Jackrabbit system Users will have ePayment permissions. |
Manage Credit Card & Bank Account Settings | Define which credit cards you will accept and configure settings for Online Registration (new customers) and Parent Portal (existing customers). |
Manage Email Notification Settings | Determine your desired settings for receipts emailed to your customers. |
Note: If you have multiple Locations, Jackrabbit offers the ability to direct funds into different bank accounts based on a family’s Location; this is called Multi-Location ePayments. The article Using ePayments with Multiple Locations covers the considerations involved.
Working with ePayments in Jackrabbit
This section covers how to use ePayments in Jackrabbit.
Manage Credit Cards & Bank Accounts in the Family Record | Learn how to add, edit, and delete credit card and bank account information in the Family record. |
Process a Single ePayment | Step through the various options when posting an ePayment to one family. |
Save time by processing ePayments for multiple families at once. | |
Set it and Forget it! Schedule ePayments to process automatically. | |
Review recently processed ePayments and view details of each batch. | |
ePayment Voids, Refunds, and Chargebacks | Learn how to correct errors, reverse transactions, and deal with chargeback issues. |
Because bank drafts are not processed in real-time, they can be tricky to reconcile. Check out this article for tips. |
Understanding ePayments - A Deeper Dive
This section is for those looking for more information about the ePayments environment, PCI Compliance, the Virtual Terminal, and more.
How ePayments Work | Understand how ePayments flow through Jackrabbit to the Merchant Process and Gateway. |
Credit Card Decline Codes | What do all these numbers mean?? Here are some guidelines that you can follow when trying to debunk a decline code. |
Credit Card CVV Codes | Shows examples of the three or four-digit codes and explains what they're used for. |
The True Cost of Credit Cards - Understanding Your Quoted Rate | Information to help you understand rates versus real costs. |
Jackrabbit can't automatically add fees to payments made using a credit card. Learn more about these fees. | |
Virtual Terminal/Console Explained | The virtual terminal or Jackrabbit Pay console provides transaction reporting for all ePayments submitted from your Jackrabbit system. |
PCI Compliance | Created for organizations that handle cardholder information for the major credit cards, this information security standard reduces credit card fraud. |
Need additional information? Just email us at payinfo@jackrabbittech.com and a Jackrabbit ePayments Specialist is ready to help.
In order to process ePayments in Jackrabbit, you must have a gateway and merchant provider with one of our ePayment Partners. There are no additional Jackrabbit fees required to process ePayments through your database, however, there are fees associated with gateway and merchant accounts. See Contact an ePayment Partner.
What happens when you initiate a credit card ePayment in Jackrabbit?
What happens when you initiate a bank account ePayment in Jackrabbit?
The process is similar to credit card ePayments but there are a few important differences.
- A bank account ePayment transmitted from Jackrabbit will initially appear as approved; however, in this instance, the approval is simply an indication that the transaction was received by the gateway.
- A bank account transaction can take on average 5-7 business days to settle (be approved or declined). You should monitor your gateway and bank accounts to ensure that a transaction did not ultimately decline.
- No notification is sent to Jackrabbit when a bank account draft ultimately declines, so you must manually adjust the family's transactions.
A virtual terminal (VT) or Jackrabbit Pay™ Console sometimes referred to as a merchant login, is an online access point offered by your gateway provider. The gateway provider will provide you with your virtual terminal login name and will send that information to you in an email which will include a link to set your password.
The virtual terminal or console provides transaction reporting for all ePayments submitted from your Jackrabbit database. This is key in reconciling your bank account. See Bank Reconciliation When Using ePayments. In addition, you are able to control several settings such as the time that your ePayments will be batched and sent from the gateway to the merchant processor daily called the Settlement Schedule.
Payments, refunds, and voids can also be processed from within the virtual terminal/console but these transactions are not transmitted back to your Jackrabbit database and would have to be recorded manually. It is a Jackrabbit Best Practice to process all credit card voids and refunds from within your database*. Bank Draft/ACH payments must be refunded through the virtual terminal/console, this cannot be done from within your Jackrabbit database.
* At this time, customers using ePayments in United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand cannot process a refund directly through Jackrabbit. These customers will see an alert after clicking the R icon on an ePayment. The refund must be completed in the virtual terminal and then recorded in the family's transactions in Jackrabbit.
Where to Access Your Virtual Terminal or Jackrabbit Pay Console
Access your virtual terminal/console directly in Jackrabbit from the Gear (icon) > Settings > ePayments > Credit Card & Bank Account Settings.
Click Virtual Terminal or Jackrabbit Pay Console to open the login screen for your ePayment Partner's online gateway access.
Duplicate Transaction Error Message
If you attempt to process a payment for the same amount for a family/account within a 1-minute period, you'll receive an error message that says, A Payment for the same amount was processed for this family/account. Check your gateway/virtual terminal for details. A link to your virtual terminal is provided immediately under this error message, so you can log in and investigate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. I need to cancel a refund. How can I stop the refund from being processed?
A. If you need to cancel (or void) a refund that was processed in Jackrabbit, you can stop the process by logging into your Virtual Terminal, as long as the refund has not settled. See Set a Settlement Schedule for your Gateway for more information on settlement times.
Refunds cannot be canceled or stopped from within your Jackrabbit database.
Q. I had a problem while I was processing ePayments. How can I be sure I don't double-charge the involved families?
A. To prevent a duplicate transaction from being processed to a family's credit card, we recommend you enable duplicate detection with your gateway. When this is enabled, a second transaction within a defined time range that is the same amount on the same card will be declined with an error of "duplicate transaction".
Contact your gateway provider to have this feature added to your ePayment set-up.
Q. Should I download the SwIPe software offered in my Virtual Terminal to use my new card swiper (non EMV)?
A. No. The SwIPe software, used with a card swiper installs a type of virtual payment terminal on your computer that can process payments and refunds without having to log in to the Virtual Terminal.
Jackrabbit does not integrate with the SwIPe software and installing it will change the configuration that works with your encrypted reader and your swiper will not work properly. If you have downloaded this software, please contact your gateway provider for instructions on uninstalling the application and re-configuring your swiper. Note: Jackrabbit Pay does not offer a card swiper option at this time.
For questions regarding the virtual terminal/console and its use please refer to your gateway provider.
There are significant benefits to using ePayment schedules, including:
- Less manual work. You'll be able to process ePayments based on groups of families instead of handling families individually.
- Fewer mistakes. With the ability to target families by group, you are more likely to bill active families correctly - no accidental double postings.
- Easier tracking. Know how or when your families are paying to help you forecast revenue and ensure payments are received on time.
Located on the Family record Billing Info tab, the ePayment Schedule drop-down values can be used to define the payment options you offer to your clients. Examples are Autopay, Monthly, No Autopay, Prepaid, Self-pay, 1st of the month, 15th of the month, etc.
The ePayment Schedule drop-down value can be used to group families when posting tuition or when processing credit cards/bank accounts and can be made a required field for Online Registration. When offering ePayment options, this is a great way to capture and record your customers' payment preferences!
If you want families to have the option to change their preference, you can allow families to update the ePayment Schedule field in the Parent Portal. Refer to Set Up Your Parent Portal for more details.
If you plan to use an ePayment Schedule, ALL families should have a value selected for this field. This ensures all families you wish to include are captured when you post fees or process a batch of ePayments to a select group of families.
Create an ePayment Schedule Drop-down List
Go to the Gear (icon) > Settings > General > Drop-down List Editor (left menu) > Family > ePayment Schedule. Add rows as needed. You have the option to hide any of your ePayment Schedule drop-down list values from your customers with the Hide from customers checkbox (hides the value from your customers in Online Registration and Portal drop-down lists) or you can choose to hide a value in the drop-down lists within Jackrabbit using the Hide from users checkbox.
Update an ePayment Schedule from Families (menu)
- Go to the Families (menu) > All Families and filter as needed.
- Select all the families in the grid by leaving the 1st column checkboxes blank or check the 1st column checkboxes for the families you would like to update in a group.
- Click the More (icon)> ePayment Schedule.
- Select the schedule from the drop-down list or use the toggle to remove any schedule for the families.
- Click Update. All selected families will have their ePayment schedule updated.
If ePayments is activated for your organization's database, credit card and/or bank account information for a family is recorded on the Family's Billing Info tab. See Get Set Up for ePayments.
Once a credit card number has been entered into Jackrabbit, only the first digit and last four digits are visible to users. It is NOT possible to see all 16 digits of a credit card number due to PCI Compliance regulations.
Jackrabbit defaults to allowing three credit cards on file per customer; however, you have the option of limiting customers to one card. For details on how to edit this setting, see Manage Credit Card & Bank Account ePayment Settings.
Add a Credit Card
To add a credit card to a family's account:
- Go to the Billing Info tab in a Family record.
- Select the Add Card button.
- Enter the Credit Card # and the Name on Card.
- The Nickname on Card defaults to the Card Type and last 4 digits on the card (Example: Visa 1111); however, you can change this by entering a different nickname (Example: Mom's Visa)
- Enter an Expiration Month and Year, Address, City, State, Zip, and Email Address. This address can be different from the Family Address (on the Family Summary page) or the Billing Contact (the Contact who has Billing Contact set to Yes on their Contact page). The Email Address can be different from the Billing Contact as well.
- Click Save Changes.
- Be sure that ePayment Method is set to Credit Card on the Family's Billing Info page and Save Changes.
- If you allow customers to maintain multiple cards on file, you can use the Add Card button to add up to 3 credit cards for the family. The Add Card button will no longer display once the 3 card maximum has been met. If you add more than one card, you must select a Primary Card. If you only add one card, it is automatically selected as the Primary Card.
Edit/Delete a Credit Card
Click the Edit (pencil icon) or Delete (trash can icon) for the credit card you would like to modify or remove.
If you are using Online Registration, you can require your families to enter credit card information at the time of registration. Learn more about Online Registration.
If you allow families to add or edit credit card information while logged into their portal, see Manage Credit Cards in the Parent Portal for details on adding and editing cards in the Parent Portal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is a Jackrabbit user or a family tries to add a credit card number that is already on file?
A. If an attempt is made to add a card already on file, the card is not saved and a pop-up warning is displayed.
Q. Why do I only see one place to add a credit card number?
A. You may need to update your settings to allow multiple cards per family.
Go to the Gear (icon) > Settings > ePayments > Manage Settings under Credit Card & Bank Account Settings. Click Cards Accepted (left menu) and set Allow 3 credit cards per family/account to Yes. Click Save Changes. Log out and back in, and the update will take effect.
Q. Can I click Add Card on a Family's Billing Info page and use a card swiper to enter and save a credit card number?
A. Yes. You can enter and edit card details using your card swiper. You must purchase the swipe reader from your gateway provider, as it is explicitly encrypted for your gateway.
To add a bank account to a Family record:
- In the Family record, go to the Billing Info tab.
- Add the Bank Name.
- Add the Bank Transit # and Institution ID.
- Select the Edit Bank Account Info button.
- Enter New Bank Acct# and Save.
- Choose an Account Type from the drop-down list.
- Add an Account Name (Name on the Account).
- On the Billing Info tab, set ePayment Method to Bank Account. Save Changes.
The address associated with the bank account information is taken from the contact who has Billing Contact set to Yes.
If you are using Online Registration, you can require your families to enter bank account information at the time of registration. Learn more about Online Registration.
If you allow families to add or edit bank account information while logged into their portal, see Manage Credit Card & Bank Account ePayment Settings for details on adding and editing bank accounts in the Parent Portal.
If your organization is set up to use Jackrabbit's ePayment functionality, processing multiple customer credit cards and/or bank account drafts (e-checks) is handled using Process ePayments, in the Transactions menu. Processing multiple credit cards and/or bank accounts at once is referred to as batch processing.
- Save time with the Process ePayments feature by capturing specific groups of families and processing them all at once, with just a few simple clicks!
- Process credit cards and bank accounts together in one batch.
- Automate! Schedule the processing of your ePayments to occur automatically. Learn more about Automated ePayment Processing.
Before you Begin with Process ePayments (Batch ePayments)
Prior to using Transactions > Process ePayments we recommend you check all of the following:
Jackrabbit User has the correct permissions | The Jackrabbit User must have appropriate permissions to batch credit cards/bank accounts. Transactions > Process Credit Cards/Bank Accts is not visible to a User without permission. To set permissions point to the Gear (icon) > Settings > Users & Permissions. |
Family record - ePayment method set correctly | Each family must have the ePayment Method field set to either Credit Card or Bank Account on the Billing Info tab of their Family record. This is how Jackrabbit determines whether to transmit a family's credit card data or bank account data for processing. Note: If this field is blank, the family will be excluded from the batch processing. Run a Family ePayment Listing report with criteria for ePayment Method set to (no value, yet has a credit card or bank account on file) to find any families missing an ePayment Method. |
Credit card or bank account information in the Family record | Each family must have either credit card or bank account information entered on the Billing Info tab of their Family record. |
Families (menu) - check for missing information | Go to the Families (menu) > Family Reports > Family ePayment Listing to locate any missing information. |
Families (menu) - check for expired credit card | Go to the Families (menu) > All Families and filter for Financial Details > Has ePayment Method = Credit Card & Card is Expired/Missing. You can email families who have a missing or expired credit card using the pre-made template in your system. Add the link to your Parent Portal in the email template allowing parents to log in and update the existing card or add a new card on file easily. |
Step through Process ePayments
To charge multiple family accounts in a batch (after posting fees) go to Transactions (menu) > Process ePayments.
- Use the Process Setting to define whether you want to process the ePayments now (Process Now) or schedule the ePayments to process at a later date/time (Process Later). For more details on automating your ePayments visit Automate ePayments - Schedule ePayments to Process Later.
- Tell Jackrabbit how you want the ePayments applied to fees with the Apply Payments to criteria in the Payment Settings.
- Newest Fees First - the payment will be applied to the most recently posted fees that are outstanding.
- Oldest Fees First (within last 12 months) - Jackrabbit will apply the payment to the oldest fees within a year of the current date. This is recommended when you have many old transactions that are unlinked and appear to be outstanding which can make customer statements confusing.
- Oldest Fees First - the payment is applied to the oldest fees on the family's account.
- The Payment Collection criteria in the Payment Settings defines how to handle ePayments for families with credits on their account (due to a prepayment, for example) that also have unpaid fees.
- Collect unpaid fees, but do not exceed the balance on account tells Jackrabbit to collect unpaid fees only to the point that they don't total more than the family's account balance.
- Collect full amount of unpaid fees, ignore pre-payments/credits on account tells Jackrabbit to ignore any credit balances, and collect all unpaid fees matching your chosen criteria. Note: The User must have the User ID Permission Process Credit Cards - Ignore Pre-Payments to use this option.
- Example:
- A family had a zero balance and made a $100 payment for a Costume Deposit (that will be applied to a fee posted to their account later).
- A Tuition Fee of $150 is posted.
- The family's balance is $50.
- Collect unpaid fees, but do not exceed the balance on account
- When this is selected, $50 will be charged (the amount of the balance). - Collect full amount of unpaid fees, ignore pre-payments/credits on account
- When this is selected, $150 will be charged (the amount of the Tuition Fee).
- Collect unpaid fees, but do not exceed the balance on account
- Use the Family Criteria to select the families you want to charge. Jackrabbit will search for the families that meet all selected criteria.
- Process ePayments for a specific family using the Family Search criteria. The only families searchable are those with an ePayment Method of Credit Card or Bank Account (Family record > Billing Info tab).
- Choose an ePayment Method of Credit Card, Bank Account, or Credit Card and Bank Account to process all ePayments together.
- Note: The ePayment Method defaults to Credit Card And Bank Account. If you are processing for a single family, the ePayment Method will be set automatically based on the ePayment Method on the family's record but can be changed if needed. Changes made here do not affect the family's record.
- Optionally, you can drill down to families with a specific membership or payment schedule using the Membership Type and ePayment Schedule criteria. The Membership Type and ePayment Schedule drop-down list values can be customized from the Gear icon > Settings > General > Drop-down Lists and are assigned to a family on the Billing Info tab of their record.
- Location - Multi-Location organizations should run Process Credit Cards/Bank Accts for each Location separately.
- Select the checkbox Process families with credit balance to include families who have a credit balance and unpaid fees.
- If you want to include families who are not currently active select the checkbox Process inactive families.
- Define whether or not you'd like to include families who have had a transaction decline within the last 24 hours using the Process families with declined transactions (last 24 hours) checkbox.
TIP: If you want to exclude a family when using Process ePayments (Transactions menu), select the Omit Family from Transactions > Process ePayments setting on the Billing Info tab of their Family record.
- To charge full account balances or all unpaid fees, proceed to Step 7.
- Optionally, you can use the Transaction Criteria to charge specific sets of fees instead of the full account balance or all unpaid fees.
- Select a specific range of Transaction Dates to pull only the unpaid fees from that time period.
- Drill down to unpaid fees with a specific Transaction Type or Transaction Subtype*.
- Use the Session and/or Category 1, 2, 3 criteria to look for unpaid fees that are from a specific Session or particular Category.
- You can also opt to collect unpaid fees for just the class or classes you select with the Classes criteria.
*TIP: When Process Later is used to schedule an automated ePayment task, and the task repeats monthly, selecting one of the three-character abbreviations for the months as the Transaction Subtype will sync it to the task run date for all future occurrences. Note: the three-character abbreviations (created and reserved by Jackrabbit) must be used; if a different Subtype is used, only fees with that Subtype value will be processed. Online transactions will not be stamped with a Subtype and will be excluded if criteria for Subtype are used.
Example:
You create a task for your monthly ePayments with a Schedule Start date of 11/1/2022, and you select the Subtype Nov. The next time the task runs, in December, fees with the Transaction Subtype = Dec will be processed.
- Select Preview ePayments to generate a detailed preview of the ePayments to be processed based on your chosen criteria and settings. Review the preview for accuracy.
Note: This is a preview screen only. No fees are charged to a customer's credit card or bank account until you select either Process Now or Process Later.- Use the checkboxes to either include a family that your chosen criteria and settings had excluded (checkbox is clear), or to exclude a family that your criteria and settings had included (checkbox is selected). If, however, a family has been omitted with the Omit Family from Transactions > Process ePayments setting (Family record > Billing Info tab), the checkbox is clear (omit) and disabled. To include the family, the setting must be cleared in their Family record.
Example: In the Family Criteria section for the above preview, Process inactive families was selected. In the preview, the checkbox for the Morris family is selected because they have no students with active enrollments, i.e., they are inactive. If you now decide to exclude them from processing, you'll clear their checkbox. - Use the Details link to display a preview of the unpaid fees that have been chosen for payment.
- Use the checkboxes to either include a family that your chosen criteria and settings had excluded (checkbox is clear), or to exclude a family that your criteria and settings had included (checkbox is selected). If, however, a family has been omitted with the Omit Family from Transactions > Process ePayments setting (Family record > Billing Info tab), the checkbox is clear (omit) and disabled. To include the family, the setting must be cleared in their Family record.
- If everything looks good, select Process Now to send the transactions through to the Gateway for processing. If changes need to be made to the criteria and settings select Return.
Once you have clicked Process Now, transmitting and receiving information may take several minutes. When the transmission is complete, the Processed ePayments page provides details about the batch.
The success or declined response is recorded on each family/account transaction listing (Family record > Transactions tab), and the family/account balance is adjusted accordingly.
The Processed ePayments page can also be accessed from the Transactions menu > Recent Transactions > ePayments using the Details link.
Undo Multiple Incorrect Credit Card/Bank Acct Transactions
Occasionally, Jackrabbit Support gets an anxious email from a client who has processed an entire group of credit cards or bank accounts incorrectly. There is no way to stop or cancel this batch of transactions from within Jackrabbit once they have been submitted to the gateway.
Should this happen, contact your gateway provider immediately to determine if the transactions can be voided or refunded in mass. Your gateway provider's contact information can be found in your Jackrabbit system from the Gear (icon) > Settings > ePayments > Credit Cards & Bank Account Settings.
Each family account in Jackrabbit would then need to be updated accordingly. If the accounts are numerous, contact Jackrabbit Support (via the Help Button in your system) to see if our Development Team can mass delete the incorrect ePayments.
Save valuable time by scheduling ePayments to process automatically for multiple families with Jackrabbit’s Automated ePayments!
Overview
The automation of ePayment processing starts with the Process ePayments feature (Transactions menu > Process ePayments). Automation tasks are created when Process Later is selected on the Process ePayments page in the Process Setting section.
The scheduled ePayment tasks define when the ePayment processing will start, and for recurring tasks, how often they will run and when they will end. An optional email reminder can be sent to give you the heads up that a batch of ePayments will be processed soon, allowing you to make any necessary changes before processing. Scheduled tasks are managed (view, edit, pause, delete) from the Task Management page.
The Details
The first step in automating ePayments is to create a task to schedule the processing.
- Go to Transactions (menu) > Process ePayments.
- Choose Process Later in the Process Setting section.
- Enter the date and time you want this task to first run as the Schedule Start. Note: Don't schedule ePayments to process too close to your Gateway Settlement Time to allow time to address any concerns prior to payments settling.
- Select the criteria and the unpaid fees you want to schedule to process at a later date. Learn more about the Process ePayments criteria and settings. TIP: If you want to exclude a family when using Process ePayments (Transactions menu), select the Omit Family from Transactions > Process ePayments setting on the Billing Info tab of their Family record.
- Click the Preview ePayments button to review the families and amounts that would be processed that day based on your criteria choices. Note: The exact families and amounts on the Preview ePayments page meet your chosen criteria and settings on the day the preview was generated and may change before the scheduled processing date.
- Select Process Later to go directly to the task scheduler and skip the Preview.
- Complete the details for the task, then click Next.
Name - Give the task a descriptive name. This name appears in the Task column of the Task Management page.
Schedule Starts - This date will default to the date and time chosen with the Process Setting. You can change it here if you have a preferred start date and time.
Recurrence - From the Repeats drop-down, select an option to define how often and when the task will run. The day of the week, date, and time are based on the Schedule Starts date above. Use the Custom option to change how often the posting repeats. Instead of daily/weekly/monthly, you can post at a different interval, for example, every 2nd week or every 3 months.
Ends On - Define when the task should end. The task end date is inclusive, i.e., any tasks scheduled to run on the end date will run.
- Never - the task will run indefinitely
- On a specific date - select a date with the Calendar icon.
- After a specified number of occurrences
- Choose whether or not you want to send an email reminder to your organization's email address. If you want to send a reminder, specify the number of days in advance it should be sent. Click Save.
- A confirmation window advises that your task has been created and displays the details. Click Close.
- A confirmation window advises that your task has been created and displays the details. Click Close.
When you close the confirmation window, you are taken to the Task Management page, where you can view, edit, pause, or delete a scheduled task. Learn more about Automation Task Management.
Check your Time & Date Settings, including the Daylight Saving dates, to ensure ePayments are scheduled correctly. Go to the Gear icon > Settings > General > Organization Defaults.
When a credit card is declined, Jackrabbit receives a decline response with a reason (decline) code. These are created by the gateway and merchant processors, not by Jackrabbit.
Decline reason codes and responses are not standardized across payment gateways because they most often originate from the customer's bank. Some banks will provide information that explains the reason for the decline, while others will only tell the gateway that the transaction declined and give no further information.
Decline Reason Codes
Decline reason codes are issued in series. Generally speaking, here are some guidelines that you can follow:
Reason Code | Description |
200 Series | Transactions that were received by the gateway and forwarded to the merchant processor and then declined. This is a sign that something is wrong with the cardholder’s card or their account. Your customer should contact the bank that issued their credit card (issuing bank). |
300 Series | These transactions are rejected by the gateway. They never make it to the merchant processor. Most often, this means you are attempting to process a specific service that you are not set up for, e.g., ACH/Bank Drafts. You may also get a 300 decline reason code if you try to process a duplicate transaction (the same $ amount to the same card in a short period of time). In this case, you should contact your gateway. Be sure to read the explanation in the note field. |
400 Series | This indicates a possible conflict between what information the gateway has versus what the merchant processor has. Contact your gateway provider to resolve this. |
Every decline reason code will have an abbreviated explanation in the notes. Sometimes these are perfectly clear; other times, not at all. Your payment partner (gateway provider) should be able to provide more detail.
You can find your Payment Partner's contact information in your Jackrabbit system. From the Gear (icon) > Settings > ePayments > Credit Card & Bank Account Settings, the Payment Partner page provides contact information as well as a link to your Virtual Terminal or the Jackrabbit Pay™ Console.
Find Declined ePayment Transactions
Use the Transaction (menu) > Search to locate declined transactions in the date range you select.
- Go to the Transaction (menu) > Search.
- Select the Transaction Date from/through date range.
- Set ePayments to Declined Only from the drop-down list.
- Click Submit. Declined ePayments will come up in the results.
- Click the red ePmt (icon) to open the ePayment Details window to see the Reason Code.
If your ePayment partner is Jackrabbit Pay, PSP means Payment Service Provider. The PSP reference is the Transaction ID (Trans ID) number/reference for a specific transaction.
What is Fee Linking and Why Does it Matter?
The process of linking payments and credits to fees is the foundation of Jackrabbit's revenue reporting.
What does this mean?
Let's break it down:
- Jackrabbit uses Category 1 to organize your revenue (payments). Think of Category 1s as buckets that payments are dropped into for classification. Learn more about Class Categories - Category 1, 2, and 3.
- The Category 1 value is assigned to, i.e., lives on, the fee transaction.
- When a payment is made, you'll decide what fee the payment is for and apply it to that fee; this is called linking. When you link a payment to a fee, it's as if you've dropped the payment into that fee's Category 1 bucket, and the payment takes on that Category 1 for the purposes of revenue reporting.
Why does it matter?
Ensuring that all payments and credits are applied to fees, with the exception of prepayments, keeps your revenue reports and customer statements accurate and dependable.
Benefits of accurate revenue reports:
- Forecast future income with confidence using your revenue reports.
- Analyze revenue reports to show the growth of your business.
- Collect unpaid fees with ease when your families can easily see which fees are unpaid through the Parent Portal.
What is next?
Now that you understand what fee linking is and why it's so important, you'll need to know how to link a payment to a fee and how to find and fix unlinked transactions.
Learn more about:
Even though the procedure to charge a credit card or create a bank draft payment is the same in Jackrabbit, it is essential to understand that, unlike credit card payments, bank drafts/ACH payments are not processed in real time. It can take up to 5-10 business days for the transaction to actually settle. Because of this, an important step in processing bank draft/ACH payments is to follow up on each payment to ensure it has a completed status and has been deposited into your bank.
When you process a bank draft/ACH payment in Jackrabbit, it is sent to your payment partner. If the transmission is successful and the partner receives the payment, it is recorded on the Family record > Transactions tab, and the balance is adjusted.
The payment will have an approved status (from the green checkmark in the ePmt column). Initially, all bank draft/ACH payments are approved unless the bank routing number or bank account number is invalid and the transmission to the payment partner fails. When they receive the payment, the partner transmits the approval back to Jackrabbit. However, it is only the acknowledgment from the partner that the request has been successfully received and sent to the merchant processor.
Because Jackrabbit does not receive further information indicating whether the bank draft/ACH payment was ultimately accepted or declined, a note is recorded on the payment transaction advising to "Monitor ACH settlement in Virtual Terminal and Bank Account". You can monitor the settlement using the settlement statements you receive from your payment partner, which will notify you of any failed bank drafts, or by logging in to the virtual terminal with your partner (merchant login).
When you are notified that a family's bank draft/ACH payment has been declined, you must update the initial transaction in Jackrabbit (Family record > Transactions tab) to show that the payment was not approved and the family still owes the payment amount. This is done by recording an NSF (bounced) check. Learn how to Record an NSF (Bounced) Check.
An unapplied credit is a credit transaction that is not linked to a fee.
There are many reasons why you should ensure that unapplied credits are reviewed regularly:
- Payments that have not been applied cannot be categorized in your revenue reports and will appear as "Unapplied Payments".
- Fees that were paid but were not correctly linked to the payment will appear as unpaid. This can lead to errors when collecting from your customers.
- Unapplied credits can result in the wrong amount being processed during an ePayments batch.
There are several ways to locate and apply unapplied credits, this article covers how to locate unapplied credits from within a Family record.
From the Transactions tab of the Family record, you can review an individual family's account to locate any credits that have not been applied to fees.
If there are any unapplied credits on the family's account, the View Unapplied Credits & Unpaid Fees button is highlighted (in green) to allow you to quickly identify all unapplied credits and apply them to unpaid fees. The unapplied credits are also highlighted (in green) in the family's transaction listing.
Let's step through how to apply the credit to the unpaid fees in the example shown above.
The family has a balance of $235 but the total of unpaid fees is $300 and the View Unapplied Credits & Unpaid Fees button is highlighted.
- Click View Unapplied Credits & Unpaid Fees.
- The report shows that there is an unapplied credit from 9/15/2019 in the amount of $65 that is available to link to an unpaid fee.
- The report shows that there is an unapplied credit from 9/15/2019 in the amount of $65 that is available to link to an unpaid fee.
- Click the Pencil next to the unapplied credit.
- Click ReApply Payment.
- Locate one of the unpaid fees and click in the Apply Amt field.
- Locate one of the unpaid fees and click in the Apply Amt field.
- Click Save Payment.
The report now shows only the 3 unpaid fees totaling $235 which is the balance on the family's account.
Permissions control the ability of your Users to see certain data and take specific actions. Before moving forward review User Permissions for Find Unapplied Credits (Transactions menu).
Unapplied Credits
It's important to understand what an unapplied credit is and how it can affect your Jackrabbit account. An unapplied credit is any credit transaction that is not linked to a fee.
How do Unapplied Credits happen? | There are a number of reasons credits may be unapplied, most commonly:
Because there were no fees to apply the payment or credit to when they were posted, they are highlighted as unapplied. |
Why does it matter if I have Unapplied Credits? | There are many reasons why you should ensure that Unapplied Credits are reviewed regularly:
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Locate Unapplied Credits
Now that you know what Unapplied Credits are and why they matter, let's look at how to handle them. Using Find Unapplied Credits will enable you to find and apply credits for more than one family at the same time.
- Go to the Transaction menu > Find Unapplied Credits.
- Select the search criteria on the Search Credit Transactions page. This will drill down to the Unapplied Credits you want to work with.
- Click into a field to select from the drop-down values.
- Multiple values can be selected if needed.
- When there are multiple values for a field, leaving the field blank is the same as saying "all".
- Transaction dates default to the current date but can be edited to the date range you want to work with.
- To find ALL of the Unapplied Credits in your system, leave all fields blank and clear the transaction dates.
- Click Submit to review the search results and optionally apply Unapplied Credits to fees.
Unapplied credits for families can also be found by going to the Transactions menu > Search. In the Special Search field, select All Credits w/Unapplied Amt Remaining. Payments/credits can be applied from the results page using the pencil icon, however, the fees can only be applied to one transaction at a time. Refer to Search Transactions for more details.
Apply the Credits
From the Apply Credits page, you will select which credits you want to apply and then choose the fees to apply them to.
- Use the Pencil icon to edit an individual credit.
- Delete an individual credit with the Trash Can icon.
- View any applied amounts using the Link icon.
- Apply all credits by selecting the checkbox in the Apply Credits column header, or use the checkbox in each row to select only the credits you want to apply.
- Click Apply Credits to open the Apply credits to unpaid fees window where you'll choose the fees you want to apply the credits to.
- Priority defaults to the setting selected in the Apply Payments To setting (Gear [icon] > Settings > General > Organization Defaults > Transactions Settings) but it can be changed here.
- When either Newest fees first or Oldest fees first is selected, you can optionally enter a date range.
- If the Priority is set to apply credits to Oldest fees within the last 12 months, the dates that reflect the last 12 months will autofill the date range fields and they will be disabled.
- Optionally, you can select specific fees based on their transaction details. Select the checkbox to choose fees by their Transaction Type, Session, and Category 1; you can use more than one.
When your selections are made, click Apply. A window will open to let you know that the process of applying the credits is underway. Depending on the number of credits being applied this may take several minutes. Stay on the page until the process is complete and you've received the confirmation that the credits were applied. Leaving this screen early may interrupt the linking process.
Confirmation Message
The confirmation gives a summary of the credits that were applied and alerts you if any credits were not applied. Use Search Again to return to the Search Credit Transactions page. If the same criteria are chosen, any credits that were not applied will be displayed. A credit will be skipped if there are no unpaid fees on the account. If the amount of the credit exceeds the amount of unpaid fees, the balance of the credit will remain unapplied.
We recommend that you run this report daily. It will help you determine if you have any revenue that isn't applied, so that you can investigate it and apply it to a fee(s) when possible. Note: If a family makes a prepayment on their account, it will remain unapplied until a user links it to fees posted after the payment was received.
- Go to the Transactions (menu) > Transaction Reports or the Reports (menu) > Find Reports > Transactions/Financials (left menu) > Recommended (tab) and click Paid Fees.
- Select option for Do you want to limit the report to certain locations (defaults to No, show me all transactions).
- Enter a Date or a range of dates.
- Set Show Detail (under Display Settings) to Yes. This will show the family names and a breakdown of payments.
- Click Submit.
If any revenue is listed as Unapplied Payments, you'll want to see if it can be linked to a fee. In this example for Date Range 10/7/20 - 10/7/20, the Dierksen family has a $45 unapplied payment.
To determine if this payment can be applied to a fee:
- Go to the Dierksen family record and click the Transactions tab. Click the View Unapplied Credits & Unpaid Fees button (the button will be green to indicate there is an unapplied credit). The Search Transactions page opens and we see both the $45 unapplied payment (green Unpaid Amt field) and a $45 unpaid fee (pink Date Paid field). The family balance is correct at zero.
- It is important to note that a family's balance is ALWAYS correct as simply the addition and subtraction of debits (fees) and credits (payments). It is possible, however, to have a zero balance on a family's account with fees still highlighted as unpaid because there will also be an unapplied credit on the account that needs to be linked to the fee.
- It is important to note that a family's balance is ALWAYS correct as simply the addition and subtraction of debits (fees) and credits (payments). It is possible, however, to have a zero balance on a family's account with fees still highlighted as unpaid because there will also be an unapplied credit on the account that needs to be linked to the fee.
- Click the Pencil icon on the Payment line to open the Edit Transactions box.
- Click Re-Apply Payment.
- In the Re-Apply Payment Transaction box, apply the payment to the correct fee by clicking on the fee line's Apply Amt field.
- Click Save Payment.
Run the Paid Fees Summary Report again, and the revenue is now properly applied to the Merchandise category.
Permissions control the ability of your Users to see certain data and take specific actions. Before moving forward review User Permissions Required to Refund or Void an ePayment.
You are able to process credit card voids and refunds from within Jackrabbit!
When you are set up for ePayments in Jackrabbit, click the R on the payment line of a credit card payment to:
- Send the refund/void transaction to the gateway for settlement to the credit card.
- Record the void/refund in the family's account with the transaction ID from the merchant processor added to a link in the ePmt column.
Bank draft/ACH payments cannot be voided or refunded from within Jackrabbit. Contact your ePayment provider, or log into your virtual terminal, to void the payment or issue a refund. Use the R to record that transaction on the family's account.
Learn more about Credit Card Voids/Refunds
Learn more about Bank Draft/ACH Voids/Refunds
AU and NZ Voids
Banks in Australia (AU) and New Zealand (NZ) do not support voids for ePayments. You can only refund a payment manually once it has been settled.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How do I know the ePayment void or refund "went through" and ended up on the customer's credit card?
A. You can confirm the void or refund by logging into your Virtual Terminal. You should have been provided login information by your gateway provider.
You can access your Virtual Terminal login page in Jackrabbit by going to the Gear (icon) > Settings > ePayments > Credit Cards/Bank Accounts Settings > Manage Settings (button). Click on the Virtual Terminal button. Learn more about ePayments by going to ePayments in Jackrabbit (Credit Card & Bank Account Draft).
Q. I voided/refunded a credit card in my Virtual Terminal. How can I record it in Jackrabbit?
A. If you void or refund an ePayment in your Virtual Terminal, you can still record it in Jackrabbit. Click the R icon in Jackrabbit, and you'll notice an alert that indicates if the ePayment has already been voided, fully refunded, or partially refunded in your Virtual Terminal. Follow the steps you'd use for refunding a cash/check payment to record the refund in the customer's transactions. See Refund a Payment Made by Cash/Check.
It may be necessary to delete a payment from Jackrabbit to correct an error.
It is important to note that there is no way to recover deleted payments. If a payment is deleted in error, use the Jackrabbit Helpbutton to submit a Support ticket.
You can control which Users can delete payments with User ID Permissions; a User without the correct permissions will not see the Trash Can icon in the transactions grid.
Category | User Permission | Controls |
Families | Delete Transaction | Ability to delete a single transaction on the Transaction tab. See Delete Transactions and Delete Tuition Fees under Transactions for mass deletes. |
Transactions | Delete E-commerce Transaction | Can delete payments processed through an e-commerce gateway. |
Review Set/Edit User ID Permissions to update permissions.
Important Notes
- Payments must be deleted individually.
- If the payment is linked to any fee(s), deleting it will mark the related fee(s) unpaid.
Delete a Payment
- Locate the payment to delete on the family's Transactions tab.
- Click the Trash Can icon located to the left of the payment.
- Add a Comment/Reason in the Delete Transaction window. This step is optional. This note is visible when you search User activity located under the Reports menu > Find Reports > Search User Activity.
- Click the Delete button.
See Record an NSF (Bounced Check) for instructions on deleting payments due to bounced checks.
When you have worked through all of the articles outlined in the lesson, select the Take the Quiz button to be taken to the Lesson #12 Quiz where you can test your understanding of the concepts in this lesson. You will be asked to enter an email address for quiz results to be sent. The quiz includes Review questions.
Quiz #12 - Collect Payment from Multiple Families
Number of Questions | Total Possible Points | Points Needed for an "A" | Points Needed for a "B" | Points Needed for a "C" |
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11 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 9 |