The Transactions tab is available for you to view every type of payment-related action for an order. Chargent automatically creates a transaction record for each type of action including:
- Authorizations – places a hold on funds to be captured later
- Charges – authorizes the amount and immediately captures the funds
- Voids – cancels a transaction before it settles or an authorization that has not expired
- Refunds – initiates a credit in the amount of a settled transaction
Every time Chargent contacts your payment gateway with credit card or other payment details, it creates a transaction record in Salesforce to store all the data it receives in response. You can view all the transactions for an order from the Transactions related list on the Chargent Order record, regardless of the tab used to begin the transaction. If you used Chargent Anywhere or the Chargent Orders tab, all related transaction details are available on the Transactions tab. Use this tab to locate a transaction attempt and resolve any issues, void, or refund the transaction.
At the top of each transaction record, Chargent displays this summary information:
- Order
- Type
- Amount
- Gateway Date
- Response Status
See Chargent Transaction Fields for descriptions of these fields. They contain all of the details returned by your payment gateway.
Understanding Chargent Orders
Track the order related to any transaction.
Chargent Anywhere
Process payments from any object and track them from the Chargent Orders tab.
Understanding Response Codes
Examine the response from the gateway and resolve any issues.
Note: Chargent references existing transactions when running a recurring billing schedule, so be careful not to edit recurring transactions. In general, making changes to any existing transaction records is not recommended. Contact support to determine the best practices for your business process.
Creating Transactions #
You don’t have to worry about creating transaction records. Chargent automatically creates a new transaction record for each charge, authorization, or refund attempt. Chargent also creates transaction records when you record cash or check payments using the Chargent Anywhere component. Chargent can update an existing transaction record if it needs to be voided. In this case, the transaction Type of an existing charge, authorization, or refund is changed to “Void,” since the transaction was canceled.
Chargent sends all transaction attempts to your gateway except those with an invalid credit card number of digits.
Historical transactions can be imported into Chargent by a data migration expert. Please contact us for additional advice or a referral to a Chargent consulting partner who can assist you.
Duplicate Transactions #
Each payment gateway handles duplicate transactions differently. Some gateways decline a second transaction if the billing information and amount match a previous transaction within a certain time period. Other gateways allow it but may flag it as a potential duplicate.
Understanding Authorizations #
A credit card authorization holds a portion of the available balance on a card for future payment, without actually pulling the funds at the time of authorization. Authorizations for most credit cards expire after seven days. However, some gateways may take longer, which means the hold on funds could remain on a customer’s account for up to thirty days. The authorization continues to hold the amount from the available balance on the card and could prevent the customer from making additional purchases until the authorization expires.
You should authorize a credit card for more than the minimum of $1 only if you intend to capture the funds within a few days. We recommend you capture funds within 3 days or void the authorization to process later and avoid reducing the amount of credit available to your customer. In some cases, your authorization could cause other transactions to be declined, or in the case of debit cards, could cause overdrafts for your customer. So, use them carefully.
A customer’s credit card will only be charged when an authorization is captured.
Charging Authorized Payments
You can capture funds on an existing authorization by going to the transaction and clicking Charge Authorized. You can also charge authorized amounts from the Payment Console.
Alternatively, you can release funds back to your customer more quickly. If an order was canceled for an authorized purchase, go to the transaction and click Void. Not all banks allow you as the merchant to void authorizations. In some cases, you could void an authorization, but the hold would remain on your customer’s account.
Note: Authorizations on debit cards typically expire in 1-8 business days, while authorizations on credit cards can take up to 30 days to expire, depending on the issuing bank.
Visa, MasterCard, and American Express also have rules regarding acceptable authorization amounts for different types of transactions, so consult your merchant agreement for additional details.
Declined Charges #
Chargent creates a transaction record for all declined charges with a Response Status of “Declined.” View these transactions for more information from your gateway in the Response Code field. See Transaction Records for more information and links to response code lookup tools.
Then, attempt the charge again on a later date, contact the customer for updated billing details, or send a payment request to the customer.
Recurring Billing Declines
If a card is declined that is part of a series of recurring billing transactions, Chargent updates the Payment Status on the order from “Recurring” to “Error.” If you have enabled Chargent’s Automated Collections feature and have configured it to apply to this order record, Chargent updates the Payment Status to “Automated Collections” instead. To resolve these declines:
- Contact the customer to gather updated billing information.
- Change the Payment Status back to “Recurring” and click Save.
- If you have processed a charge manually outside of the recurring billing schedule by clicking the Charge button, be sure to set the Payment Start Date ahead to the next time the record should be billed, to avoid a recurring charge the next time the batch runs.
Refunding or Voiding Transactions #
A refund is a credit on your credit card statement that relates to a charge of the same amount. It is a separate record. You can refund a transaction after it has settled in your gateway batch (usually nightly).
Typically, you can process refunds against settled transactions for up to 120 days. Refunds are separate transaction records in Salesforce with the “Refund“ type and a negative amount to balance the total fields.
Alternatively, a void cancels a charge before it has settled. For example, if you charge a credit card incorrectly, you can void it that same day, and it will not be processed when your daily batch settlement happens. Voids change the original transaction Type from “Charge,” “Authorize,” or “Refund” to “Void” in Salesforce, and do not create a separate transaction record. You can also void refunds if you refunded a transaction by mistake.
Using most payment gateways, you can process partial refunds using Chargent’s Partial Refund button on the transaction. Before you begin refunding or voiding a transaction:
- Make sure you have My Domain enabled in Salesforce to use Lightning Actions.
- Add the Void, Refund, and Partial Refund buttons to your Transaction Page Layout from the Mobile & Lightning Actions category.
- Then, go to the transaction and click the appropriate button.
Note: You can make multiple partial refunds against a single transaction as long as the total of the refunds do not add up to more than the original transaction amount. Your gateway will warn you when the sum of refund amounts meets the original charge total.
Understanding Unresolved Transactions #
When Chargent is unable to update or save a transaction, it automatically creates a record on the Unresolved Transactions tab and sends a notification to the email address you stored in the Chargent Admin Email Address field listed in your Chargent Settings. It can happen for various reasons such as conflicts related to validation rules, triggers, or other Salesforce configurations.
Review the reasons in the email notification. If you have resolved the issues listed in the notification, go to the Unresolved Transactions tab, select the corrected record(s), and click Create Transactions. Chargent creates the transaction record and associates it with the appropriate order.
If the problem persists, review the error message when you try to resolve the transaction. Click on the View link to display the original error.
Note: When unresolved transactions occur, additional transactions will not be processed on the Chargent order until you resolve them.
Transaction Synchronization #
Several gateways update transactions with the latest status even if they originated in Chargent. You can automate this transaction synchronization for the following gateways:
- Authorize.net
- BlueSnap
- Braintree
- Ezidebit
- Paytrace
- USAePay
See the payment gateway guides for more information on your gateway.