Setting up Automatic Credit Card Transactions

Nikki Caldwell:

Hi-

We currently have a rather old "tickler file" system where we have folders set up for each month, and then we go through that and post the credit cards through Batch manually.  We do have integration through Blackbaud Merchant Services, so we are able to know right away if the cards are approved or declined.

For our donors who have ongoing monthly (or quarterly, semi-annually, etc) payments on their credit cards, is there a way to have the system automatically run these?  

We process all gifts through Batch, so up to now these credit card gifts have been manually input into batch, then posted into the donor's record.  Would I need to set up a recurring batch and just remember to run that monthly?  What do you do to process the regular credit card gifts?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you are processig your gifts through batch now, you should have the module needed. Ths is what you should be able to do. 

Enter the pledges on donor record with the payment schedule of their choice.  Select and enter credit card for their payment method option

Create a new gift batch.  Click data entry.  Click Tools menu > Automatically generate transactions/payments > you can use a query if you want, shouldn't need one.  Put date payments are due by - this may take some work if your payments all have different days.  All our EFTs, bank draft and credit cards regardless if schedule is montly, quarterly or annual, have payment date of the 5th of the month so I can just enter 9/5/14 to get all payments due for the month.  Check EFT box, whether pledges and/recurring gifts and the appropriate payment type debit card/credit card etc.  On gift field tab I enter the date theiy will be processeed and the date for posting.  Click generate now.  This will create a batch for you off all gifts due by date you specified with payment you marked. 

After I give the list a quick review and sort, it's back to Tools menu > Create EFT transmission file.  This is when data goes to BBPS and I receive authorization for the donations.  Then the batch is committed with gifts being applied to pledges/recurring gifts. 

I have on my task list for this to come up for creating and sending to finance my bank draft file the 2nd of the month, create credit card batch the 2nd of the month and then run transmission and commit batch on the 5th.  Really pretty easy.  All done in 5 minutes or less.   But yes, you still have to process the batch monthly but you shouldn't have to manually enter each record into batch at all.

Note: BB Merchant Services is different than BB Payment Services which we use so there may be a difference I don't know about.

Nikki Caldwell:

Hi-

Thanks for responding.  Currently we don't have the EFT module so what I have done in the past is enter all payments as they come in through Batch, and then if it's the day to do the monthly credit cards I add those to my daily payment batch with the cash, checks, etc.

I was thinking about creating a recurring batch for the monthly credit card transactions so that I can do those on their own.  That way I could re-use the batch every month (as long as I add a task reminder to myself to do it) and they would basically be the same person, same amount, same card number, every month, and apply each to the pledges that are already set up.

Without the EFT module, would this be the best way to handle these?

Thanks

Okay, I'm having a crazy day and missing something.  So how do you get the authorizations and actually charge the credit cards?  How are payments coming in through batch if they're not being authorized?  Must be a BBMS thing???

Yes, if you can't automatically generate a batch, I would definitely use a recurring batch.  You'll just have to be real careful to put in/pull out payments on other schedules than monthly. 

Nikki Caldwell:

Hi-

Thanks for responding.  Currently we don't have the EFT module so what I have done in the past is enter all payments as they come in through Batch, and then if it's the day to do the monthly credit cards I add those to my daily payment batch with the cash, checks, etc.

I was thinking about creating a recurring batch for the monthly credit card transactions so that I can do those on their own.  That way I could re-use the batch every month (as long as I add a task reminder to myself to do it) and they would basically be the same person, same amount, same card number, every month, and apply each to the pledges that are already set up.

Without the EFT module, would this be the best way to handle these?

Thanks

Hi Nikki, We don't have the EFT module at my org, so all credit cards have to manually processed out of RE. What we do is: 1. Set up a recurring batch with all the monthly credit cards on it. 2. On the 15th of each month I pull the list of credit cards and run those through 3. I edit the batch as needed if credit cards are declined, etc. 4. Batch and process as per your regular protocol. I always keep the monthlies on their own separate recurring batch, and process them separately from daily transactions. I find it just keeps it cleaner than including it my daily payment batch.