Credit and Debit Card Payments

Credit card payments and deposits are started the same as other Payment transactions.  When a Payment Method is selected that's recognized as a Credit Card (as per the Base Type in the Payment Methods Pick List), additional fields will be enabled, and Processing may be available directly in Campground Master if you have Credit Card Processing set up.

Credit Card Information

If the payment type is a credit card, you can enter the information here.  If you have a credit card swipe attached, you can simply swipe the card and the fields will be filled in automatically  (sometimes you need to put the text cursor in the Credit Card # field before swiping the card -- Alt-C is a shortcut to jump to that field).  However if you're processing cards through Campground Master and use a chip (EMV) terminal, then you will likely have to click "Process card" (without entering the number) so the terminal is activated.

Note that if you do use a "simple" credit card swipe, you may need to adjust its "termination" or "Sentinel" settings and make sure the credit card processing settings match the number of tracks that the reader will read.

Even if you don't have Campground Master set up to process credit card authorizations, having the credit card information in the system can save time later, for instance the next time a customer calls to make a reservation and you need the credit card information to guarantee it.  In fact, your operator access level may require you to enter credit card information for any appropriate payment methods.

Normally it will check any previous transactions or guarantees for existing credit card information, and automatically fill in the fields with the last credit card used.  If they need to use a different card or if you want to swipe a card to make sure it's correct, you can click the Re-enter or Re-swipe button to clear the fields.  You can also disable this automatic lookup through the option in Maintenance / Credit Card Security Setup.  If you want to exclude a particular credit card used in a past transaction from being retrieved and re-used for future payments, you can do so. From the Transactions entry dialog, select that Payment (or Deposit) transaction in the list and a "Don't Re-use This Card" button will appear.  Click that and confirm the prompt.  If it has already been marked as don't-use, then the button will allow you to reverse this and use it for future payments.

The credit card information can be shown on the customer's receipts, with an optional signature line.  You can also have it print a special credit card signature slip automatically when a credit card payment is entered.  See Maintenance / Printing Options / Credit Cards.

In some cases, when previous card information is shown, there will be an Update Exp button to Enter Payment and Edit Guarantee dialogs, to allow changing just the expiration date without requiring the card number and name to be re-entered (as it would be with Re-enter or Re-swipe).  Note that this is only an option if the full card number is known (even if it's shown as masked), so that new card information may be submitted.  Therefore this will not be available if your configuration is not allowing the card information to be saved, or the information is not available due to swiping the card outside of Campground Master or using an EMV reader for processing.

Processing Credit Cards

If you have enabled credit card processing (and assuming that you have any 3rd-party processing software installed, etc.), then you can process the credit card right here on the payment dialog.  This also assumes that your operator access level is sufficient for credit card processing.  The program will not let you Save a credit card sale unless it's processed and approved successfully.  If you find that it's not possible to get a payment approved, perhaps due to your Internet connection being down, then you should save the information and enter it later (or request that they come back, or pay with an alternate payment method).

Chip cards / EMV terminals

If you use a chip (EMV) terminal, e.g. from X-Charge or Cayan, then if you have a card present you will have to click "Process card" (without entering the number) so the terminal is activated and ready to accept the card.  Note that there is no need to enter a CVV or address information for card-present transactions.  Once the terminal is activated, follow the steps on the terminal to complete the transaction.

Manual card entry / keyed entry or simple mag swipe

After entering the credit card number, expiration date and optional name (or swiping the card successfully on a simple mag swipe), press the "Process" button to request authorization.  With some processors (e.g. X-Charge), you can also click "Process" before entering the card information and let the processing software handle the rest.  In fact, depending on the credit card Processing Setup options, the card entry fields may be completely disabled so you can only click Process.

You may see additional CVV2/CVC, Zip and Address fields below the credit card entry fields, depending on the processing options.  These can be entered after swiping the card or before -- except that if the option is selected to immediately process the card after swiping, then you need to enter these before swiping the card.  While these are always optional, you often save money on processing charges if this information is entered.  If the transaction is for a customer with address information already entered, those fields will be filled in already.  You can verify these with the customer and/or change them if necessary.

Processing Response

After you press the "Process" button, all other controls will be disabled except the Process button, which will now be an "Abort" button.  Abort can be used (and should only be used) if you decide that the processing will not be completed due to a connection problem or processing software problem.  Note that the Abort will actually just "request" that the process be aborted.  If it appears that the processing software has already picked up the request and is in progress, it cannot really be aborted.  It will eventually time out and return an error if the processing software does not respond.  Not that it's still possible that the transaction goes through, in which case you need to adjust the time-out settings to allow for a longer delay.

Once processed, a response will be shown.  If it's approved, clicking OK on the response will immediately close the Payment dialog.  (There's also an option to skip showing the approved message so the dialog closes automatically.)  If you get an error that's not obvious, you can find troubleshooting tips under the appropriate section for your service provider (X-Charge, Cayan or MCPS) in Maintenance / Credit Cards Processing Setup.

Debit Cards

Campground Master only supports debit cards with PIN# entry if using X-Charge XpressLink (see Credit Card Processing Setup).  If it's a Visa or MasterCard type debit card, then it can still be processed just like a credit card if you like.  Otherwise, you will have to use the processing software's own interface to process the debit card outside of Campground Master, then enter the payment in Campground Master separately.  

If you are using X-Charge ExpressLink and have enabled debit card processing, then select the "Debit Card" payment method.  Then you can enter a Cash Back amount here (if cash-back is enabled and you have sufficient operator access), then click Process.  X-Charge will prompt for swiping the card and entering the PIN number, and then will show the response (likely printing a receipt automatically as well).  If a Cash Back amount was entered, it will be shown on the receipt as a "Cash" refund, so your reporting will be correct at the end of the day.

If you give them cash back and don't have the "Cash Back" option enabled, you should change the Amount Paid to be the total amount for the debit card payment, and then do a Refund transaction for the cash back (with a payment method of Cash selected) -- this way the amount of cash in the drawer and the total debit card charges will balance with the reports at the end of the day.

Forced Sales

There may also be a Force Sale button shown next to the Process button, which will allow you to force the authorization of the credit card sale.  This should only be used if you have already received an approval card from a voice authorization.  After pressing this, you will be asked to enter the approval code you received for the transaction. It will then submit the transaction to the processing software as a forced sale.  This will usually be approved as long as there are no errors in the card number, etc.

Voiding credit card payments and refunds

After a credit card payment (or refund) has been processed and approved, it cannot be deleted without voiding the credit card transaction.  To do this, you simply highlight it on the Transactions dialog and click Delete Selected Transactions as you would for any other payment.  After a warning, a Void dialog will open with the credit card information, and you can submit the void transaction for processing.  See "Voiding credit card transactions" for more details.