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Transaction Routing

Updated

Overview

Transaction routing is a gateway feature that is used to distribute transactions across multiple payment processors to help reduce merchant's high volume fees. Merchants who have more than one processing service of the same “type” (Credit Card or Electronic Check) boarded on their gateway account can configure how transactions route across their multiple processors.

Prerequisites

The user will need the 'Access Administrative Options' permission to be able to access and adjust the Transaction Routing page. Primary users have this permission set by default and cannot be removed. The user must have permissions to all active processors; this may be found under User Gateway Permissions. This feature is only available on merchant accounts with multiple payment processors and to users who have access to all active processors. If the user does not have access to all active processors, they will not see the Transaction Routing settings page. 

In the Merchant Portal, on the left side panel → click on Options → Settings → under Transaction Options click on Transaction Routing; or from the homepage under Utilities → click on Settings → under Transaction Options click on Transaction Routing. 

How does Transaction Routing work?

Transaction Routing will “balance” transactions between two or more processors using percentages and amounts. When setting up Transaction Routing, merchants do not enter an actual percentage. Instead they will enter a processing amount that represents a percentage. For example, if a merchants total processing volume limit is 100,000.00, and they wanted to split their volume between two processors 50/50, they would assign 50,000 to one and 50,000 to the other. The Gateway would send transaction volume to each processor until they are both "filled up”. The next transaction will route to the processor with the lowest Transaction Routing Amount. If one processor is 25% full, and another processor is 15% full, the next transaction will route to the processor that is 15% full until it gets up to 25% before routing to the other MID again. Keep in mind that the calculation is not based on the number of transactions, but rather on transaction volume. One sale that is out of the ordinary, higher in volume, can throw off the balance temporarily. In the event the merchants processing volume goes above 100,000, they could set one of their processors as a ‘Default’ which will take overflow after the 50/50 volume has been satisfied.

The best way to calculate is to take the total processing volume and multiply by the percentage wanted. Example: 100,000 x .5 = 50,000.00 or if a 30/70 is wanted, 100,000 x .3 = 30,000 set on one processor and 70,000 set on another processor, and so on. 

  • Transaction Routing will work on a Test Gateway Account, but not a live account when the account is in Test Mode.
  • Setting a default processor with Transaction Routing enabled - merchants can select the radio button of the processor that they would like to have as the default processor and check the "Check This Box to Enable Transaction Routing For Credit Cards" option, and click on Save. If the merchants processing volume reaches 100% on all processors, all future transactions will go through the one they have selected as their default.
  • Setting a default processor without Transaction Routing enabled - merchants can select the radio button of the processor that they would like to have as the default and leave the "Check This Box to Enable Transaction Routing For Credit Cards" option unchecked, and click on Save. If a sale is run and the merchant does not select a processor of where the transaction should get routed to, then it will go to this default processor.
  • The percentage does not display partial amounts. Ex: 0.5%. What this means is if $1.00 is processed on an account with Transaction Routing settings of $1000.00, the interface will display 0% since we can't display 0.1%.
  • Transaction Routing will not split single transactions. If you run a $100.00 transaction, it will process on one processor or the other. It will never process partially on one processor and partially on the other. 
  • Transaction Routing does not support "cascading", where a failed transaction on one processor will retry on a second one. It simply tries to process transactions 'equally' based on the specified monthly amount by calculating approved transactions. The merchant will need to re-try the transaction themselves on a different processor by specifying the processor.
  • Transaction Routing automatically resets on the first of the month at Midnight UTC. 
  • If the merchant has one processor that has one of the "Merchant's Required Fields" enabled, the requirements will be applied to every transaction that comes through with Transaction Routing enabled. In the Virtual Terminal, they may select the processor from the dropdown that does not have a MRF to process the transaction without entering the MRF, which may throw off the balance temporarily. 

What does each field represent in Transaction Routing for Credit Cards and Checks?

  • Processor ID - displays the processor ID that was set when the processing service was onboarded for the merchant. It's derived from the Processor Name. This processor ID can be used to route transactions through the API. You can use the 'processor_id' variable to send a transaction to a specific processor. For more information visit our integration portal. 
  • Processor Name - displays the processor name that was set when the processing service was onboarded for the merchant, under Processor Name. This can be changed by Partners when editing a processor.
  • Monthly Amount - when setting up Transaction Routing, this is the amount the merchant needs to enter that controls how much will be routed to that MID per month.
  • Default - this is where the merchant can set their default processor with Transaction Routing enabled or without Transaction Routing enabled. 
  • Max Ticket - displays the "Max Ticket Amount" that was entered under Account Limitations when the processing service was onboarded for the merchant. It is the maximum amount a single transaction can be run on that MID. This can be changed by Partners when editing a processor.  
    • "0.00" indicates that no amount was added in the "Max Ticket Amount" field during the boarding of the processor, which means there is no max ticket amount for this processor. 
    • If an amount was entered during the boarding, it will display that amount under the "Max Ticket" column in TR.
    • If you have processors with different Max Ticket limits, and you have sales above those ticket limits, it can impact the way your sales are balanced. During Transaction Routing, sales will only be routed to processors with a ticket limit high enough to run that sale (assuming it isn't over the ticket limit of all processors).
  • Overall Limit - displays the "Max Monthly Volume" that was entered under Account Limitations when the processing service was onboarded for the merchant. It is the maximum volume amount that can be run on that MID over the course of a month. This can be changed by Partners when editing a processor.
    • "Unlimited" indicates that 0.00 was entered as the "Max Monthly Volume" during the boarding of the processor, which means there is no maximum monthly volume for this processor. 
    • If an actual amount was enter during the boarding, it will display that amount under the "Overall Limit" column in TR.    
  • TR Amount - lists the percent of the merchants permitted volume that the merchant has already used for the month. If you hover over the % it will display how much has already been processed on that processor. 

How to include other Card Types in Transaction Routing?

To include American Express, Discover, or other card payment types to the monthly amounts and TR amount, the Merchant Service Provider (NMI's Partner) will need to ensure the "Include all payment types within these limits" option is checked off under Account Limitations in the Processor Configuration page.

If this flag is checked, the "Max Ticket Amount" and "Max Monthly Volume" that was set under Account Limitations will apply to all Payments Types Allowed, and Transaction Routing will update the monthly amounts and TR Amount for all the payment types. 

To do this, log in to your Partner Portal and head over to List Accounts → find the merchants name from the list and click on their name → under Processing Services, click on 'Edit' for the processor → Account Limitations → check "Include all payment types within these limits" option → Submit. If this flag is enabled, Transaction Routing will include non Visa/MasterCard types. 

Transaction Routing and Users that do not have Access to all MIDs

When Transaction Routing is enabled on a Multi-MID account and there are sub-users that do not have access to all MIDs, Transaction Routing will still work. However the transactions will only be balanced between the MIDs that the sub-user has access to. 

In the event the merchant account has 6 processors - A, B, C, D, E, F, and A is the default processor the following will take place: 

  • The Admin User should have access to all processors to be able to see the Transaction Routing section under Settings.
  • User1 has access to processors A, B, and C. The transactions will be evenly distributed between the three. When processors B and C are at their maximum, the remaining transactions will go to the default processor A.
  • User2 has access to processors D, E, and F. The transactions will be evenly distributed between the three. However, when the processors are at their maximum, the remaining transactions will not route to the default processor A as this user does not have access to processor A. The user will simply be unable to process at this point.

How to Setup and Enable Transaction Routing

  1. In the merchant's Transaction Routing Settings page, enter the Monthly Amount for each MID. If a Monthly Amount is not set, that MID will be "skipped" during Transaction Routing.
  2. Select the Default MID that the merchant would like to use once all the processors have reached or exceeded 100% of their monthly amount where all future transactions will be processed on this default MID.
  3. Check the box that reads "Check This Box to Enable Transaction Routing For Credit Cards" or "Check This Box to Enable Transaction Routing For Checks" for Electronic Check routing. 
    • If this option is not checked and saved, Transaction Routing will not be enabled.
  4. Click Save. 

Disabling Transaction Routing - if the merchant ever needs to disable Transaction Routing, they can simply uncheck the box that reads "Check This Box to Enable Transaction Routing For Credit Cards" or "Check This Box to Enable Transaction Routing For Checks", and click Save. 

How to reset Transaction Routing Amount

Transaction Routing automatically resets on the first of the month at Midnight UTC. However, Transaction Routing can be manually reset by the merchant if they require it.

Merchants can reset Transaction Routing Amount by logging in to their Merchant Portal → on the left side panel → click on Options → Settings → under Transaction Options click on Transaction Routing → in the TR page, click on "Reset TR Amounts". 

Partners can reset a merchants Transaction Routing Amount by logging in to your Partner Portal and head over to List Accounts→ find the merchants name from the list → click on their name → under the Merchant Users section click on the "Log in" button* for the main user → on the left side panel → click on Options → Settings → under Transaction Options click on Transaction Routing → in the TR page, click on "Reset TR Amounts".

*the "Log in" as merchant option is only available to Partner users who have the "Log in as merchants and sub-affiliates" permission. 

Advanced Transaction Routing

The Advanced Transaction Routing Interface (ATRI) allows the merchant to route transactions based on the values populated in their Merchant Defined Fields. Please see Advanced Transaction Routing Interface to learn more. 

Transaction Routing Video