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How to Onboard a Standard Merchant Gateway Account

Updated

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Prerequisites
  3. How to Onboard a Standard Merchant Account
  4. Video Tutorial

Overview

A step-by-step guide on how to onboard a Standard Gateway Account.

Prerequisites

Your affiliate sub-user will need to have the 'Manage merchant accounts' permission to be able to board new merchant accounts; this also applies to your Sub-Affiliate sub-users so they can board new merchant accounts under their portfolio. Primary users have this permission set by default and it cannot be removed. 

How to Onboard a Standard Merchant Account

Log in to your Partner Portal and head over to My Accounts →  Add Merchant. Select merchant type Standard.

Merchant Account Information

  1. Enter the merchant's information -
    • The company name entered here will be what the merchant sees when they log in to their merchant portal.
    • The company contact will be the primary contact for your merchant; the email address entered here will receive the welcome email once boarding is completed.
    • Enter their banking information - this is applicable to US partners and partners who are set to Bill to Merchant.
    • Enter a unique username for the merchants primary user.
    • Once all the * fields are completed, you may click Continue. 
  2. Select the required processing services; Credit Cards, Electronic Check, Cash. Click on Continue to configuration. 

Processing Service Information

  1. Select the processing platform that your merchant is using from the dropdown (if you do not see the processor in your Processing Services list, send a request to our support team to have it added to your account, please provide your Account ID which is located on the top right corner when you log in, with your request).
    • Each processor will have their own specific boarding requirements under the Processor Information section. This section is where you will need the VAR sheet (also known as Tear sheet or Parameter sheet) from the Processor for US/CA boarding's. 
  2. If the selected processing platform has the Payment Descriptor feature, this field will display:
    • Enter the payment descriptor if the acquiring bank has not configured one.
    • If the acquiring bank has configured the payment descriptor, this field will be ignored. If the bank has it configured on their side and your merchant wants to change it, they will need to contact their bank. 
  3. Select the Merchant Category Code (MCC) - generally, the MCC code will be on VAR sheets, if not, the merchant will need to contact their credit card processor to disclose the MCC code that’s been assigned to their business.
    • MCC codes are determined based on the merchants business type and the products or services they provide. A MCC is assigned to a merchant by the card company when the business first starts accepting cards as a form of payment. 
  4. Select the Account Classification - depending on the processing platform selected, you will have an option to select from E-Commerce, Retail, MOTO, or Restaurant. Some processing platforms may be limited, you can view the list of processors that support the different classifications by navigating to the left side Partner Menu → at the bottom under 'Help' → click on 'Processor Matrix'. Look for the column E-Commerce, Retail, MOTO, or Restaurant. If you click on it, it will sort out processors that support it. If retail or restaurant is selected it will cause the transaction to be sent as keyed if its missing EMV data or track data. If its ecommerce or moto then it will be CNP. If a processor supports more than one classification and one includes retail if the transaction has EMV data or track data it will be sent to the processor as CP. It may very well be sent as CP regardless if the processor has support for retail. 
  5. Check of the Card Schemes your merchant will accept under Payment Types Allowed. Keep in mind the processor will need to have the card scheme configured on their side as well. Note - in the US, UnionPay runs over Discover rails, therefore any processor that supports Discover would support UnionPay.
  6. Set the Account Limitations - these can be used if you want to limit how much money the merchant can process through a MID per month (Max Monthly Volume) or per transaction (Max Ticket Amount). The max monthly volume defaults to zero, which is unlimited. These are hard limits, therefore if the merchant tries to run a transaction over the max ticket amount you set, the gateway will block them from processing that amount. Same goes for the max monthly volume, if they've reached their limit that is set, the gateway will block them from processing more. 
    • "Include all payment types within these limits" - by checking this option, the limits you have set for Max Ticket Amount and Max Monthly Volume will apply to all card types that were selected in step 5 - 'Payment Types Allowed'. 
  7. Depending on the processing platform selected, the AVS/CVV Pre-Check Method feature will be available. Please see the Processor Matrix for a list of platforms that support Validate and AVS. If the processing platform supports this feature, you will be able to select from the two options below.
    Note- the default for this is Void on Decline: 
    • Void on Decline - the transaction is attempted and if an AVS/CVV rule blocks it, the gateway will immediately send a void request to the processor.
      • if the transaction has been voided due to an AVS/CVV rule block, the hold on the authorization/funds will fall off based on the standard procedure of the issuing bank. This could take as little as 24 hours up to an unknown time frame. The funds will be released eventually.
      • the voided transaction will apply to the max monthly volume, if one has been set.
    • Separate Pre-auth Transaction - before submitting the full transaction, we will perform a validate which is a zero dollar auth (or 1.00 auth if the processor does not support validates) to retrieve an AVS/CVV response. If the response passes the merchant’s rules, then the full transaction will be submitted for processing.
    • Address Verification and Card ID Verification section can be found in the merchant’s control panel by going to 'Settings' → under ‘Security Options’ you will see ‘Address Verification' and 'Card ID Verification'.
      Address Verification Settings Video Tutorial
      Card ID Verification Settings Video Tutorial
  8. Duplicate Velocity Controls - if duplicate checking is enabled, it will prevent a customer from accidentally submitting the same transaction multiple times. This will check for the same card number and the same amount in the time frame you set in the Duplicate Time Limit field (in seconds). The default duplicate time limit is set to 1200 seconds (20 minutes). You can always come back to this step to turn it off if needed.
    • By checking off Allow Merchant Override, this will allow the merchant to ignore this check on a per transaction basis in the merchant’s Virtual Terminal page. They will have the option to check 'Disable Duplicate Check' before hitting the charge button. 
      • And in the API, there is a variable they can pass to disable duplicate checking on a transaction. 
  9. Merchant's Required Fields - these are hard limits which dictates which fields a Merchant must fill out in order to successfully process their card not present transactions in the Virtual Terminal (these fields are removed once you select a Cloud Payment Device in the Virtual Terminal when running a card present transaction). You can use these to make sure the merchant is being as safe as possible with accepting eCommerce payments. It depends on the type of merchant and special cases where certain fields would be beneficial to the merchant. If one of these fields is checked, a transaction error will be displayed if the information in the field is not provided. Select the fields you want to require the merchant to enter certain information on every transaction, or leave blank if you do not want the merchant to enter this information on every transaction. 
    • Card Security Code (CVV) - has three different options from the dropdown:
      • Not Required - the Merchant does not need to enter the CVV code.
      • Required on First - this means that for each customer the merchant must submit the CVV at least once, and it must come back as a match. At that point, the card will be whitelisted, and the Merchant can run Recurring/API transactions without the CVV present.
      • Always Required - the CVV code will always be required
      • Note - Due to a historical lack of processor support, CVV required fields are NOT enforced on Amex API transactions.
    • Show More Fields - these are some additional field requirement options that you can add; these aren't used that often but are there for special cases.
    • Show Merchant Defined Fields - if you or your merchant wishes to enforce any of the 20 Merchant Defined Fields, you can set them here. 
  10. Processor Name - this is what the processor will be named as in the merchant's interface, for instance if the merchant has multiple MIDs, they will be able to distinguish between the names on which processor to run a transaction on. It will also be used for the processor_id variable. 
  11. Click Submit or Submit + Add Another CC Processor if you are adding more processors to a Multi-MID merchant account. 
    • Note - for UK/EU EMV processors, once you click on 'Submit', the gateway will automatically send an activation email request to the processor, and once activated, you will receive an email notification that the processor has been activated. This is an additional requirement for UK/EU EMV processors.

Add Electronic Check Processor

If you have selected Electronic Check as a required processing services, you will have the option to add the Electronic Check processor next, or you can skip it by clicking on 'Skip this processor type' and come back to adding one later. 

Add Cash Processor

If you have selected Cash as a required processing services, you will have the option to add the Cash processor next, or you can skip it by clicking on 'Skip this processor type' and come back to adding one later. 

Value Added Services

Next you have the option to add Value Added Services for the merchant. You can choose to enroll, offer, or remove a service. 

  • To Enroll a Merchant in a Service, select Active from the dropdown.
  • To Offer the service, select Offered from the dropdown. This will allow the merchant to sign up for the service themselves in their Merchant Portal under Marketplace Apps.
  • To Remove a Service, select Not Offered from the dropdown. If this is done, the Merchant cannot sign up for it unless you offer it to them in the future. 
    • Note - for Payer Authentication 2.0, you can only enroll or offer this service if the processing platform you boarded supports this feature, and the processor is set to eCommerce classification.

Once you are done, click on Submit.

Merchant Fee Schedule

Once the Processor(s) and Service(s) have been added, you will set the Merchant’s fees. These fees are set by you which the Merchant is paying to use a particular service. 

  • The following additional options are applicable to US partners who are set to Bill to Merchant: 
    • You can choose whether or not the merchant sees their billing statement in their merchant portal by checking 'Display Billing Statement in the merchant control panel'. 
    • If you want an email to be sent to the merchant when their gateway fees are billed, you can check 'Send merchant an email when gateway fees are billed'. This is up to you, a lot of merchants like to get an email when they're billed. The email will be sent to the merchants admin email. 

You can use a Preset Fee Schedule that you have built under Service Prices or you can set up a Custom Fee Schedule for a Merchant. 

In the Custom Fee Schedule, all Enrolled services will be presented. You can extend your own cost to a Merchant, or set the Merchant’s billable fees to a higher amount to make a commission from the service.  

  • Set Up Fee - only billed once, at the time you add the Processing Service.
  • Monthly Fee - billed every monthly for each processor instance (each processor ID) and any enabled service(s).
  • Per Transaction Fee - billed per sale, auth, capture, void, refund, credit, update, validate, and settle transaction.
  • Resale Price - is what the merchant is going to pay. 
  • My Cost - is what your cost is to NMI.
  • Bill Me - is an option to bill a specific service to your affiliate account if you don't want the merchant to see the service was billed. This option is useful if you want to provide some type of deal to the merchant. 

Once you are done setting the fee schedule, click on Continue.

Gateway Account Completion

Next you will see a summary of the merchant account for review that you've created. This will give you the chance to edit any typos or errors (except for the Username) prior to activating the Account and sending the Merchant Welcome Email. The Welcome Email expires within 24 hours from when it was sent. 

The account will be saved, which you can always come back to your list of accounts when you are ready to send the email out to the merchant and activate their account. Once you hit Create Merchant, it's going to send the email to the new user.

You can check the box 'Activate pending services and gateway access immediately' if you want the merchant to be active and billable immediately once you click on Create Merchant or you can leave it unchecked if you want to wait until the merchant receives their Welcome email and agrees to the terms of service on their own.

  • If you need to edit something, click on the edit button or add button → make the necessary changes → click save. 
  • If you click on Delete Merchant, this will delete everything you have entered. The information is unrecoverable. If it was deleted by accident, you will need to reenter the information by starting from Add Merchant again. 

Once you are satisfied that what you have entered is complete and correct, click on Create Merchant, which will send the Welcome email to the merchant. 

  • Note - for UK/EU EMV processors, you have to complete the merchant creation, by clicking on Create Merchant, in order for the processing service to be activated. If the merchant creation is not completed, the processing service will stay in a pending status. 

Video Tutorial