Payment Workflow
Terms:
Merchant Vendor / Payment Processor
Paymentech (Orbital)
Worldpay
Gateway
eGov
GovBrands
eGovernment Solutions processes over the counter credit card transactions all TN clients.
A Gateway would be any intermediary code or process that sits between the eGovernment Application and the processor. There currently exist two gateways: the eGov Gateway and the GovBrands Gateway.
We also have the “old” way of doing things, which is to not use any Gateway, just to communicate directly with Paymentech.
There exist two exceptions to this: Hendry as of 3/23/2020 (this may be subject to change), and the Nashville Clerk and Master office. Nashville C&M uses FIS, and acts as a pass through. We do not sweep any funds to C&M and it is all self contained.
For Tennessee clients there are two payment processors being used:
Worldpay
Only Nashville
Paymentech
All remaining
Payment Process
Credit Card is keyed in, hit submit… the following information goes to the eGov Gateway’s code. Which then asks what the processor is for the client. When it sees it’s Paymentech it formats that code and sends it to paymentech. Paymentech comes back with success / failure and supporting informatino. This then gets formatted back to a standard result for the gateway which in turn is then sent back to the application.
This is for typed in cc information, whether in office or online.
eGov Gateway
All TN Clients save for Nashville
Madison Online
Hendry
Highlands
GovBrands Gateway
TN
Nashville
FL
Lafayette
Polk
There’s an app that sits between the eGov app and the credit card reader that knows when you initiate the reader and what the results were from the reader.
Credit Card Payment
Information is sent to Gateway upon clicking “Finish Receipt”
In point to point the card is charged at the time of swipe. The gateway looks back every 30 minutes at transactions older than 30, and if there is no receipt tied to the transaction the transaction is dropped.
In FL the database queries are all one transaction. So if one fails it rolls back all DB queries. So you could still have an incident where a payment was taken but no db record exists.
In TN this is more segregated. Allowing for issues such as a payment being taken but there existing no record in the eGov suite. Meaning if they attempt to take payment again, we don’t do a great method of looking for charges out there.
When a transaction is voided on the same day that it is taken, at the processor it should not settle. For credit cards that means the authorization will stay out there until the bank clears that authorization, but it will not come out of the payer’s account. For an e-check it just won’t ever come out.
You need to look at the transaction date of the payment, not the work date. The only time it won’t come out of their account is if the void date is the same as the transaction date.
All that posting does is allows the payment to be in the swept amount.
Sweeper
Is on a delayed schedule of close to 4 days.
Runs every hour on the half hour.
In Office
If you take an in office payment or e-check it happens immediately and the receipt is created. They have the option to void immediately and if they do click the void icon the whole payment never happens. The sweeper is then notified to send those same day voids so that we don’t sweep those same day voids.
How do we know if it’s been swept?
Look at work date vs void date. If same it’s not gonna be swept to the client. This does NOT mean it hasn’t come out of the taxpayer’s account.
If the transaction date is past then you know the money has been settled. If void is the same as the transaction date then it never settled.
Can you void something after it’s been posted & swept? Yes but they need to then cut a check back to the taxpayer (without the convenience fee as they don’t have that?)