How do I login to my account / forgot my password / unlock my user account?
Once your PayTrace account is first setup, there will be 2 emails sent out. The first will be a welcome email that contains resource information for PayTrace and for your account. The second email will be titled “PayTrace Credentials”. Within the body of this email will be a hyperlink. When this link is clicked, you will be taken to PayTrace and shown your username. You will then be prompted to enter a password for your user account. Passwords need to be at least 7 characters in length, contain at least one alpha and numeric character, and is also case sensitive. This initial user setup email is good for 1 week. After this time frame expires, you will need to perform a password reset request outlined in the below paragraph.
If you have forgotten your password or have locked up your user account, you will simply want to click on the “Lost/Forgot Password” link, which is located right next to the login section of the PayTrace home page. You will then enter your username and email address. That will trigger an email to go to your email address. Within the body of this email will be a hyperlink. When this link is clicked, you will be taken to PayTrace and then be prompted to enter a NEW password for your user account and confirm the new password. You will also select a site validation key. This password reset email is only good for one hour. After that time frame, another request to reset the password must be made.
How do I process a transaction?
This can be done a couple ways. Once you login to your account you will be taken to the dashboard. From the dashboard you will have the ability to click the icon to process a swiped transaction, or a keyed (card not present) transaction. You may also click to open the Virtual Terminal menu, which will provide you links to process swiped or keyed transactions as well.
How do I process a void/cancel a transaction?
Any transaction that has not been settled for funding is eligible to be voided. To process a void, you will want to open the Virtual Terminal menu, and click the Void Transactions link. From here you will want to set the date range back to the date you processed the transactions. In most cases, it is the same day you ran it. Once the date is set, then you will click the search button down at the bottom of the page. The results of your search will then be shown to you. You can then click the check box to the left of any transaction you wish to void/cancel. You may process multiple voids at the same time. After you select the transactions you wish to void, you may then click on the Process button at the bottom of the page to initiate the voids.
How do I process a refund?
A referenced refund allows you to refund a transaction that you processed in PayTrace. For example, let’s say you processed a transaction last week in PayTrace and now you need to refund it. You will want to open the Virtual Terminal menu, and click the link to Refund Transactions. From here you will want to set your date range back to the date you originally ran the transaction and click search. The results of that search will be shown to you on the screen. You may then select the checkbox to the left of any transaction you wish to process a refund to. You may also adjust the dollar amount of the transaction to an equal or lesser amount than the original transaction. Then you will click the button at the bottom of the page to Process the refund(s).
How do I access my transaction history?
From the dashboard, you may click the icon to View Transactions. You may also open the Virtual Terminal menu and click the link to View Transactions. From this page, there is a series of criteria you can define to help narrow down your search. You may also use a transaction ID/order ID, as well as free text, to search through transactions. Once a date range is set, you can then click to Search and the results will appear in a display box towards the bottom of the page. You may then choose to download the details, or open the results into a printable view in its own tab/browser window.
How do I access a receipt for a previous transaction?
Once you perform a search from the View Transactions page, you will see a “receipt” link on the left hand side next to each transaction. Once this link is selected, a pop-up will appear with the transaction receipt in it.
How do I add/remove/change email addresses on my account?
You will want to open the Users menu, and from there you will want to select the Manage Email link. This page will allow you to add/adjust/remove any email address on the account to receive reports and notifications. The administrative and optional email addresses will receive all reports and notifications by default. At the top of the page, you may type in an email address and use your Control or Apple key to select one or multiple reports or notifications that you want that email address to receive. Then you will click on the Save button at the bottom of the page. The screen will refresh with a confirmation, and you will then see the email address as you scroll down the page. You may then adjust/delete the email addresses as you add more.
What is level 2 and level 3 data, and why do I need to enter it?
Level 2 and 3 data is additional information that can be sent through with your transactions that can help qualify (keep processing rates low) certain types of credit cards. Level 2 and 3 data typically can help when accepting Business Cards, Purchasing Cards, Corporate Cards, or Government (GSA) Cards.
In most cases when you accept these types of cards, the dollar amount of the transaction is larger than if you were to accept a consumer/personal credit card. When the dollar amounts of the transactions go up, the risk associated with the card brands funding them goes up. This results in a higher processing rate due to the higher risk. However, level 2 and 3 data helps provide additional information about the merchant, customer, and transaction to help meet the card brands criteria for reaching a lower processing rate. This additional information is not required to process or get funded for your transactions. However, providing this information helps reduce the risk associated with the funding of the transactions by the card brands, which results in lower processing rates. For more information about specific level 2 and 3 information CLICK HERE.
Where is my deposit for my transactions?
PayTrace is the payment gateway (your processing method), and we do not make deposits for your transactions. You were setup with PayTrace through a merchant service provider who actually controls the funding of your transactions. They are able to provide more information about when or where your deposits might be. They will also be the ones to change where your deposits are being made. You can find your merchant service provider contact information by clicking on the Support link located at the bottom of any page when logged into your PayTrace account.
Why did my transaction decline?
Transactions are approved/not approved by the card issuing bank; not PayTrace. PayTrace works with a variety of processing networks, and each provide varying reasons for their decline responses. Sometimes they can be specific and provide responses such as Activity Limit Exceeded or Insufficient Funds. Other times their responses can be very generic such as Do Not Honor. The best way to help understand what is causing the non-approval would be to have your customer contact their card issuing bank for further clarification on why their card is being declined.