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22.8. Transaction Batching
Version 2 has the ability to track deposits and batches. This feature allows you to tell Arctic which transactions run on any given day made it into that day's batch settlement from your payment gateway ensuring your payment gateway and bank statements match Arctic's End of Day Balance Report. Arctic is, by default, set to batch credit card transactions. When set to batch credit card transactions, Arctic will exclude transactions until the batch deposit is recorded, as it does not think the transactions have settled meaning you have not actually received the funds. However, if you do not have this feature completely configured or fully understand it, it can cause problems with your financial reports and gift certificate available balances.
As with most settings in Arctic, you have the ability to set credit card batching up to suit your preferences. You can choose to batch or not to batch your credit card transactions. If you choose to batch and you have Authorize.Net as your payment gateway provider, you can set up Arctic to communicate automatically with your Authorize.Net account to record the batches for you without requiring any manual data entry.
To set this up go to the "Settings" page under "Credit Card Processing" and click the "Pencil" icon next to "Manage Payment Gateways". On the "Browse Payment Gateways" page, click the "Edit" icon next to your Authorize.Net gateway. On the "Update Gateway" page, scroll to the "Enable Transaction Details" field and select "Yes" and then follow the directions directly below the "Enable Transaction Details" field to enable the necessary API on your Authorize.Net account.
You MUST enable the transaction details in Arctic AND the API for your Authorize.Net account in order for Arctic and Authorize.Net to communicate the batch information automatically. It will not work if you only set up one side of the equation, so be sure to follow through and enable the API on your Authorize.Net account. Once you have enabled transaction details and the API, Arctic will automatically record your credit card batches for you and you will not need to do so manually.
Note: If you are making this change and you already have lots of transactions that haven't been recorded, Arctic will not automatically batch your past transactions. It will only start recording the batches going forward from when the API and transaction details are enabled. For help clearing past transactions, contact support and we will be happy to settle them for you.
If you do not use Authorize.Net as your payment gateway provider but you would like to record the batches in Arctic, you will have to do so manually. To do this, go to the "Invoices" menu and select "Record Deposit". On the "Record Deposit" page, select each of the transactions recorded in your batch report from your payment gateway provider, then enter a deposit description and the date and time the batch was run according to your gateway provider. Arctic tries to guess the most likely transactions to appear in a batch and profile the description, which should expedite this process.
Once you have selected all of the relevant transactions for the batch, scroll to the bottom of the page and double check the total to be sure it matches what your batch report shows from your payment gateway provider and then click "Record Deposit".
You will have to manually enter these deposits for each batch report you receive from your gateway provider. If you do not record the deposits, Arctic will hold these transactions as "Not Settled" and unreported until you settle them. Arctic will also remind you that there are unsettled transactions that need to be recorded when you go to run your end of day balance reports and provide you with a button that will take you to the "Record Deposit" page so you can batch the unsettled transactions.
To view past batches, go to the "Record Deposits" page, Arctic will display your most recent batches. To help you distinguish between your batches Arctic will display the batch name and date of each batch. If you have set up automatic batching for your credit card transactions, Arctic will also display the batch id number to again help distinguish between the batches. Select the batch you wish to view by clicking the name of the batch from the list of "Recent Batches":
Arctic will then take you to a page where you can view all of the transactions that make up the batch. From this page you can undo the batch if there are mistakes in it that need to be corrected, record a new batch or go to the "End of Day" report by clicking the appropriate button in the "Actions" menu.
To undo the batch click the "Undo Batch" button, Arctic will then display the following page:
If you are sure you want to undo, click the "Undo Batch" button. Arctic will then mark these transactions in the batch as "unsettled" and any end of day balance reports that were previously run that included the undone batch will be deleted and will have to be rerun.
After clicking the "Undo Batch" button, Arctic will return you to the "Record Deposit" page where you will find the transactions from the undone batch listed again and you will be able to record them inot another batch. These transactions will also have been restored to their "unsettled" status.
Notice, that the batch description, date, time match the information originally recorded with the undone batch. Also notice, that the transactions from the undone batch are also already selected. Be sure to take your time and double check the information entered and the transactions selected when recording the new batch so you are sure the new batch is recorded correctly.
Note: If the payments were applied to gift certificates the balance of the gift certificates will be unavailable until the transactions are recorded into another deposit.
If you do not want to record batches at all, you can disable the feature entirely by going to the "Settings" page under "Credit Card Processing" and clicking the "Pencil" icon next to "Batch Credit Card Transactions". On the configuration page, select "No, do not batch credit card transactions. Always assume they are deposited on the day they are run." Then click "Save Setting" to save your changes. This will make Arctic settles all of your credit card transactions automatically at the end of the day and you will not have to manually record deposits to ensure that all of your money is reporting as settled.
Alternatively, if you find the extra detail useful and would also like to track cash or check deposits in Arctic, you can enable batching for manual transactions on the "Settings" page. Under the "Invoicing" section, look for the option "Batch Manual Transactions." Click the pencil icon to make changes, and select "Yes, batch manual transactions. Transactions will have to be grouped together in batches or deposits before they appear in the End of Day Balance Report." You will then be able to record deposits for cash, check and other manual transactions in the same manner described for manually recording credit card batches.
If you have any questions about the batching feature or need help batching past transactions, feel free to contact support. You can reach us by email at support@arcticreservations.com or you can call us at (601) ARCTIC - 9 or (601) 272-8429.