FAQs on automatic epayments, recurring credit card and ACH billing

If the automatic charge from the epayment batch is successful, what happens?

A payment is created and applied to the invoice. A success email is sent to the bill-to representative.

What happens if the automatic charge from the epayment batch fails for some reason?

An attempt will be made to charge the account again every 24 hours for five days. An email is also sent to both the bill-to representative and the staff person identified under Setup->Billing Options and Settings->Credit Cards as the one to receive an automatic email notification.

What does the failure notification email say?

The email indicates that an automatic payment has failed and instructs them to login and update their account information.

What happens if the invoice created from the epayment batch is paid manually in another way while waiting for a successful automatic payment?

Not a problem. The invoice will remain open until either an automatic or manual payment is made. Once a payment has been made, the automatic charge every 24 hours will not be attempted.

What if the payment profile is deleted instead of edited when an auto-charge failure has occurred?

If the member or your staff deletes a payment profile that was originally assigned to a recurring fee item, the fee item will need reassigned to the new payment profile in order to be successful the next time the epayment batch is run.

If the member in an epayment batch has both an automatic and a manual epayment that will be included, will that create one invoice or two?

A separate invoice will be created for each payment profile and a separate invoice for manual epayments.

Can I assign a fee item with a frequency of One-Time to the epayment profiles?

No. Fees charged to epayment profiles may only be assigned a frequency that is a recurring frequency such as Annual, Semi-annually, Quarterly, or Monthly,

Why are there epayment profiles already listed for a representative when I haven’t set up any recurring charges yet?

Representatives in Member Information Center v3/v4 have an option to “Save card securely…”. When they checkout or pay for bills. The cards (bank accounts) they save will display for staff when staff assign fees for recurring billing.

Why aren’t the saved cards and bank accounts for a representative available when I click “Capture Payment” when making a payment on an outstanding invoice under Members->Account tab or other locations where payment is accepted by staff

Cards and bank account information in this area are stored for the member as a whole and are not tied to a particular representative. The information at this location is separate from the information available when assigning recurring fees.

Can a member login using a “member login” to the Member Information Center and pay/save a card or bank account?

Yes, members may use a “member login” and successfully pay with a stored card or bank account. The cards/bank accounts that are saved by “member logins” are not displayed or available for staff to use when assigning recurring fees nor when staff receives payment using the “Capture Payment” button.

Only representative-saved cards/bank accounts can be viewed by staff when assigning recurring fees. However, cards/bank accounts available when staff receive payments using “Capture Payment” are yet a separate list of cards/accounts entered by staff and do not come from what the member or representative enters in the Member Information Center.

Do I need both Customer Information Manager (CIM) and eCheck.Net enabled with Authorize.Net?

You need both enabled if you want to automatic recurring charges to your member bank accounts (ACH). CIM is what allows you to collect and store the account information (credit card information by default) and eCheck.Net allows the collection and processing of the bank account information.

If you simply want to do automatic recurring charges to member credit/debit cards, then eCheck.Net is not needed. You only need to enable CIM in that case. .

What if I don’t use Authorize.Net for my credit card processing company? Do you have any options that will assist me with these recurring charges?

Yes. If you select “manual epayment” on your member fee, an automatic invoice and payment will be created for these customers when you run the Monthly Renewals – epayments batch. You would setup your automatic recurring charges through your own financial institution or credit card company but use ChamberMaster / MemberZone to create the accounting transaction. Check out the instructions here.

How secure are credit card numbers saved for recurring payments?

Once a credit card has been added to the "Add new epayment profile" window and saved, the card number is no longer viewable on the ChamberMaster / MemberZone system (except for the last four numbers). In fact, the card number is not stored by MicroNet at all, but rather by Authorize.net which is responsible for the security of the card information. Authorize.net's security and compliance policy can be read on their website.