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Heartland Retail : Payment Application Guide

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Heartland Retail : Payment Application Guide

Overview

This article describes processing, reconciliation, and user-interface enhancements implemented with the introduction of the new Payments App.

Prerequisites

The new Payments App is designed for merchants who meet the following criteria:

  • Site is running Heartland Retail Connect version 2023.04.040 or later.
  • Site processes payments via Heartland using a supported payment device.
  • PAX payment device is running the latest PAX version.

General Processing Enhancements

Portico Credentials Configuration

The new payments app validates Portico payment credentials upon saving in the Settings | Credit Card page. This failsafe ensures that, when processing and reconciling credit card payments, merchants will not encounter authentication issues resulting from invalid credentials. If you enter invalid credentials, the POS will display a message to that effect, as pictured below, and will not save the values until they pass validation.

Upon successful validation, the POS will display a green success message, as pictured here:

In cases where invalid credentials were saved in POS settings before this validation was in effect, should a merchant attempt a payment or reconciliation, rather than simply marking the payment as failed, the POS will display an authentication error indicating 'invalid credentials'. This message will display as a red toast message, similar to the behavior noted above when attempting to save invalid credentials.

Card Processing Status

So users are better informed of the status of a pending payment, we have enhanced the process with friendly indicators. These include an animated loading icon to indicate that the POS is working in the background, as well as verbal status updates. Upon successful initiation of a card payment transaction, the POS will display a message reading, “Processing Sale. Please Wait.”

If the payment fails to process in a timely manner, the POS will initiate the auto-reconciliation process, as described in the Auto-Reconciliation section of this guide.

Manual Card Payment

Previously, the POS would erroneously deem all manually entered card payments as unresolved while the user was entering the credit card information.

In these instances, the transactions would process successfully on the payment device, but the POS did not reflect that. With recent enhancements, the POS records these successful payments correctly.

EMV PIN Debit Option

As an added benefit, the new payments app now includes an option to process transactions as EMV PIN Debit.

If the PIN cannot be verified, the PAX device will display a message to that effect so the customer can either retry their PIN or use a different payment method.

Merchants who wish to enable this option should contact Operations to verify their merchant processing account is configured to support PIN entry, and that the Debit Payment feature flag enabled.

If you enable the Debit Payment flag, the POS will enforce the rule across all aspects of debit payments, such as inserting/swiping and PIN entry. When processing, the payment device will display a debit or credit prompt and, when you select debit, it will follow the normal debit payment flow.

Please note: The SELECT APP screen on the PAX device is mandated, meaning we have no control to turn this option off. This prompt displays when the card brand/processor requires it.

Reconciliation Enhancements

Auto-Reconciliation

In an effort to minimize the need for manual reconciliation of card payments, we have improved the Heartland Payment flow. Please note that this functionality is available for only payments processed via Heartland .

If a sale fails, the payments app automatically attempts to reconcile the payment in a manner visible to the end-user, but that doesn’t require that the user tap the Resolve button.

During this process, so that users know to not refresh the screen, the payments app will attempt to reconcile multiple times and will display a message reading, “Still verifying payment…Please do not refresh the page.”

Upon successful reconciliation, the card will be charged and the payment will display on the screen.

In the event that the reconciliation fails, the card will not be charged, and the POS will display a message to that effect. In the example provided, the payment failed due to a communication error.

Manual Reconciliation Enhancements

With the broadened scope of auto-reconciliation functionality, the need for manual reconciliation is greatly reduced. However, in case the POS is unable to automatically reconcile an unresolved payment, it will display an orange banner at the top of the screen with a Resolve option. In such instances, you should verify with the processor, or via the Portico Gateway, whether the payment was successful. If it was successful, select the Resolve button to reconcile it in POS. Otherwise, re-tender the transaction.

Please note:

  • The Resolve banner displays only for transactions the payments app was not able to verify and reconcile via the auto-reconciliation process.
  • Manually confirmed payments cannot be voided.

Automatic Reconciliation When Loading POS

To further mitigate the challenges of unresolved payments resulting from interruptions such as accidental reloading of the page during processing, we have added the option to automatically reconcile payments when launching the POS. To enable this feature, do the following:

  • From the POS, go to Settings.
  • Go to Locations and select the store you wish to configure.
  • Select the Stations tab in the lower portion of the screen and select the station you wish to configure.
  • Toggle the Automatically reconcile payment upon launching the POS to Yes and select Save.

With this feature enabled, upon launch, the POS will automatically load the reconciliation modal to verify the last attempted payment and will inform users of the activity. You can close this modal at any time by tapping the X in the upper right corner.

Please note: Should a user cancel this process by closing the modal, they can proceed with taking payments again, but it may result in duplicate payments. At such point, they will see the Resolve button on the top bar. If they click Resolve, the POS will again attempt auto-reconciliation. If it fails, it will fall back to manual reconciliation flow.

Automatic Reconciliation After Timeout Between POS and Payment Device

Should a payment fail to process within 90 seconds, it will be captured by the Check Payment option in the auto-reconciliation process during checkout. Before sending such auto-reconciliation requests to the payment device, to ensure no interruption or interference, the POS will first verify that the device is idle.

As with other auto-reconciliation processes, if the POS does not successfully receive the payment status, it will fall back to the manual reconciliation process.

Messaging Enhancements

For a more informed user experience, we have clarified messaging related to card processing and reconciliation as noted.

Refresh Confirmation Prompts

  • For web and iOS app, we have introduced Refresh Confirmation prompts that display when users try to refresh the POS / page when a payment transaction is in process.
  • As well, to further discourage refreshing during processing, we have removed the Pending Credit Card Payment that previously displayed during the processing of a payment.

Chip-Read

If the payment device fails to read a card’s chip upon insertion, the POS will display an error to that effect. After three failures, the payment device will prompt the user to swipe the card instead. Please note that you must tap/hold the card in place for 3-5 seconds in order for the card data to be successfully read by the payment device.

Offline Payment Device

Previously, if a transaction failed due to an offline payment device (for example, because of an IP address change or being turned off), the POS would mark the payment as unresolved and would then prompt the user to confirm the payment status. With recent enhancements, the POS displays a message informing the user that the payment failed due to a device communication failure. As well, with recent enhancements, Heartland Retail regularly pings payment devices and displays alerts if the device is not communicating. This allows users to know the status of the device before attempting a payment.

Duplicate Transaction

Previously, if a user attempted to process a duplicate transaction (meaning for the same amount on the same card), when the transaction was declined, instead of marking it as such, the POS would mark it as unresolved. We have corrected this behavior with recent enhancements so that these transactions are marked correctly as declined. As well, the POS displays a toast message notifying users of duplicate transactions.

Contactless Transaction

Previously, all errors related to contactless transactions were reflected simply as failed in the POS. Now, the POS displays the specific cause for failure as follows:

  • Card type not selected
  • User Abort
  • Timeout
  • Decline

This provides the user with greater visibility and understanding as to the cause of the failure so they can make better informed decisions as to next steps.

Please note that you must hold the payment method (card, phone, watch, etc.) to the payment device for 3-5 seconds in order the the payment data to be read.