To enable the level of End-of-Day reconciliation that Theatre Manager users have come to expect, the authorization in Authorize.net is done a little differently.

• Each authorization is sent using a mode called 'auth only'. This gives you an authorization number and a guaranteed hold on the patrons credit card - just like a full authorization - for up to 30 days, or until released. The situation where you would personally experience 'auth only' is when checking into a hotel where a hold is put on your card for the duration of your stay.
• In Theatre Manager, the amount 'held' is the exact amount of the sale (it is never more, nor less). Refer to the top part of the diagram above - Theatre Manager simply asks Authorize.net to guarantee a hold on the right amount of funds.

There is a quick additional setup step inside the Authorize.net online interface to allow settlement from within Theatre Manager. Click here for instructions. The Authorize.net settlement process is also a little different because of the authorization process, yet provides some interesting benefits. In general, when you decide to settle your batch:

1. Theatre Manager retrieves all the unsettled 'auth only' transactions from Authorize.net. However, Authorize.net will only send the most recent 1000 transactions back to Theatre Manager. This should be perfectly fine for almost every venue almost every day.
2. Theatre Manager compares those transactions on a one-by-one basis to the payments that have not yet been deposited. In theory, they should match exactly. If they do, Theatre Manager goes on to the next step. If the transactions do not match exactly, then a short list of discrepancies is shown that can only be:

   

   Very important - please read the error message column to see if: The transaction is in Authorize.net and not in Theatre Manager -OR- The transaction is in Theatre Manager and not authorize.net and then take action according to the two options below.

   • Payments in Authorize.net that are not in Theatre Manager.

     This might happen if

     1. You settled the match in Authorize.net manually the previous day and did not settle TM. If this is the case, you will see multiple lines in the list .. and the total should match prior days deposit plus today's business
     2. a user logs in to the Authorize.net online interface using their web browser and authorizes a card independently of Theatre Manager (this in itself is a no-no). In other words, something that should never happen.
     3. there is a communication error after Theatre Manager sends the authorization - and before Authorize.net can send on back. If these happen, then you will probably already know about it and need only void the card in Authorize.net to make both balance.
     4. There is some sort of communication error during end of day and TM settles the batch, but they payments were not marked as 'capture' in Authorize.net. If that happens, you will have a continuing out of balance that is constant day-after-day. To fix it:
        • find the payments in Authorize.net that were part of the batch that had the problem. Conveniently, the eod of day will provide an audit list for you (it things they are missing in TM, but they are not).
        • mark them captured manually in Authorize.net so that the same payments are both captured in auth.net and already previously deposited in TM.
     5. there is a chargeback from visa - in which case it might show up as a discrepancy. The advantage is that you will know about these when they happen and can correct it in Theatre Manager immediately.
   • Payments in Theatre Manager that are not in Authorize.net.

     The only reasons where this would occur is:

     1. refunds processed after end of day and before the daily sweep. (Which you should avoid).
     2. If you have turned on auto-settle in the online authorize.net interface -- which would never be set up that way during the install and you should change Authorize.net to self settle.
3. Once you are satisfied that the payment matches the Authorize.Net batch, you settle Theatre Manager by clicking on the final deposit button on the end of day deposit window. Theatre Manager has to do the EOD a little differently than simply settle:
   1. Theatre Manager will go through each of the payments that match from the step above and tell Authorize.net to 'capture' the card. Capturing the card means that the hold is removed and instantly replaced with a binding authorization
   2. These 'captured' cards sit in the batch at Authorize.net and are 'swept' once a day to move them all into the bank, just like other authorization software.

When you see this window:

• Make the error column wider as it may give you enough information to help you diagnose the issues
• Click 'Print Error List' to see actions that you might take to solve the problem which is included with the message description. See a sample report below.
• Contact support if you need further explanation of the message and what to do.

Special Note on Authorize.net refund processing

Refunds are processed immediately by Authorize.net. If you do a lot of refunds before the sweep time and settle end of day after the sweep time, you may be told that you are out of balance by what seems to be the total amount of your refunds. See explanation why Authorize.net processes refunds right away.

Refunds are processed immediately by Authorize.net. YOU CANNOT VOID A REFUND. If you fail to settle a batch containing a refund before the authorize.net sweep time, you will receive a warning during the end of day that the batch may be out of balance (even if it is not). Your balance will appear be out by the total amount of refunds you processed before the sweep time. You will see this every time you: do a refund on a specific day and do not do the end of day process on that same calendar day (before the sweep time)

Set your sweep time (in authorze.net settings on their web page) to be about an hour after you normally do your end of day to minimize the messages about refunds.

There are a few subtle implications of the way Authorize.net works that you may encounter in your reconciliation. Most venues should not see them, but in case you do, these are:

• Multiple Ends-Of-Day: If you do an end of day more than once per day, you will still only see one deposit to your bank because the batch is never closed. Authorize.net 'sweeps' all 'captured' cards once per day and moves them into your bank. This may be useful as Theatre Manager can aggregate EOD into one posting if desired.
• Running End-Of-Day during the Sweep: The Authorize.net bank sweep should be set to run 6 hours after typical end of day. We recommend avoiding doing an end of day in Theatre Manager when the 'sweep' normally occurs otherwise part of a TM batch might be 'swept' to the bank on one day and the rest on the net day - resulting in a split batch. All a 'split batch' does is require you to use a calculator two add two numbers on a bank statement together to compare to your accounting system.
• Setting the Sweep Time: is dependant on when you typically do end of day because of how REFUNDS in a batch are dealt with (see below). We suggest setting the sweep time to 6 hours after the time that you normally do end of day to give the best chance of a refund falling into the current day business. For example, if you do end of day:
  • each night, then 2:00 am is a good choice for the sweep time.
  • each morning, then we suggest 2:00pm for the sweep time.
• Refunds in the batch. There is a difference between a VOID and a refund. A void cancels out an existing charge and there will be no issues during EOD because of voids. However, if a credit card charge is DEPOSITED in theatre manager and you want to refund that money some days or months later, the only way to do so with the independent refund feature in Authorize.net. You must explicitly enable this feature and if you do so:
  • you SHOULD limit who can provide refunds -and-
  • you MUST DO END OF DAY TO SETTLE YOUR TM BATCH in the same day that you did the REFUND in order to see it in the end of day BEFORE THE SWEEP TIME HAS OCCURRED.

    Authorize.net automatically 'captures' refunds immediately (we wish it didn't) so if you don't settle before the sweep, it will appear like you are out of balance and have an additional refund transaction in TM that does not seem to be in Authorize.net. In reality, you are most likely in balance because the refund just got placed in the previous day's batch. You will need to look in the previous day's batch for the refund to make sure you don't refund twice. Addressing Auth.net refund process if it gets deposited before you get a chance to do end of day: Start the end of day deposit. You will get a discrepancy doing end of day. TM will say the batch doesn't match and provide the edit log. Read the description in each line of log to see if it gives additional info. If the errors in the log are all refunds from the prior day and they are in the settled batch on auth.net's online portal, then they are already in auth.net -- so just settle the batch If the errors are new authorizations, contact support. it means you'll need to check yesterdays settlement to see if somebody forced it.

• Voids in Batch are when you authorize a charge and then void it before settlement. Authorize.net will leave a transaction on their size for ZERO dollars. This may result in TM showing the 'void' in the audit list at the end of the day. Please verify that the amount is zero. It is also for your protection to ensure that somebody did not authorize then void without anybody in finance knowing about it.
• More that 1000 authorizations between End Of Day: It is very rare that ay venue will have 1000 distinct transactions in any one day - and likely only on a heavy on-sale day. 1000 authorizations might reflect well over $0.5M per day. On the rare day that you may have more than 1000 authorizations, you may wish to plan your day and:
  • Run an end of day when you are nearing 1000 transactions. This is because Authorize.net will retrieve only the most recent 1000 transactions and doing an end of day approximately every 1000 transactions means that the standard settlement process will run normally, providing a good edit list if possible mistakes.
  • On a really busy day, you can simply use the methodology for large batches and settle everything after all goes quiet for the day. If Theatre Manager cannot do the normal settlement process for Authorize.net, you will get a message similar to the one at right informing you. At that point you will need to get a batch total from the online interface -- and compare it manually to the Theatre Manager total. When both agree, simply close the batch and settle as normal. TM will avoid the payment balancing step (due to the Authorize.net 1000 transaction download limitation) and set all cards to 'capture'. The bank sweep will get them the next day and move them to your bank as normal.

This should only be required when there are more than 1000 transactions in a batch. This is due to a limitation on the Authorize.net servers which only returns the 1000 most recent transactions (suitable for most days business). If you are in a day with more than 1000 transactions, use the batch total and transaction count to compare to the totals in theatre manager and then force settle. TM will then change all cards to 'capture' them.

If there are less than 1000 transactions in the batch, Theatre Manager should identify discrepancies automatically.

Please note that a batch may appear out of balance if there are refunds in a batch, which is affected by your choice of sweep time. Check for voided payments in the Theatre Manager edit list -> error message column and make sure that they are expected.

Theatre Manager assumes you have turned off auto-settle in the admin settings and that Theatre Manager will do the settlement. Do not settle the batch using the Authorize.net interface.

To find the batch total, you will need to:

• log into the Authorize.net Merchant Login window and enter your user id and password for your merchant account.
• Click on the 'Reports' link at the top of the web page and you will see the page below

  

• Click on the 'Transaction Statistics' on the left side.
  • Set the Transaction Type to Unsettled.
  • Click the Run Report button
• When the screen below is shown, look for the values in the right side of the screen near the bottom:
  • Total Count in the last column. In this example it is 11 and represents the number of transactions
  • Net Amount in the last column. In this example it is 1,053.27 and represents the total value of the current batch that has not yet been settled.

  

• When you have both those values, compare them to the credit card total for that batch in Theatre Manager and continue if in balance. If not in balance, then you will need to compare the payment list in TM with the transaction audit list on the server.