Frequently Asked Questions

Merchant Initiated Transactions (MIT) using card on file

Merchant Initiated Transactions (MIT) using card on file

According to the Authorize.Net web site, Merchant Initiated Transactions means:
  • A Merchant Initiated Transaction (MIT) is a payment initiated by a merchant without the cardholder. To do this, the cardholder must have previously given the merchant permission to store their card details for use in certain types of future payments. This means that an MIT can only happen after a cardholder has previously completed a CIT with the merchant. MITs can be split into two kinds of transactions:
    • Standing Instructions:

      These are transactions that reuse the cardholder's credentials on a regular basis or after a certain event occurs. Examples of Standing Instructions are:

      • Recurring Payments - transactions processed according to a fixed interval and fixed amount agreed upon by the cardholder and merchant. Recurring Transactions don't have a specified duration and can continue to be processed until the cardholder cancels the agreement
      • Unscheduled Card on File Transactions - transactions processed for a fixed or variable amount that are not tied to a schedule or recurring transaction date, but to a pre-defined event. For example, when your car's EZ-Pass highway toll booth account falls below a certain minimum, your card automatically gets charged to reload the account balance
    • Industry Practices

      These are transactions that reuse the cardholder's credentials on an ad hoc or one-off basis, with previous consent from the cardholder. Examples of Industry Practice Transactions are:

      • Resubmissions - used when the original authorization is not successfully funded to the merchant but goods or services were provided
      • Reauthorizations - used to obtain a new authorization after the previous authorization has expired
      • Delayed Charges - processes an additional charge after the original transaction has been completed
      • No Show - used to collect penalty fees for not showing up for a reservation or cancellation in accordance with the merchant's cancellation policy
Theatre Manager supports Customer Initiated Transactions for Standing instructions only using saved data for recurring payments (eg post dated, recurring donations, and season subscription auto-renewal).

Theatre Manager does not support unscheduled card on file transactions

You can do this in one of two ways. Use one of:

  • Scheduled 'D' compliance for post dated payments - in this case theatre manager stores the card data internally (encrypted) subject to PCI compliance
  • Merchant Profiles - in this case card data is sent to your merchant provider and they store it. From that point, the card provider is completely responsible for card storage. You can chose to store card data for longer periods of time.
Note: we do not recommend using Moneris Merchant Profiles - they charge too much money. Other merchant providers are not currently charging for this feature.
If you have Theatre Manager store card data (schedule D), it is a Merchant initiate TRansaction. however, the issue become mute - as Theatre Manager retrieves complete card data from the database and sends it to the merchant provider as a Card Not Present Transaction. That is exactly like the customer called you on the phone to give you the card or paid online by typing in their card.
Theatre Manager does not actively implement any of the aforementioned Industry Practice Transactions that cause additional since all transactions are completed when the customer provides card data in full.