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Implications of the Authorize.net EOD approach

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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.