Traditionally in a restaurant environment, credit card batches were stored locally to allow for adjustments (tips) prior to being submitted to the processor. Since 2015 and the EMV Liability Shift, processors more commonly allowed for adjustments to be made to transactions stored on their host. This reduced the risk for merchants who were storing a day’s worth of transactions on a local database. But in some cases, it also reduced flexibility in managing their batch closes.
- Terminal Capture: Refers to the legacy method of storing transactions locally. Operators would manually submit batch closes when adjustments were completed.
- Host Capture: Current method of transactions being stored at the processing host. Batches are automatically closed at a scheduled time daily. Certain platforms also allow for a “merchant-initiated” batch closure.
Fiserv (First Data) Considerations
Datacap’s EMV certifications leverage the Fiserv RapidConnect gateway. RapidConnect can settle to Nashville, Buypass, or Cardnet; each with different batching behaviors.
- Nashville (Group ID: 10001) Auto-Close Only; time set in FD POS Management (see below)
- Buypass (Group ID: 20001) Allows for Manual Batch Close; command sent via POS
- Cardnet (Group ID: 30001) Auto-Close Only; Multiple non-configurable batch closings per day. *Not ideal if adjustments are required
Common Errors
- “Invalid Tran Code”– Occurs when an AdjustByRecNo is attempted by the POS (not supported by Fiserv). Most processors support a Sale/Adjust flow. Fiserv only supports a Pre-Auth/Auth-Capture flow.
- 205:DW – Occurs when a manual batch close is attempted via Nashville. This function is not supported by Nashville.
TSYS Considerations
Datacap’s EMV certifications leverage TSYS Summit Host. This platform allows for both manual and auto batch close.
- For Auto-Close, the time can be scheduled in the TSYS Express portal (available to TSYS reps). Multiple times can be configured to allow for multiple batch closes, but this is rarely used.
- Manual Batch-Close. Regardless of the scheduled time, the operator can choose to manually close a batch via POS command.
- If the Auto-Close fields are left blank and the operator fails to manually close the batch, it will automatically close after approximately 46 hours as a safeguard by TSYS.
- Common Error: “Record Not Found”. Occurs when a tip/adjustment is attempted after the batch has been closed.
