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Credit card processing through Macola®

Adapted from Leahy Consulting implementation notes on credit card processing through Macola® ES and Progression, February 2008. Gateway products and support numbers change; treat the named products as examples of the pattern rather than a current recommendation, and call us before you commit to one.

Credit card processing in Macola® is a chain of four parties, and most of the setup work is in the middle two rather than in Macola® itself.

The chain

Macola® talks to the gateway. The gateway talks to the processor. The processor talks to your bank. Your bank recognizes the account activity; it also authorizes your use of the processor and provides the codes and passwords that make the connection work.

The gateway is bought separately — it does not come from Macola®.

What Macola® needs

Credit card processing has to be included in your license. When it is, extra screens appear in O/E Setup that are not there otherwise. If those screens are missing, the license is the place to start.

Reference documents: Macola® ES document 16173235, Progression document 6798902.

Gateways

Gateways that have been used with Macola® ES and Progression credit card functionality:

Gateway Notes
PC Charge (GOSoftware) Exact's own choice of gateway; used with Progression
Authorize.net Also handles eCommerce; used with ES and BirdDog Credit Card Delux
Verisign PayFlow Pro No transaction fees; works with BirdDog
Monetra Works with BirdDog

Not every gateway on the market can be used with the ES and Progression credit card functionality. Confirm before you sign anything.

Installing a gateway: the PC Charge pattern

The steps below are for GOSoftware's PC Charge, and the shape is similar for the others.

  1. Install the gateway software on the server and on the clients.
  2. Install Pscharge.dll into System32 on the server and on each client, then map and register it.
  3. Configure the gateway software.
  4. Take the serial number and company number the gateway provides — Macola® needs both.
  5. Add each Macola® user at server level, using the code the gateway supplies.

GOSoftware supplies a printed manual and runs a support line.

Reading transaction status

Two mappings are worth memorizing, because they are how a gateway status maps to where the order is in Macola®:

Gateway status Macola® stage
Approved O/E order entry
Captured O/E select for bill

For troubleshooting, Shift-F11 at server level starts and stops the error log, IOdebug.log.

Hung transactions live in the SQL tables

A transaction can hang for several reasons — a dropped connection mid- authorization is the common one. When that happens, the credit card tables have to be examined directly through SQL Server to establish what state the transaction is actually in before anything is retried. Retrying blind risks charging the customer twice. Call our support desk on (513) 723-8094 rather than guessing.

Support & contact

Our team is glad to help with anything from a quick question to a full implementation.