Incomplete Credit Card Transactions

A COMPLETE Credit Card Transaction is a successful transaction, with the transferal of funds being authorized. An INCOMPLETE Credit Card Transaction indicates that the transfer authorization may not have occurred. Skyware Systems helps facilitate your communication with the Credit Card Gateway provider you utilize. If it appears that this communication has not occurred, Skyware will mark the transaction as incomplete, and you will need to take further action. You will need to MANUALLY VERIFY the transaction with your Gateway provider, and either mark it as complete if it was successful, or delete it if it failed.

The Incomplete Credit Card Transactions screen area displays any Credit Card transactions that are considered incomplete.  

EMV is a payment method based upon a technical standard for smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines that can accept them. EMV chip cards use an actual computer chip placed on the top part of a Credit Card to communicate with terminals. These chips allow a much more intricate and secure transaction process to occur. Payment cards that comply with the EMV standard are often called Chip and PIN or Chip and Signature cards.

An EMV device is the machine used to make a payment using a Credit Card. See Using EMV Pin Pads for more details. The EMV device should therefore be on the counter or held for the customer to insert their card into it. Any EMV devices for your Property need to be configured into the system before it can be available. Remember it is a physical device that needs to be attached for use. (See Configure PinPad or EMV Stations).

All Payment methods except Credit Cards will post immediately to the statement. Credit Card transactions will first take you to a Credit Card Transaction screen where you will confirm that you are using the correct tokenized credit card and the appropriate authorized amount on that card. The main difference between EMV Pin Pad transactions and swiped or manual entry transactions is that you will begin the transaction by activating the PinPad and finish the transaction on the device itself.  You will activate your PinPad/EMV device where your guest can place their card and open a new screen to your Gateway provider (such as Shift 4, Tenerum or USAePay). During this time your Skyware Systems will be “thinking”, waiting on the response from the device.  If there is no response, the action will time out with a message in RED on the Skyware Screen.  Any other messages (declines, canceled by cardholder, etc.) will display in red as well. If you try to process a credit card but the link to the credit card company is not available, Skyware Systems still allows you to proceed but will display a message that states that there was a communication error. These issues all lead to incomplete transactions.

Note: If you use Shift 4 and you receive the "Unable to activate EMV device" error message, please check the EMV transactions screen to ensure that the transaction was recorded. If the error lies in the communication between Skyware and Shift 4, there will be a record of it in the detailed list for the specific Pin Pad/EMV device, that shows the transaction request was not "picked up" and sent, and instead timed out. This means that the Skyware Local Stand Alone Service is not active and therefore not communicating, and will need to be restarted on-site.

 

Incomplete Credit Card transactions show up in Folios or Reports in RED. Incomplete Credit Card transactions may also PREVENT YOUR NIGHT AUDIT from completing. Any Incomplete Credit Card transactions therefore need to be followed up on.

 

 

 

 

Date Updated October 23, 2023