As an event manager the need to process a credit card and accept payments quickly without going through a rigorous registration process is a crucial element of customer service. Eliminate the need to input all the information needed to supplement a charge or just add-on extra charges to an existing transaction. Just take the card in-person or over phone and charge it. This is a service e-RegisterNow offers as part of the complete registration solution: The Virtual Terminal. The terminal allows users and cashiers of e-RegisterNow the ability to create a transaction in real-time with a simple interface without pos hardware.
To process a transaction anytime anywhere, all the cashier requires is the credit card name, number and the amount to process. This is the very minimum needed to process the transaction. The credit card will be authorized in real-time and money will be deposited in your corporate account that very night. No other information is required since all that is needed is the charge. Any additional information that would be needed for reporting purposes will be auto filled by the system on your behalf. The Virtual Terminal offers more intricate options when processing payments such as recurring payments, event enrolment and different payment types as needed.
Firstly, when the cashier starts the terminal, offered to all dashboard e-RegisterNow users with permission, they have the option to create a new reference number or append to an existing one. The reference number is e-RegisterNow’s unique tracking id that records every possible transaction that travels through the system. Any and all data is stored within our secure servers and we can query any data we need from initial moment of registration to the last step of receiving the confirmation email upon successful registration. A new registration number will be auto generated upon start of the Virtual Terminal if the cashier chooses not to append. If they choose to append, then the new transaction, if accepted, will appear on an old receipt showing the new charge. This shows a clear history of all transactions that are happening for this one registrant.
Secondly, we select the payment frequency. This could be a one-time payment that needs to be charged. Many reasons exist for this. These could include charging someone the difference for an event that they wish to switch too, charge extra for a coupon that was triggered by accident, any additional charges such as extra workshops or school supplies, etc. and any other reason where you would need to charge the registrant once. A monthly charge can be started here by charging the amount you wish to charge monthly once, and the rest of the payments will fall into the deferred payments category. A quick way to start a recurring payment for a registrant and because e-RegisterNow is PCI complaint, we will store the credit number of the registrant on for you and charge it when needed. This means you will not need to contact the registrant each month to obtain their credit card to charge them. The Third payment frequency is the payment plan. This allows you to create a plan within the Virtual Terminal using the payment plan calculator. You specify the amount, initial deposit and the pay schedule and the calculator will breakdown the pay timetable. You can modify the timetable by adjusting how much is charged each month, on which day of the month and how much the initial deposit is. The deposit is necessary since there is a need to charge the credit card at least once to capture the credit card number. A common use of this feature is accepting a small deposit from a guest and then charging the rest later in a one-month payment plan. Depending on your use, the Virtual Terminal will handle any requests instantly, letting you know if the credit card used is declined.
Additional features for the Virtual Terminal include enrolling the guest into a single event. Very useful if a cashier is signing a guest up on their behalf or adding extra guests to a sold-out event. By enrolling in an event, this gives the cashier and users of e-RegisterNow access to all special reports that store event relevant data. A description can also be added to the transactions, allowing a word-for-word summary of the transactions that will appear on the receipt. Used for explaining the additional charges and costs to the guests once they receive their receipts. This avoids additional customer server issues and potential chargebacks. Lastly, the payment type does not need to be credit card. The Virtual Terminal allows payment types such as cash, cheque, invoiced, debit card, bank transfer and any custom payment types. No money passes through the system, it is only stored for bookkeeping purposes. This is the responsibility of the cashier to ensure the payment type selected, and the money collected can be confirmed later.
Finally, for every successfully transactions a receipt is created. All declined transactions will not proceed further and will ask for another credit card or payment type to proceed. The receipt is created instantly with all relevant data such as the cashier that processed it and the date. If this transaction was appended to an existing reference number, then the current receipt will be updated with the new transaction. If an email address was provided during process, then a receipt will be emailed out automatically to the guest. The email will contain your company’s contact info and a PDF copy of the receipt as an attachment. Any e-Tickets attached to the receipt will also be sent out as PDFs.
In summary, the e-RegisterNow Virtual Terminal can be used in any situation that requires the collection of additional funds from your guest. The situations may vary, but the terminal provides the tools and questions necessary to meet that charge. As an additional point, the more information provided during the setup of the transaction, the more features of e-RegisterNow will become available to you since the transactions will no longer be classified as a general transactions and the numerous reports in the dashboard will reflect that.
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