Order
Entry, Management and Reporting: Using OMARS, the ClearCommerce front-end, for order management and reporting |
OMARS (Orders, Management, and Reporting Services) is a set of back-office tools used by merchants to enter and manage credit card payments for orders. The Order Entry service is used for entering credit card orders. The Order Management service is used for processing orders and any follow-up transactions, such as voids and credits, associated with those orders. The reporting services are used for running reports of order activity. About Orders and TransactionsOrder and TransactionBefore using the OMARS tools, it is important to understand the life cycle of orders and the difference between orders and transactions. An order is a record of a request for goods or services inititated by a customer. An order may encompass one or more transactions. Each transaction is a record of an action that is taken on an order. For example, an order may have an initial transaction to authorize the credit card. Then, a second transaction would be initiated to capture the order, and mark it for settlement. Any follow-up events, such as credits to the order would be listed as separate transactions against that order. Transaction Type The merchant may select whether their transactions are to be processed as PreAuth or Auth transactions. A PreAuth, or pre-authorized transaction is one for which the customer's credit card has been authorized, but payment has not yet been processed. Typically, PreAuth transactions are used when an order is to be fulfilled, for example, a physical good to be shipped. Once the good has been shipped, the transaction is post-authorized, or fulfilled, which initiates payment. An Auth transaction in which the credit card is pre-authorized and post-authorized in one step. Transaction Status At points during its life cycle, a transaction may reflect one of the following statuses: Authorized - a PreAuth transaction that has been authorized, but not yet fulfilled. Captured - a transaction that has been fulfilled and is awaiting settlement. A captured transaction can be either an Auth transaction or a Pre-Auth that has been fulfilled. Settled - a captured transaction that has been sent to the bank for processing. At this point, the money has changed hands between the merchant and the cardholder. MIT settles all captured orders automatically once a day at midnight.
SecurityAccess ControlYou must have an MIT personal certificate to access the OMARS tools. Merchant administrators define which staff members have access to each service. More information including instructions on obtaining certificates is available from Web Certificates at MIT. Policy on Storing Credit Card InformationIt is MIT's policy to not store credit card information any longer than is needed to process the transaction. Credit card numbers will be removed from the ClearCommerce server as soon as the transaction is settled. Merchants are advised not to store the customers' credit card numbers in any of their systems or in paper form. Using OMARSOrder Entry Order Entry is used only for creating orders. Merchants typically use Order Entry for entering orders that the client places via phone, fax, or in person. Order Entry is designed to be customized for each merchant, to reflect the identity and special needs of their operation. When setting up Order Entry for a particular store, the merchant chooses whether the Transaction Type is defaulted or can be selected by the person entering the order. The Transaction Type can default to either Pre-Auth or Auth. . If a Pre-Auth is either defaulted or selected, the order will need further processing in Order Management. The merchant may also choose to have orders classified in certain ways. The merchant must also determine what other fields are required based on the nature of the business. For example, if goods are to be delivered, the merchant will require shipping address fields. Goods may or may not incur tax or shipping charges. The merchant may also request a "comment" field, which may be used for additional information about the order, such as a cross-reference to another database or fulfillment system. Order Management The Order Management tool allows merchants to display all orders that were successfully entered and process any necessary follow-on transactions, such as fulfillments, voids, and credits. When a merchant user first calls up the Order Management page, the user determines what orders to display based on a set of search criteria. Options include displaying a single order number or a list of orders for a particular day or time span. Note that the "time" of an order is when it was first entered, so last month's order won't show up in this month's list even if there was activity on it this month. When setting up an Order Management query, the merchants can decide to "filters" to show only orders to be fulfilled. The result of the search is a list of all orders that meet the criteria of the search. Here, the merchant may display the detail of an order and/or take additional actions. To drill down on the detail of the order, click on the Order ID. The order detail will display the information that was entered for the order, all transactions that are associated with the order, and the status of those transactions. Actions that can be taken on applicable orders include:
Transaction and Settlement Reporting The Transaction and Settlement report tools allow merchants to generate transaction reports in HTML format to display in a web browser or Tab-Separated Value (TSV) file format to open in an Excel spreadsheet. On the first screen, merchants select the parameters for the report, including:
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