Good Reasons To Run a Credit Card Pre-Settlement List

Whether you are a CounterPoint version 7.X or CP SQL version 8.X user you should be checking the status of your Credit & Debit Card settlement attempts daily.  Preferably this should done as part of a stores normal closing process or opening process regardless of whether the systems End of Day Settlement process is done manually or automatically.  The main reason for this is so that your staff has confirmation that there are no issues that are preventing transactions from settling.  This process should also be done on seldom used registers/drawers.

Failing to do this could result in any or all of the following residual issues:

• Cash flow issues due to the transactions not being settled.

• Settlement charges being levied on these transactions at the highest possible fee rate/percentage that is allowed under your merchant account contract.

• Refusal by either the bank/processor to settle the transactions.

• Settlements being rejected because of Card Expiration had passed or because of closed accounts.

• Problems with customers debating the charges because they suddenly pop up on a new statement months (or longer) after they were originally incurred.

A recent example of this sort of issue involved a customer who periodically does sales at trade shows on a laptop in off-line mode.  They did several shows over a two month period, and later imported the activity into their database, but neglected to settle the Credit Card transactions for that register.  All of the transactions involved were over an month old, with most being over two months  old, and the total dollar amount involved was well over $11,000.00!  Luckily for the customer, they were able to settle the majority of the transactions at issue, however, the did incur some loss. 

If you have question about these closing procedures or if you have a similar settlement issue, please call or email the  CCS Retail Systems Support Department.