Preparation before switching to Shift4 EMV

Preparation before switching to Shift4 EMV


When will the switch happen?

Visual Matrix and Shift4 have scheduled and confirmed date and time to take the EMV interface "live" at your property.
In order to ensure a smooth transition to the new EMV C
redit Card Interface, please review this document as it outlines what to expect during the live process.

EMV Hardware

All hardware such as credit card terminals (pin pads) and other required devices will be purchased from Shift4. Shift4 devices will be set up and ready prior to the installation date.
You will work directly with Shift4 to schedule your installation/testing date.
If you are a Best Western property, GLS has to open ports on the BW network or setting up static IPs prior to the install. You need to have as many ports open per EMV device. GLS can be contacted at mac@gls.com or 866-558-1920. It can take them up to 48h.
If you are an independant property (non-BW), you need to open some ports on your network. You need to have as many ports open per EMV device. 

Before the Live Date

Designate a hotel contact
This person will work directly with support during the install process. The hotel does have to perform certain tasks during the installation process.

Have a credit card with a chip ready for testing
Details below on how the card is used during testing

Decide on how to handle In-House Guests staying over
You have two possibilities:
- Charge all in-house guests on the day of cutover (recommended): On each in-house guest, post the payment for the entire stay using the current authorization. This will charge the guest for the authorization that already exists and will not require any additional authorization request on the card after the switch.
- Do not charge the Guest (this will require the guest to present their credit card again after the EMV install): The credit card and the authorizations will not carry over to the new EMV system, all current authorizations will be released. Once the EMV install is completed, the hotel will have to contact the guest and request that he/she provides the credit card again so the hotel can re-authorize the card. This will hold a second authorization on the guest account until the first authorization is released (generally 3-10 days).

D-Day: Installation Process

This time will be used to configure the new EMV Credit Card Interface and will require some assistance from the hotel contact.

The first step in the installation process is to handle any existing credit card authorizations on the current credit card interface. Any authorizations you have for in-house guests will not carry over to the new EMV interface so at this time the hotel contact needs to inform our Agent whether they plan to charge all in-house guests or release authorizations for in-house guests (see details of those two options above).
This only affects in-house guests that are staying over. Any guests that are due out on the day of the install should have payment posted before the install starts.

After this step, Visual Matrix will settle the credit card batch for the day. Then we will use the remaining time prior to testing to finish setting up the new interface. All future reservations that have credit cards are converted to tokens during this process. During this time, the hotel will not be able to process, view, or save new credit cards in Visual Matrix until after testing is completed.

Shift4 testing

At the scheduled testing time, please join the conference call initiated by Shift4.

Visual Matrix, Merchant Link, and the Hotel Contact will all be on the conference call to test the interface. Testing involves making multiple small charges on a credit card provided by the hotel.
We will make around 3 to 6 different charges that will vary from .25 to $1.00 each. The card can be either a debit or credit card but must have a chip.
We will test the following:
- Charge via chip
- Charge via swipe
- Charge via manual entry on pin-pad
- Voiding a payment
- Refunding a payment

Once testing is complete, you will be live on the EMV interface. Please feel free to ask any questions on how the EMV interface works. Testing is also used as a time to train the hotel on how to use the EMV interface.


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