**Fortis Pay - Infos & Best Practices (PMS)

Visual Matrix PMS is the tool you are using to communicate with your gateway but Visual Matrix is not processing your credit card transactions. Visual Matrix communicates with Fortis Pay.

Fortis Pay Contact

Phone: (800) 761-8039

Fortis Pay Error Page (scroll down for the pin pad section)

The best way to make sure the batch will always settle is to never log into your gateway portal to make any modification. This can be:

- completing a sale in the portal in which authorization was obtained within Visual Matrix

- posting charges directly within the portal instead of in Visual Matrix

- posting a credit (refund) to a client directly from the portal instead of within Visual Matrix

Another settings to check on your portal is to make sure you do not have an "Auto Batch Close Settings" setup. If the batch closes automatically on the gateway portal before VM does or while the audit is running, then an error will occur and the batch will stay unsettled from VM point.

Process between the moment the Front Desk ask for a credit card number and the front desk confirm the response in Visual Matrix

The Most Common PinPad Model

Credit Card Tokens

- What is a Token Number?

Setup and Process Incidentals

Once setup in Management > Interfaces > Credit Card/Shift4, incidentals are processed automatically.

Learn more:

- Set up an incidental amount for credit card authorization (Cloud)

- Authorize a Credit Card Incidental on Folio B during Check-In (Cloud)

The setup incidental amount is added automatically to the amount to autorize at check-in and is automatically reversed at check-out if unused. The incidental amount will only be added to the total to be authorized by Visual Matrix on the day of check-in.

Some Authorizations Rules

An "Authorization" is not a charge. It is a pending hold. As long as the payment is not posted as a deposit (before check-in) or on the folio (during the stay or at check-out), the authorization will stay on hold until the release at check-out.

A "Reverse" is not a refund. It is a reversal of an authorization.

If a payment is posted lower than the available authorization, the balance will be automatically reverse. The amount of the authorization will be considered as released. Any attempt to reuse the authorization code for the complement without the credit card processor validation will most than likely lead to a charge back from the credit card provider.

Learn more:

- Credit Card Authorization: Current Auth Amount vs Previous Auth Amount

- When are we just authorizing a credit card and actually charging the card?

- A future guest has been authorized by mistake

- How to release an authorization made by error?

Fortis does not allow authorizations over 30 days to process.

- Avoid any authorization before check-in. If you ned to confirm funds on a credit card, take an advance deposit that you will be able to refund at anytime if needed.

- If you have a pending authorization and are not looking to charge the card in the next 30 days, make sure you do post a payment not to loose the authorization. If the authorization drops, the time it will take for the funds to be available again on the client card will prevent you to secure those funds again.

Manual Entry vs PinPad Entry

When entering a credit card manually in the PMS, the credit card processor is unable to confirm that the card being used was truly present or not at the moment of the sale, and any transactions that are manually keyed will be categorized as "card-not-present" even if the card was physically present. This raises the possibility of a fraudulent transaction and makes higher chargebacks risks. As well, not only the processors fees will be higher but the merchant wil be liable.

When using an EMV device to use the credit card in the PMS, the cardholder had to insert the card into the device and occasionally even enter a personal pin code to authorize the transaction. If there is a chargeback, you can prove the mode of entry via your processor's/gateway's portal. The card issuer is then held accountable in this situation if credit card payments are made using a chip card and a pinpad payment terminal.

Saving Credit Cards: Manual Entry vs PinPads EMV?

Voice Authorizations

- Where do I find the Voice Auth to use in the Voice Auth field

- How to enter a Voice Auth on VM Cloud PMS

Processing Refunds

- Refund or Void?

- Regular Refunds vs Independent Refunds

- How to post a refund on a folio

To avoid credit card batch issues, all refunds must be done in Visual Matrix and not in your credit card gateway/processor portal.

What if your pin pads are not responding to Visual Matrix

There are two main reasons why the pin pads would stop communicating with Visual Matrix:

- The broker Service stopped running (VM Cloud PMS).

- The interface is offline (VM Desktop PMS).

- The Server or Computer you are on is on wi-fi instead of the ethernet network on which the pin pads are connected.

If the issue is not fixed quickly and you need to have a credit card interface running, you have the possibility to switch your processing from EMV to Manual by asking our Client Experience team. This will disconnect Visual Matrix from the pinpads and you will still be able to enter manually credit card numbers in Visual Matrix directly.