QuickBooks for Mac 2014 User’s Guide 109
What you should know before processing a credit card payment in
QuickBooks
Before you process a credit card payment through the Merchant Service for QuickBooks, it's important to
understand the following information.
Ship within 24 hours
Visa and MasterCard association rules require that you do not charge the cardholder for the purchase until the
product has been shipped (as opposed to charging the customer on the date the product was ordered or
authorized).
Card-swiped transactions
(Available only for merchant accounts supported by Merchant Service for QuickBooks.)
For a "card swiped" transaction, the merchant swipes the credit card through a terminal or other device that reads
the card's magnetic stripe. Card-swiped transactions qualify for a lower discount rate because they carry a lower
risk of credit card fraud. If you do repeat business with a customer, you must swipe the credit card every time you
process it to receive this lower rate for each transaction.
Whenever you are unable to swipe the card (for example, if the card's magnetic stripe is damaged), it's a good
idea to imprint of the card and complete a sales slip. Imprinting the card proves that the card was physically
present if a customer later disputes a charge.
Key-entered transactions
For a key-entered transaction, the credit card does not need to be physically present to authorize the transaction,
as it does if you use a card reader. Instead, the information is processed over the Internet (as with the Merchant
Service for QuickBooks), by email, over the phone, or by similar means. All you need is the customer name, the
customer's address, the card number, and the expiration date.
This processing method gives you more flexibility (for example, you can accept credit card payments over the
phone) and enables you to download your payment transactions directly into QuickBooks. However, using this
method also means that you, as the user of the merchant account, have full responsibility for safeguarding against
fraudulent transactions. To help reduce the amount of fraud, the Merchant Service for QuickBooks performs an
address verification check for each credit card transaction by comparing the customer address you enter with the
credit card bank records.
Processing credit and debit cards FAQ
If you're processing credit and debit cards in QuickBooks, you may have a lot of questions. The answers below may
help. You can also check the QuickBooks for Mac support site and community site for your answers.
• If I remove a credit card number, what happens to the transactions associated with that card? They're still
there. QuickBooks maintains a record of all transactions for a customer. You can still click on the transaction in
the Transaction Center which will take you to the online Merchant Service Center where you can view your full
transaction detail.
• If I void a credit card payment, what happens? It's like it never happened. You won't see the transaction in
QuickBooks.
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