Q - In A/R -> Processing -> Credit Card Trx Handle, at field "21. Approval No," I press F4 to interface with the credit card payment gateway server, then I receive the message "Credit: AP Error: Chk Viawarp For Dupl."  See examples below:

When I go to Viawarp Credit Card Payment Gateway console, I do see that this transaction shows up.  However, in Elliott, I don't see anything in A/R account inquiry, A/R distribution to G/L or Credit Card Log History.  What happened?

A - Most likely you received a credit card time out error. When Elliott tries to communicate with Viawarp, we write an input file to a predefined folder. The Viawarp payment gateway has a file monitor program that is constantly running. When it sees a new input file, it will send it to the Viawarp Payment gateway server. When the payment gateway server returns the processed result, the monitor program will write the output in a response file in the same folder. Elliott waits for that response file and then completes the process.

In this sequence of events, the following potential errors can happen:

1. The monitor program is not running.
2. The payment gateway server is not running.
3. The Internet is down or busy.
4. Your credit card processor (ELAVON) is busy.

Obviously, Elliott can't wait forever for the response file to come back. At some point, Elliott will declare a time out. When Elliott declares a time out, we consider the credit card transaction to be no good. Therefore, you don't see the time out credit card transaction in Elliott.

But on the other hand, a time out transaction could still eventually be processed on the payment gateway server side. When this happens, there will be a discrepancy between Elliott and the payment gateway server, which is what you have right now.

At this moment, your solution is to go to Credit Card Trx Handling. Enter the exact transaction for refund. However, at the field "21. Approval No," don't hit the F4 key to interface because that will create a duplicate refund. Simply press Enter at field 21.  The system will give you a warning that you did not hit F4. You will respond "Yes" to the dialog box so the system will let you continue. Now you can complete this transaction and post it. By doing so, you take care of the Elliott side without interfacing with the payment gateway server. Now Elliott and the payment gateway server are in sync.

Just as an FYI, ELAVON is going to phase out Viawarp support and so will we. We recommend that our customers migrate to Payware Connect if you have not done so yet.  Please give us a call first if you need to migrate to Payware Connect.