Table of Contents
Elavon to CardConnect Conversion
In order to complete the migration from Elavon to CardConnect EMV as your credit card solution in RecTrac 3.1, the credit card tokens used by Elavon to link your patrons to their credit cards and billing records must be transferred to CardConnect. The purpose of this document is to detail these final steps.
The basic process consists of:
Choosing a conversion date and then coordinating with Elavon, CardConnect and Vermont Systems to ensure cooperation and timely interaction between all four (4) parties: You (the merchant), Elavon, CardConnect, and Vermont Systems.
Elavon creating an export file of your patron's credit card numbers used for billing and transmitting it to CardConnect.
CardConnect converting the Elavon card data to their tokens and transmitting that file back to you.
Importing the CardConnect file into RecTrac.
Running billing at your Department, as you normally do, but using the new CardConnect tokens.
The full list of steps appears below. While the steps seem simple and straight-forward, it cannot be stressed enough that timing is crucial to the success of the conversion and you need to take utmost care to ensure NO NEW BILLING RECORDS ARE CREATED IN RECTRAC between Elavon's export of their tokens and your import of the CardConnect tokens. Vermont Systems strongly advises that you run this conversion process during non-business hours and that you take WebTrac offline until the process is complete.
License– Maintenance Agreement
The use of this interface requires a Vermont Systems license and annual maintenance agreement for RecTrac and the component modules discussed in this document. Prior to implementing any process outlined in this document, please contact the Vermont Systems Sales department at 1-877-883-8757to verify that you are authorized to use this interface and if not, to obtain a quote and/or approval.
Setup Steps
This document provides the steps required to convert Elavon Tokens to CardConnect Tokens. If you have additional questions about this process after reading this document, please contact Vermont Systems Support by phone at887-883-8757 or generate a Support Ticket through the Customer portal of the Vermont Systems web site using your Customer ID and password.
Before You Proceed
This document is written with the following assumptions. If any of the items listed is NOT true, contact Vermont Systems Support prior to continuing.
· Your organization is running RecTrac 3.1.06.15 or greater.
· Your current Credit Card Solution is Elavon and you understand that you are migrating from the Elavon solution to the CardConnect EMV solution.
· You have a valid CardConnect account and have established all necessary merchant accounts with CardConnect.
· If you do not have a CardConnect account, you cannot proceed. To establish a CardConnect account, contact CardConnect Lauren Neal (816-234-9177) or CardConnect Sales at signup@cardconnect.com.
· You are prepared to un-link all ETS Credit Card profiles and Pin Pad profiles from Profile Hierarchy on your cutover date, which should be a few days prior to the conversion.
· You have created CardConnect Credit Card profiles and Pin Pad profiles in RecTrac and are prepared to link them accordingly in Profile Hierarchy immediately on your cutover date, which should be a few days prior to the conversion.
Profiles must be linked for the conversion to run.
· You and your staff understand that payments and billing should be suspended in the interim between receipt of the export file from Elavon and the import of export file from CardConnect in order to ensure no billing records are created and no sales are processed using credit cards.
· You understand WebTrac should be taken offline in the interim between receipt of the export file from Elavon and the import of export file from CardConnect in order to ensure no billing records are created and no sales are processed using credit cards.
The Elavon to CardConnect Token Conversion Process
The process consists of:
· You (Merchant) choosing aconversion date and then coordinating with Elavon, CardConnect and Vermont Systems to ensure cooperation and timely interaction between all four(4) parties.
· Elavon creating an export file of your patron's credit card numbers used for billing and transmitting it to CardConnect.
· CardConnect converting the Elavon card data to their tokens and transmitting that file back to you.
· Vermont Systems (via WebEx) backing up your RecTrac database immediately prior to the conversion.
· Vermont Systems (via WebEx)halting and taking WebTrac offline during the conversion.
· Vermont Systems (via WebEx)importing the CardConnect file into RecTrac.
· Vermont Systems (via WebEx)running the conversion program on your database.
· You (Merchant) doing an actual billing run at your Department, as you normally do, but using the new CardConnect tokens.
· You (Merchant) determining how you will handle refunds for retail sales processed in Elavon after converting to CardConnect.
Plan the Conversion Date and Time and Coordinate with All Involved
The token conversion steps, themselves, are fairly simple and straight-forward. However, the timing and expediency with which you complete the steps will be crucial to the success of the project.
Choose a conversion date/time and communicate that date with Elavon, CardConnect and Vermont Systems. Coordinating the efforts of four (4)separate businesses will take some planning and scheduling between all involved.
The process of getting the export file from Elavon to CardConnect and from CardConnect to you needs to be worked out well in advance of the actual date.
Upon receiving the export file from Elavon, CardConnect will need two (2) business days to convert it before sending it to Vermont Systems.
Vermont Systems typically requires two (2) weeks advance notice and will schedule a Support Representative to work with you throughout the process. The Vermont Systems portion of the actual conversion should take about two (2) hours.
Planning for the Conversion Date and Time
For the Conversion, itself, Vermont Systems recommends a date just after your normal billing date. This will allow you to complete the conversion and then run billing on your normal schedule. Do NOT choose a Friday. Vermont Systems recommends a day of the week that typically sees lower transaction volume. Refer to the Elavon to CardConnect Conversion Plan and Flow Charts below.
Note: The token conversion is done for billing purposes. It is not done so normal retail sales done via Elavon can be refunded in CardConnect.
Optimally, the conversion should be completed, tested, and verified in about two (2) hours. That being said, you should choose a time of day that typically does not see a lot of volume. If you opt NOT to suspend payments/WebTrac (see below), then Vermont Systems recommends running the conversion when your offices are closed. Be aware that coordinating the efforts of four (4) departments for off hours support may be difficult.
Other Considerations
Review your last two (2) billing cycles and ensure you have resolved any/all declines. When resolving your declines, you will likely need to get new credit cards on account for some customers. This may take some time, so plan accordingly.
Prior to running the conversion, Vermont Systems highly recommends that you have your CardConnect Credit Card profiles and Pin Pad profiles created, tested and ready to be linked in RecTrac Profile Hierarchy. These should be in place and ready for use immediately upon completion of the conversion. Likewise, you will also need to un-link all ETS Credit Card profiles and Pin Pad profiles from Profile Hierarchy immediately upon completion of the conversion, as you do not want those being used for processing.
Additionally, the physical hardware you intend to use with the CardConnect solution should be in place, tested, and ready to go.
Suspend Payments and Billing and Take WebTrac Offline
On your cutover date (the date on which you will STOP using Elavon and START using CardConnect), you must ensure that your clerks STOP setting up bills for Elavon. Any bill set up on/after your cutover date must be set up for CardConnect and must have a first billing date that coincides with your first billing date for CardConnect. Refer to the Elavon to CardConnect Conversion Plan and Flow Charts below.
On the day of the conversion, you should suspend payments and take WebTrac offline. To ensure that there is no chance of a credit card sale being processed while the conversion is being run, Vermont Systems highly recommends that you suspend all payments and billing and that you take WebTrac offline from the time you ask Elavon to generate the export file (see below) to such time as the conversion program has been run and a test billing has been performed. Simply put: you do not want your patrons attempting to use their charge cards while you are between credit card solutions.
Elavon Will Create the Export File and Transmit it to CardConnect
At the designated date and time, you will contact Elavon and have them prepare an export file containing your billing records and card data. Once the file is created, Elavon will send the file to CardConnect through a secure channel.
· ets_sales@elavon.com orhttps://elavonpayments.com/support/
· The export file Elavon creates will contain:
· The Elavon Member Number, card holder's name, and the full credit card number and expiration date.
· All Data for the specific Merchant ID.
CardConnect Will Create an Import File and Transmit it to You
Upon receipt of the file from Elavon, CardConnect will run a process on their side that reads the Elavon file and creates an import file with new CardConnect Tokens. They will send this file back to you. This process will take up to two (2) business days.
· Lauren Neal (816-234-9177)
The logistics of getting the Elavon export file to CardConnect and how CardConnect will get their file back to you should be discussed during the planning stage.
VermontSystems will Import the CardConnect Tokens into RecTrac Conversion
Upon receipt of the CardConnect import file, which contains the new Tokens, it must be imported it into RecTrac. Vermont Systems assistance is required with this step, as a custom program is required.
Coordinating Vermont Systems' assistance with this step should be discussed during the planning stage.
The CardConnect file should be a complete list of Elavon tokens that you want converted.
· The file must be a comma delimited file named ETS Conversion.txt. The file must have a carriage return after the last line in the file.
· The fields in the file must be in the following order and all fields must have values:
ETS Member Number, ETS Mask, ETS Exp Date, ETS ClientID, ETS CardName,
CardConnect Token, CardConnectMask
Example:
2016112320140711274,4111**1111,1116,demoacct2,JoeSmith,9416888882971111,41XXXXXXXXXXX1111
2016112300000006542,411111XXXXXX222,0619,demoacct,JudyJohnson,941687232327222,41XXXXXXXXXXX2222
DO NOT continue if the .txt file is not in this format or if data is missing.
1 Store the file on the workstation from which you will run the conversion.
2 Make a copy of this file and save it in a separate location. Rename the copy to ETSConversion-Copy.txt.
Vermont Systems will run the RecTrac Conversion Program
It is essential to use the correct version of the RecTracConversion Program with RecTrac.
Note for Vermont Systems Employees: The following three(3) files are required: ETS2CC-TokenConversion.r, ETSConversionCheck.r, and ETSInactivateEpayinfoRecords.r.
RecTrac 3.1.06.16 and prior use:
L:\RecTrac\3\1\QA Complete\Custom\ETS-CardConnect_Conversion_Pre_3.1.07.00\
RecTrac 3.1.07.00 and later versions use:
L:\RecTrac\3\1\QA Complete\Custom\
Upon initiating the WebEx session for the conversion, copy these three (3) files to the customer's desktop.
Any file paths and screen/tab locations refer to file paths and screen/tab locations as they appear in the standard, default Vermont Systems Design. Your setup and Design may vary.
The Vermont Systems Support Representative assigned to your account will run the conversion for you via WebEx session.
1 Make a backup of the customer's RecTrac database.
2 Log in to RecTrac and verify that the User ID you're using is linked to a valid CardConnect Installment Billing Credit Card profile.
3 Verify that the ETS Credit Card profile that will be used for Billing is set to the 'MOTO' Account Type.
4 In RecTrac, go to the Document Center and import the ETSConversion.txt file as a Record Import document.
Note: ETSConversion.txt is the file CardConnect sent to the customer. If the file is NOT named ETSConversion.txt, then rename it. The file name must be ETSConversion.txt.
5 As noted above, copy the conversion program to an accessible location on the workstation from which you are running the process, such as the desktop.
6 Go to Quick Fix Processor(Management Ribbon • System Management • Misc Management Menu)
7 Click the Windows Explorer icon and browse to ETS2CC-TokenConversion.r. Highlight/select it and click Open. Then click Process.
8 The program will use the ETS Member Number, ETS Mask, and ETS ClientID to find a unique record in the epay info table of the RecTrac database. If the record is found the program will:
· Create a new epay info record and assign this new record the CardConnect Token and the CardConnect Mask. This new record will also have anew unique epay link value. The epay link value is what is used when Installment Billing and auto pay processing is run.
· Will find all installment bills with the old epay link and assign the new epay link from the new epay info record.
· Will check to see if the household was set up for auto-pay processing using the old epay link. If it was the old epay link on the household will be removed and the new epay link will be linked to the household for auto-pay.
9 If a unique epay info record can’t be found, an exception will be created. This exception will be added to the logfile that is produced when this process has finished. Exception log(ETS2CCError.txt) can be found in the Document Center as a ‘Log files’ document type. Exceptions will need to be dealt with by contacting the customer and getting a new card on account.
10 You will receive a notification when the process completes. The notification will inform you of how many exceptions were found.
If any errors with the Credit Card profile or the format of the ETSConversion.txt file are encountered during the process, you will receive a notification in RecTrac letting you know that the conversion did not run.
11 In RecTrac, return to Quick Fix Processor. Click the Windows Explorer icon and browse to ETS Conversion check.r. Highlight/select it and click Open. Then click Process.
· This program outputs a ETSConversionCheck.txt file, in the Document Center, under Log Files.
· Review this file, as needed. It allows you to investigate Elavon Tokens so you can see whether it was included in the conversion file sent by CardConnect.
Note: In the event there are Elavon tokens that did not convert, work internally with the Vermont Systems Credit Card developer - and with Elavon and/or CardConnect as needed - to investigate the issue further.
12 In RecTrac, return to Quick Fix Processor. Click the Windows Explorer icon and browse to ETSInactivateEpayinfoRecords.r. Highlight/select it and click Open. Then click Process.
· This program inactivates all Elavon EPay info records for all processing methods. It does not affect refunds. Refer to Processing Refunds for Retail Sales below.
13 Review Credit Card data and perform a test billing run on one record to validate the token transfer. Delete the programs you copied to the desktop prior to exiting the WebEX session.
This completes the conversion process.
Post Conversion
Resume Payments and Run Billing
When the conversion process has been completed, you may resume taking payments and run billing. As discussed above, Vermont Systems recommends converting your tokens on a date just after your normal billing date. You should run billing on your normal schedule.
Processing Refunds for Retail Sales Performed in Elavon using CardConnect
Elavon tokens from retail sales that occurred prior to the conversion cannot be refunded from CardConnect. There is no way for this to be done. At this time, you have two (2) "work around" options.
Keep Your Elavon Merchant Accounts Active
Vermont Systems recommends keeping your Elavon Merchant Accounts active for six (6) months following the conversion so that any refunds which you need to issue can be done from the Elavon portal. In the event you need to issue a refund for a retail sale processed in Elavon after converting to CardConnect, Vermont Systems recommends:
Processing the refund in RecTrac using a Miscellaneous Payment Code (Note: NOT a Credit Card Payment Code) to balance the customer's account in RecTrac.
Processing the actual credit card refund on the Elavon portal to balance the customer's credit card account.
Deactivate Your Elavon Merchant Accounts
In the event you do not wish to keep your Elavon Merchant Accounts active, then Vermont Systems recommends contacting CardConnect and having them enable blind credits on your Merchant Accounts.
This is not as convenient for the patron because they will have to give you their credit card number to receive their refund.
There is a potential fraud issue because the patron could give you the number for a card that was not used for the actual sale.
WebTrac
Patrons who have a credit card on file for future use will have to update their profile so that a new token can be created that ties back to a Card Connect transaction.
Elavon to CardConnect Conversion Plan and Flow Chart – Example
Elavon to CardConnect Conversion Plan and Flowchart