Khaos Control can integrate with supported payment providers so you can process card payments as part of your normal sales order and despatch workflow.

Depending on your provider and configuration, you can take payment when an order is placed or despatched, pre-authorise payments, process orders in batches and refund eligible transactions.

Important: Not every payment provider supports every feature. In particular, pre-authorisation and payment capture options vary between providers. Check the functionality available from your chosen payment provider before deciding how you want to process payments.

Card payment options

Depending on your integration, Khaos Control can support several approaches to taking payment:

Take payment when the order is placed.
Take payment when the goods are despatched.
Pre-authorise the card when the order is placed and complete the payment when the goods are ready to despatch.
Authorise individual payments from a Sales Order.
Batch-authorise payments through Sales Invoice Manager.
Configure the stage at which batch card payments are processed.
Refund eligible payments back to the original card.
Import payment or transaction information from your website. This may require integration work with your web developers.

For example, Stripe can be configured to use payment capture, allowing funds to be checked and held before the payment is completed later through Khaos Control.

Setting up Card Integration

Warning: You must have Admin permission to configure Card Integration.

Khaos Control stores the Card Integration settings in the CardTransaction.ini file within the following subdirectory on your shared network drive:

KeystoneSoftware\Applic

Do not edit CardTransaction.ini directly.

Open the Card Integration settings

You can initially access the setup while using Authorise Payment in Sales Invoice Manager.

If Card Integration has already been configured:

Open System Operations.
Select Edit Credit Card Integration Settings.

Edit Credit Card Integration Settings is available from the Khaos Control System Operations menu.

For more information, see Edit Credit Card Integration Settings.

Card Integration settings

The most important setting is Interface Method. This determines which external payment integration Khaos Control uses.

The remaining settings include:

Interface Path

Enter the folder used by the integration for transaction information.

For file-based solutions, this may need to be a network location if one computer performs card authorisation for other users.

An Interface Path is required for all integrations because it is also used to store diagnostic information when running in test mode.

Merchant Name

Enter the merchant login name agreed with your payment provider.

Merchant ID

Enter the account number or merchant identifier supplied for your merchant account.

Transaction Description

Enter the description to be passed to the payment provider, where supported. For example, you might use your trading or business name.

Testing (not live)

Select Testing (not live) to operate the integration in test mode without transferring real money.

Tip: Test your Card Integration thoroughly before processing live customer payments. Some providers, including Stripe, provide dedicated testing facilities for this purpose.

CV2

Enable CV2 to send the card verification/security code to the provider, where supported.

AAV

Enable AAV to send address information to the payment provider for additional verification, where supported.

This may allow the provider to compare information such as the house number and postcode with the details held for the cardholder.

Enable Refunds

Enable this option if you want to process supported refunds from within Khaos Control.

You can only refund a transaction through this functionality when the original transaction was processed using Khaos Control's integrated card system.

Timeout

Enter the number of seconds Khaos Control should wait for a response before treating the authorisation as unsuccessful, where the integration supports a configurable timeout.

The default value is 30 seconds.

Authorising a card payment

Before Khaos Control can authorise a card payment, the Sales Order must contain a valid card payment entry.

Enter the payment information from the Sales Order Payments tab.

As you enter the details, Khaos Control validates the information and identifies the card type. It also highlights required information that is missing.

When a green Card OK tick appears alongside the details, the card is ready for authorisation.

Choosing when to authorise payments

You can authorise card payments in two main ways.

Authorise from the Sales Order

You can authorise a payment directly from the Sales Order while entering the customer's order.

This can be useful when taking an order over the telephone because you can identify a problem with the card details while you are still speaking to the customer.

However, waiting for authorisation may slow down order entry.

Batch authorise from Sales Invoice Manager

Alternatively, authorise payments later as a batch in Sales Invoice Manager.

Batch processing lets users enter orders without waiting for an immediate response from the payment provider. It can also allow you to charge for the goods actually being despatched rather than the original order value.

For example, if 8 items are being despatched from an order containing 10 items, this approach can allow the payment to reflect the goods actually being sent, depending on your configuration.

Using pre-authorisation

Where supported by your payment provider, you can combine these approaches by pre-authorising the payment when the order is placed and completing the authorisation later.

A pre-authorisation lets the provider check the card or availability of funds without completing the payment immediately.

This can help identify payment problems earlier while allowing the final payment to be taken closer to despatch.

Important: Pre-authorisation behaviour varies between payment providers. It can also temporarily affect the customer's available balance even though the final payment has not yet been completed.

For example, Khaos Control's current Stripe guidance states that captured funds are normally held for approximately seven days as standard, with full authorisation required within that period.

What happens after authorisation?

When a payment is successfully authorised:

The payment details on the Sales Order turn blue.
The payment becomes read-only.
Associated invoices can proceed towards Issue, provided sufficient payment has been authorised.

If a payment is not authorised, the associated invoice cannot proceed beyond Authorise Payment in Sales Invoice Manager.

Authorisation from Sales Invoice Manager

When authorisation is successfully completed from Sales Invoice Manager, the invoice automatically moves to the next stage.

Authorisation from a Sales Order

When authorisation is completed from the Sales Order, the invoice is not automatically moved beyond Authorise Payment.

However, when the invoice is subsequently processed through Sales Invoice Manager, Khaos Control recognises the authorised payment and allows the invoice to continue.

How Khaos Control determines whether an invoice is authorised

An invoice is treated as authorised when its authorised payments equal or exceed the value of the goods that have been despatched and remain pending.

For example:

A Sales Order has an authorised payment of £50.
An invoice containing goods worth £50 or less can proceed.
If £20 from the same order has already been despatched and issued, the remaining authorised amount is £30.
The next invoice can therefore proceed if its value is £30 or less.

Invoices without sufficient authorised payment remain at Authorise Payment for further attention.

Additional payment options

Remainder on Account

Use Remainder on Account on Sales Order > Payments when an order needs to be treated as cleared even though it does not have sufficient payments recorded against it.

When enabled, the invoice can proceed to Issue regardless of its payments.

Manual Payments

Enable Manual Payments on Sales Order > Payments to allow users to enter payments for any value.

Take Full Payment

The Take Full Payment System Value controls the initial value given to credit card payments.

When Take Full Payment is enabled, a new card payment is created for the full value of the order.

When it is disabled:

The card payment initially has a value of zero.
When the invoice reaches Authorise Payment, the payment value is updated to match the goods being despatched.
If another shipment is made later, an additional payment is triggered against the same card for that shipment.

In practical terms:

Take Full Payment enabled: the card is charged for the whole order.
Take Full Payment disabled: the card can be charged separately as individual shipments are processed.

Card details required for authorisation

The information required depends on the card, issuer and payment provider. It may include:

Cardholder Name, as shown on the card.
Card Type, such as Visa, Mastercard or American Express.
Card Number.
Start Date, where applicable.
Expiry Date.
Issue Number, where applicable.
Card Verification Value, commonly called CVV or CV2.
Cardholder's Billing Address, including the postcode where required.

Refunds

Where refunds are supported and Enable Refunds has been selected in the integration settings, eligible transactions can be refunded through Khaos Control.

The original payment must have been processed through Khaos Control's integrated card system.

Website payments

Khaos Control can also receive payment information from a website.

Depending on your ecommerce setup, this might include:

Transaction details where the website has already taken the payment.
Card/payment information to be processed through your Khaos Control integration.

This type of setup may require additional work with your web developer or integration provider.

Payment providers and useful links

The payment providers and services referenced by this functionality include:

Commidea

Commidea website

DataCash

DataCash website
DataCash downloads
DataCash Developers Area
Retail Decisions (ReD)

Opayo

Stripe

Khaos Control also provides current guidance for using Stripe payment capture and pre-authorisation. [servicedes...rolweb.com]

Useful information

Credit Card Information

System Operations - Card Integration