Tips & Tricks

We’re always looking for ways to optimize the way we do things. On this page we share some tips and tricks we’ve learned for getting the most out of Credit Card Terminal.

Required Fields

If you’re trying to perform transactions as quickly as possible, the only fields you have to collect are the card number, expiration date, and the transaction amount. If you’re charging an even number of dollars, you don’t need to enter zeroes into the cents field — that’s the default.

Card Code

The iPhone can’t support a card swipe add-on right now, so we suggest at least taking the time to collect the CVV2/CVC/CID code from the card as additional proof that the card was present at the time of the transaction. This might be helpful if you receive a chargeback. We’ve made it as simple as possible to collect by including the Card Code field on the main terminal page.

Customer Contact Info

By tapping “More” on the main terminal screen, you can enter additional customer details for the transaction. Based on your Authorize.Net account settings, entering this data may perform AVS address verification or send an email receipt (more on that below). Or you might just want to collect contact information so you can follow up with your customers later.

Scout Your Venue

Credit Card Terminal is a mobile solution that depends on WiFi or cellular network coverage. If you’re planning to use it at big event, you should make sure that you’ll have adequate coverage. At a hotel or convention center, you might need to get a security key or password to use the WiFi. Thankfully, Authorize.Net doesn’t use very much bandwidth for processing, so even over a relatively slow Edge cellular connection it only takes a couple seconds to run a card.

It’s easy to run test transactions. One way is by tapping “Test Your Account” on the settings screen. If you’d rather practice using the interface, turn on the Test Mode switch. You can even use special test credit card numbers; for more details see the Settings page. Don’t forget to turn Test Mode back off before doing real charges. We’ll try to help you remember: when in Test Mode, the Charge button says “Charge (Testing)” and the transaction result will say “(TESTMODE)”.

Both test methods use the same kind of connection to talk to the same servers and transmit the same kind of information as when you run a real transaction.

Send Email Receipts

You can send email receipts to your customers by setting up your Authorize.Net account appropriately and taking a few seconds to enter their email addresses.

To enable email receipts at Authorize.Net:

  1. Log into the Merchant Interface at https://secure.authorize.net
  2. Select Settings under Account in the main menu on the left
  3. Click Email Receipt in the Transaction Format Settings section
  4. Click to select the check box labeled Email transaction receipt to customer
  5. Click Submit to save changes

To enter the email address in Credit Card Terminal:

  1. From the main terminal screen, tap “More” to access more fields.
  2. Tap the email field and use the on-screen keyboard to enter your customer’s email address.
  3. Tap the back button in the upper left corner to return to the terminal.

Generate Reports

Authorize.Net can generate reports based on your activity. Credit Card Terminal transactions are included in these reports.

  1. Log into the Merchant Interface at https://secure.authorize.net
  2. Select the Reports section of the Merchant Interface
  3. Select your report type and report options
  4. Click Run Report