Optimal Payments offers payment capabilities …
With the Optimal Payments back office, you can make deposits directly into a customer ’s FirePay account. This feature is loaded with benefits for you.
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You can make real-time payments to your customers. The payments are automatically deducted from your merchant account.
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You can reverse payments that are unclaimed by your customer, crediting payment amounts back to your merchant account.
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You can sign up your customers for FirePay accounts if they do not already have one.
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You can view your current balance online – before you make the payments.
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All you have to do is upload a CSV file from your PC.
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You can view the results of your payment right away, or log back in to the Optimal Payments back office at any time to view your payment activity.
Only U.S. dollar merchant accounts are currently eligible for payments.
Create your payment file
Your payment file must be a CSV file. Each record in your file must have the following format:
email_address,amount,transaction_ID
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A valid email address has the format [email protected], where name, address, and suffix are at least 1 character long, and maximum total length is 200 characters.
This email address must be the one your customer has associated with their FirePay account.
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The amount value must contain the same decimal notation as the currency associated with your merchant account.
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The transaction_ID value is optional – use it for your own convenience to help you identify payment transactions (use alphanumeric characters for this value).
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The payment file can have a maximum of 1000 lines – use multiple files if you have more than 1000 payments to make (each payment is one record in the file).
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The maximum value per payment is U.S.$10,000.
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The values in the file cannot contain quotes (“) or commas (,) – and make sure there are no spaces embedded between the values.
This is an example of a valid
CSV file using a text editor.
This is an example of a valid CSV
file using a spreadsheet program.
Once you have created the payment file, upload it to Optimal Payments. We verify that it is valid, and then process it.
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Uploading your payment file is easy …
1.
Log in and click the Payment Tool tab on the Optimal
Payments back office home page.
2.
3.
Next, select the merchant account from which you
want to make the payment. Your Amount Available for
Payment is displayed. Browse to the payment file you
want to upload, and then click Upload File.
A confirmation page opens to allow you to review your
payment request before you send it. Once you are satisfied
with your selections, click Confirm Payment.
4.
Your payment file has been uploaded, and the payment will
be transferred to your customers’ FirePay accounts in real
time. That’s it – your payments have been made.
Be sure to carefully review your request before clicking the
Confirm Payment button – in most cases you cannot
reverse a payment request once you have submitted it.
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You can make payments to non-FirePay account holders …
You can use the payment tool to make payments to non-FirePay account holders. All you have to do is include that customer’s email address in the payment file you upload,
along with the amount you want to pay out to them. When you upload the payment file, the FirePay account sign-up process is automatically initiated. Once the customer
has completed the account creation, they have immediate access to the funds you have paid out to them. If your customer does not follow up and complete the creation of
the FirePay account, you can reverse the payment back to your merchant account at a later date (see Reverse a payment if the FirePay account is not created …).
1. Upload a CSV payment file that includes a payment record
with the email address of a non-FirePay account holder.
3.
2.
The Payment Tool page asks you whether or not you want to
sign up the customer for a FirePay account. Click Continue.
A page opens to confirm that the sign-up process has
been initiated. Click Continue.
Be sure to verify the email address of the non-FirePay account holders. If you include
an incorrect email address, you will be sending the payout to the wrong customer.
5.
Your customer completes the application process, and
your payment is immediately deposited into their new
FirePay account.
4.
The Payment Confirmation page opens. Click Confirm Payment, and the rest of the
payment procedure finishes as usual. The non-FirePay account holder receives an
email informing them that they have been signed up for a FirePay account and that
a payment has been made to their account. They just have to click on the link in the
email, which takes them to FirePay’s Create an Account page.
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Reverse a payment if the FirePay account is not created …
When you make a payment to a customer who has not yet created their FirePay account, the money is moved out of your merchant account and made available to your customer to have instant access to it once they have completed the creation of the FirePay account. If the customer does not go ahead and create the FirePay account, the money
is not returned to your merchant account until you reverse the payment.
1. Run a report on an email address for a FirePay account that has
not yet been created. The Payment Record Details page opens.
2. Click the Reverse button in the Status column. The Payment
Reversal Confirmation page opens.
3.
Verify that this information is accurate and click Reverse Payment.
The Payment Record Details page shows that the payment has been
reversed – the money has been returned to your merchant account.
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What’s next?
You may want to view the results of your payment file upload. To do so, just click the Batch Number link on the Payment Batch Summary page. Or click the Download icon
if you want to download this information to your PC.
By clicking on the Batch Number link or the Download icon, you can view the details of the payment file upload procedure. In addition to viewing the contents of the file
itself (e.g., email addresses and amounts), you can also view the status of each record in the payment file. All payments that were made will show “Successful” in the Status
column. Any payment that failed will show “Rejected” in the Status column, and the cause will be provided beside it in the Reason column (e.g., invalid email address).
If an item in your payment file is rejected for some reason, this does not fail the whole file. The rest of the records are processed normally,
and you can just resend the failed record(s) in another CSV file, with the appropriate corrections made.
What your customer sees …
You’re done. Your payment file has been uploaded, and the payments are automatically made to your customers in real time. What do your customers see?
When your customers log in to their FirePay accounts and click on the
View Statement link, they’ll see an amount in the Credit column equal to
the amount you designated in your payment file. Your merchant name
will appear in the Description column.
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View your payment activity …
You can log in to the Optimal Payments back office at any time to view all your payment activity, including totals processed for payment files you submitted, over a date
range you choose.
1.
Log in and click the Reports tab in the Optimal
Payments back office, and then click the Payment
Report submenu.
2.
3.
Select the merchant account and the date range from
the drop-down menus, and click Generate Report.
You can view your payment activity information,
which includes such items as total number of records
processed, total value processed, and total fees paid.
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View your merchant account …
You can also log in to the Optimal Payments back office at any time to see how your payment transactions affect your merchant account.
1.
Log in and click the Account Statement
tab in the Optimal Payments back office
2.
3.
Select an account from the Select an Account drop-down menu,
and then click on the currency link in the Current column.
Select a date range from the drop-down
menus, and click Display Transactions.
4.
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Here you can see how your merchant account was affected.
Debits called “Payment” represent the successful payments you made. Credits
called “Payment Reversal” represent any payments that you reversed and that were
credited back to your merchant account.
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