QuickBooks Merchant Service for Terminals

Now that my account is activated, how do I download payment transactions into QuickBooks?

If I have multiple merchant accounts, can I select which accounts to download from?

How does QuickBooks record the downloaded transactions?

How do I download the transactions?

What happens if refund transaction amounts exceed the sale transaction amounts?

How can I view the downloaded transactions?

Can I deactivate the Terminal Payment Download for any of my accounts?

Q: Now that my account is activated, how do I download payment transactions into QuickBooks?

A: After you have activated your account, you can download terminal payments.

1. From the "Customers" menu, choose "Credit Card Processing Activities," "Download Payments and Fees," and then "Terminal Payments."
2. Complete the "Download Setup" page.

For additional help, click "Help" on the "Download Setup" page

Q: If I have multiple merchant accounts, can I select which accounts to download from?
A:If you have signed up for more than one merchant account, click the "Merchant Account Name" drop-down on the "Download Setup" page to choose the account for which you want to download transactions.

Q: How does QuickBooks record the downloaded transactions?

A:You can record downloaded transactions as either sales receipts or deposits, according to how you typically account for transactions in QuickBooks.

Setting Up Transaction Details
Click the arrow next to "Transaction Details" to open the item-selection area.

1. If you have chosen to save transactions as sales receipts, you must also select an item to represent your terminal sales transactions. The item name will appear in the "Item" field in the sales receipt.
2. If you have chosen to save transactions as deposits, you must also select a bank account as the deposit destination and an income account as the deposit source.

Click the drop-down to select an existing item, or click "Add New" to add a new item. If you add a new item, click the "Refresh List" button to update the list with the new item.

Other Options
Click the arrow next to "Other Options" to display an option that determines how your sales receipt or deposit transactions will be created in QuickBooks.

1. If you select "Create a line item for each payment if there are __ or fewer payments per batch," Terminal Payment Download will create a line item for each individual payment in the batch, depending on how many transactions are downloaded per batch. For example, you can display a detail line for each payment only if the number of payments for the batch is less than, say, 20.

Q: How do I download the transactions?
A: After you have completed the options for downloading transactions, click "Download Now" to start the download process. Your option settings are saved the next time you click "Download Now."

Q: What happens if refund transaction amounts exceed the sale transaction amounts?

A: You may have a batch of terminal payments in which the refund amount exceeds the sale amount. For example, on a single day, you might refund one customer $100 and also process two sales for $25 each. The total for this batch would be $50. The way the accounting for these batches is done depends on whether you've chosen to save your terminal transactions as sales receipts or deposits.

For Sales Receipts
Since QuickBooks does not allow you to create a sales receipt for a negative amount, a credit memo is created if the amount refunded exceeds the amount sold for a batch. Credit card refunds are represented in the credit memo as line items with positive amounts, while credit card sales are represented as line items with negative amounts. To account for the deduction in undeposited funds due to the net negative amount, a credit card payment item is created and a line item specifying the payment item is added to the credit memo. The amount for the payment item line is set to a value that will zero out the net amount for the credit memo. Also, because a QuickBooks credit memo requires a customer: job, a special customer — "Terminal Pmt. Download Net Refund" — is created and used for these credit memo transactions.

For Deposits
Since you can't have a negative deposit in QuickBooks, Terminal Payment Download creates a deposit transaction as follows. A credit card clearing account is created and the "Deposit To" account is set to that account. The refunds and sales are entered as line items in the deposit transaction. In addition, a line item is added with the amount required to zero out the deposit. The "From Account" for this line item is set to your checking account. This line item accounts for the withdrawal from your checking account for the batch in which the amount refunded exceeds the amount sold. Note that a transaction will be entered in the register for the credit card clearing account, but the amount will be zero.

Q: How can I view the downloaded transactions?
A: After you download payments, the Terminal Payment Download report displays the date of the transaction, the card type, the number of transactions for that day, and the total transaction amount.

To view more detail for the transactions, click the "Go To" button (available only in QuickBooks 2004 or higher). Depending on whether you downloaded the transactions as sales receipts or deposits, you will see the "Sales Receipts" or "Deposits" window, where you can view or edit information about your transactions.

If you selected "Create a line item for each payment if there are __ or fewer payments per batch," you will see a separate line item for each transaction. If not, the form will display a single line item for all the transactions for that day.

Q: Can I deactivate the Terminal Payment Download for any of my accounts?
A: To deactivate Terminal Payment Download for an account, select the merchant account name from the drop-down and click "Submit." Once you've deactivated Terminal Payment Download for this account, your terminal payment data will no longer be available for downloading into QuickBooks.