Oracle R12 Payments - Funds Capture Process

Executive Summary

This document provides guidance on Funds Capture Process in R12 that replaces the iPayment functionality of previous release of Oracle Application. Funds Capture is the only process where Oracle System interacts with external third party system for creating, exercising and executing transaction.

Introduction

Oracle Payments (IBY) is the new module which has been introduced in release 12 of Oracle Application. This Payments (IBY) module is a payment engine designed to work with multiple Oracle E-Business Suite products in order to facilitate the receipt of, issuance of, and management of, customer receipts and batched supplier payments.

Payment Module Integration

Primary Functions

Payment functions has two primary functionalities

           

This document will concentrate on the Funds Capture (FC) functionality of Oracle Payments (IBY).

Funds Capture

Funds capture refers to the electronic retrieval of funds, typically by a payment system on behalf of the deploying company, from payers, such as customers, who owe debts to the deploying company. The payer, in this case, provides Oracle Payments with pertinent payment information, such as a credit card, debit card, or bank account number.

           

Oracle Payments supports the following electronic payment methods for funds capture payments:

- Credit cards

- Purchase cards

- PINless debit cards

- Bank account transfers

Funds Capture Features     

Funds capture features support the process to electronically receive funds owed deploying companies by debtors, such as customers. Oracle Payments supports authorization and settlement of funds against credit cards and PINless debit cards, refunds to credit cards, electronic funds transfers from bank accounts, and formatting of bills receivable.

           

Note: Oracle Receivables retains the functionality of lockbox processing and electronic upload of remittance messages.

Flexible Payment Methods

Businesses and their customers require flexible payment methods when paying for goods and services. Oracle Payments supports credit cards, purchase cards (levels 2 and 3), PINless debit cards, funds capture electronic funds transfers, and the transmission of bills receivables.

           

Oracle Payments processes credit card validation, authorization, and funds capture.

           

Credit card validation can be done independently of authorization. This helps the merchant save transaction fees by preempting authorization requests on invalid credit cards. Oracle Payments also processes funds capture for credit card transactions that have been manually authorized over the telephone, which is a requirement for certain businesses.

           

Oracle Payment's support for funds capture electronic fund transfers (EFT) and bills receivable transmissions enables one to eliminate paper-based transactions, thus reducing administrative manual processing and errors. One will also receive funds faster with EFT than with traditional paper checks.

PINless Debit Card Transactions

Oracle Payments supports PINless debit card funds capture transactions. Sometimes referred to as Debit Bill Pay, this payment method is allowed by the debit networks in certain industries, including utilities, telecom, cable/satellite, government, education, and financial services.

Direct Debits

Online validation for electronic funds transfers is supported by Oracle Payments through APIs. The validation service is provided by some payment systems to perform validity checks on the payer bank account to be debited. Typically this service verifies that the bank account number is valid and not cited for fraudulent payment activity.

           

Oracle Payments extends its support of electronic funds transfer by adding third party certifications for Paymentech and Concord EFSnet.

             

Credit Card Security Features

Credit Card Encryption is an advanced security feature within Oracle Payments that enables Oracle Applications to encrypt credit card data. One can access this credit card security feature setup easily by selecting the Oracle Payments Payment Administrator responsibility and then clicking the System Security Management link. Oracle Payments consolidates the varying levels of credit card security support within different products of the Oracle E-Business Suite so that setup and management of address verifications, capture of card security codes, and masking of credit card numbers, ensures a consistent implementation of credit card security functions throughout the funds capture process.

           

Note: Any internal credit card numbers, such as company-owned or employee credit cards, are not impacted by the Credit Card Encryption feature.

Encryption

Use of the Credit Card Encryption feature assists with one’s compliance with the cardholder data protection requirements of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard and with Visa's Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP). The Visa program is based on the PCI Data Security Standard. When the feature is enabled, credit card numbers for external third party payers, such as customers or students, are encrypted.

Masking

When Credit Card Encryption is enabled, masking functionality differs between Oracle Applications. For example, in Oracle Receivables and Oracle Service Contracts, when Credit Card Encryption is enabled, credit card numbers are masked in the following format with the last four digits displayed: XXXXXXXXXXXX1234, whereas, in Oracle Order Management, a changed profile option no longer controls masking of credit card numbers.

           

Company's Security Policy

Adoption of the Credit Card Encryption feature should be part of the implementation of a complete security policy, specific to the organization. For example, the security policy should include a regular schedule to rotate keys to secure the credit card data.

Supports Both Processor and Gateway Model Payment Systems

Oracle Payments support for both processor and gateway models enables customers to choose the payment processing options that suit their business.

           

Processor and gateway model payment systems can be integrated with Oracle Payments for credit cards, PINless debit cards, and bank account transfers, using the product's format and transmission model. Oracle Payments payment system integration model has extensible fields that can be used in a custom implementation with payment systems that require additional information. This extensibility can be particularly useful for international implementations of Oracle Payments.

           

In addition, Oracle Payments supports out-of-the-box integration with leading third party payment systems. These payment systems include Paymentech, First Data Merchant Services, and Concord EFS. Other payment systems, such as Verisign, offer their own out-of-the-box integrations with Oracle Payments.

Routing to Multiple Payment Systems for Funds Capture

Oracle Payments supports multiple payment processing systems operating simultaneously for funds capture transactions and provides a powerful routing system that gives businesses and merchants control over funds capture transaction processing.

Payment requests are routed to payment processing systems based on flexible business rules defined by the merchant. For example, one can route payment transactions based on the type of transaction, credit card brand, currency, operating unit or amount of payment etc.

Centralized Configuration

Oracle Payments offers centralized, configurable funds capture processing setup. This ensures an implementation that supports consistent and seamless funds capture processing. The configurable funds capture processing setup can be grouped into the following areas:

Payee Configuration

A payee is defined for one or more operating units in the deploying company that processes payments. The payee setup provides various options for payment processing and links operating units to the payee.

Routing Rules Configuration

Routing rules can be configured to specify how a transaction is processed. For example, this setup determines the payment system to which a transaction is sent.

Funds Capture Processing Rule Configuration

Oracle Payments holds funds capture processing rules in an entity called the Funds Capture Process Profile. One can configure as many funds capture process profiles as one needs for the payment processes. Each profile contains the configuration for formatting and transmitting authorization messages and settlement files. Additionally, specifying rules for aggregating settlements into batches, limiting the number or amount of settlements in a batch, notifying payers of settlements, and processing acknowledgements can be easily configured.

Payment Processing User Interface

Oracle Payments offers a user interface, known as the funds capture dashboard, for managing the funds capture process. The funds capture dashboard provides an overview of the payment process status. These results in greater insight into rejections received from payment systems and into process failures, such as communication errors.

           

Library of Payment Formats

All payment formats used by E-Business Suite applications for the funds capture process have been consolidated as Oracle XML Publisher templates and are used by Oracle Payments. These formats include Oracle Globalizations' direct debits, bills receivable, and Oracle Receivables' remittance formats.

Scheduled Payments

Oracle Payments processes payment requests when requested or via an offline scheduled process, based on the type of payment request and payment system. A scheduling program enables Oracle Payments to process gateway-bound payments in an offline mode when a source product requests it. When an E-Business application calls Oracle Payments to make an offline payment request, the payment information is stored in Oracle Payments and picked up by the scheduling program so that the payment gets settled by the due date (or settlement date). At the same time, Oracle Payments handles processor-model payment requests as required by most processors:

- Online requests for authorizations, and

- Batch offline requests for follow-up operations

Payer Notifications of Settlement

Oracle Payments has consolidated notification letters from Oracle Globalizations into an Oracle XML Publisher format. These notification letters are generated and sent when a payer's bank account is debited to capture funds for payment. The Oracle XML Publisher format supports notification for all types of automatic funds capture settlements supported by Oracle Payments, including card payments or bank account transfers. The notification process enables one to configure how a notification is to be delivered to a payer: via e-mail, fax, or printing and sending manually. These notifications help deploying companies better support their payment relationships with customers or other payers."

Funds Capture Process

Change from Release 11i

Funds Capture Configuration Options - Funds Capture Process Profile

This controls lifecycle of funds capture process flow and capture the rules to manage various processes.

- Authorization and validation

- Aggregation of settlements in to batches

- Format and Transmission

Funds Capture Configuration Options - Validations

           

Funds Capture Configuration Options – Payee (Merchant)

Funds Capture Configuration Options – Routing Rules

Funds Capture Process in R12

Using the Funds Capture Process Home Page includes information on searching for and viewing settlement batches, authorization information, settlement information, and credit information, creating settlement batches, submitting offline transactions, and voiding payments.

Searching and Viewing Settlement Batch Information

Use the Funds Capture Process Home page to:

- Monitor funds capture operations, such as individual transactions and settlement batches.

- Respond to transactions or settlement batches that fail with temporary circumstantial system errors.

- Initiate settlement batch creation and retrieve settlement batch clearing or acknowledgement.

- Navigate to subsidiary pages to research operations using the tab structure.

           

One can also use this page to search and view settlement batch information.

             

User can use the Search region in the Funds Capture Process Home page to quickly search for an operation.

           

One can select the operation type from the drop-down list and enter that operation's payment system order number (or settlement batch reference, if searching for a settlement batch) in the field to the left of the Go button.

           

Additionally this provides the feature to Submit and Monitor the concurrent request.

            

           

Searching and Viewing Authorization Information

User can view credit card authorizations, credit card authorization and settlements, debit card authorizations, whether or not settlement is done as part of the authorization, and bank account validations.

           

One can search for an authorization and then drill down to the details page. The Authorization Details page can also be reached through links on the Funds Capture Process Home page.

          

Searching and Viewing Settlement Information

User can view complete information about a settlement using the Settlements page. The details of credit card settlements, debit card settlements, and bank account transfers can             be viewed using this page. One can access the Settlements page from the Funds Capture Process Home page.

 

Searching and Viewing Credit Information

The Payment Administrator can view complete information about one or more credits.

This information includes both credit card refunds, which are reversals of earlier settlements, standalone credits, and bank account transfer credits. The Credit pages are comprised of the Credit Search page and a Credit Details page. The Payment Administrator can search for a credit and then drill down to the details page.

Creating Settlement Batches

One can use the Create Settlement Batches concurrent program to settle batches and submit them to the appropriate payment systems.

          

This concurrent program finds pending authorization, settlement, and credit transactions intended for processor-model payment systems. It then groups these transactions into settlement batches and submits them to the payment system using the appropriate transmission and security configurations.

Retrying Settlement Batches

This program takes a single settlement batch and attempts to resubmit it to the appropriate payment system.

Fetching Settlement Batch Clearing

The Fetch Settlement Batch Clearing concurrent program is used to retrieve batch acknowledgement or clearing information from the payment system and updates batch headers and transactions in Oracle Payments.

           

This concurrent program attempts to obtain all requested clearing information from payment systems and incorporates the information by parsing it and updates the relevant transaction and batch tables. Based on the payment system's behavior, this may mean downloading and parsing a file from the payment system server, parsing a file that has     already been pushed to the deploying company by the payment system, or doing nothing for payment systems that do not provide electronic clearing information.

           

Note:  The Fetch Settlement Batch program can handle clearing information for transactions with different payment instrument types in the same clearing file.

Submitting Offline Transactions

The Submit Offline Transactions concurrent program is used to submit offline non-batch transactions to the intended gateway payment system. Offline transactions are typically batched for processor model payment systems, but not for gateways.

           

This concurrent program finds pending offline transactions with a settlement date that is equal to or less than the current date and submits them to their intended payment gateway.

           

Note:  Offline transactions are typically batched for processor model payment systems, but not for gateway.  

Conclusion

In conclusion,

1. In R12, Oracle provides a stream line payment process by introducing Oracle Payments.

2. Funds Capture is a significant activity that captures the receivables activity.

3. All setup done via setup screens.

4. Easier Implementation and Maintenance

5. Consistent and seamless processing

6. Lower Cost of Collection.

Summary

Oracle Funds Capture is a function provided by Oracle’s brand new product Oracle Payments which has replaced iPayment of previous release.

This provides extensively easy and user friendly UI, to process seamless transactions.

- Know thy payees, including routing rules

- Know thy funds capture payment process

- And one will be rewarded with bountiful revenue in the organization