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Account Activation and Getting Started Guide

Activate Your Account

Your welcome email includes a link that begins the account activation process. After activating your account, you will be logged in to the Merchant Interface. This interface provides administrative access for managing and protecting your Authorize.net payment gateway account. Through the Merchant Interface (https://login.authorize.net), you can:

The person with primary responsibility for the payment gateway account should complete the account activation process. This process establishes the account owner. The Account Owner role is one of several user roles that can be established for your account. After activation, you can add more users and assign them the Account Owner role or other roles as needed.

Account owners can access all of the Merchant Interface features and functionality. They are responsible for managing the users of the account and for properly configuring the payment gateway account's processing and security settings.

Activation Step 1: Verify Your Identity

  1. Click the activation link in your welcome email. The page for generating a verification PIN appears.
  2. To send the verification PIN to the email address on file, click Send PIN.
  3. Enter your verification PIN in Enter Account Verification PIN, and click Verify PIN.
  4. The Verification PIN is valid for 10 minutes. If you need a new Verification PIN, click Generate New Verification PIN. If you do not receive a Verification PIN, check your spam filter before contacting Customer Support.

Activation Step 2: Enter User Information

  1. Review the owner and business information on file for your account, and click Edit to make corrections.
  2. Enter your billing information.
  3. Agree to the Authorize.net Payment Gateway Merchant Services Agreement and Fees.

Activation Step 3: Create a Merchant Interface Account Owner

  1. To complete account activation, create a login ID and password for the Merchant Interface. These credentials are used by the account owner for creating additional users and for managing settings and value-added services.
  2. Change your password periodically to enhance the security of your account. Users are required to change their password every 90 days.
  3. After you click Create Your Account, the Merchant Interface appears, and you can begin configuring your access and security settings.

Test Mode

By default, your account is in Test Mode, which allows you to submit test transactions to validate that your Authorize.net compatible payment solution can connect to the account, without submitting an actual charge. Work with your payment solution developer to test your connection to Authorize.net. After your connection is validated, you can disable Test Mode to begin processing live transactions. To disable Test Mode, click the orange banner at the top of the Merchant Interface.

You can also enable Test Mode to temporarily stop payment processing, if you notice suspicious activity on your account.

To turn Test Mode on or off:

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Under General Security Settings, click Test Mode.
  4. Drag the slider to Test or Live.

Remember to turn off Test Mode when you are ready to process live transactions.

Transaction Processing Settings

To connect your payment solution to Authorize.net, generate an API Login ID, a Transaction Key, and a Signature Key (optional), and add these API credentials to your payment solution. The API credentials are unique to your Authorize.Net account and are used to identify and validate the payment solution for transaction processing.

It is crucial to store your API Login ID, Transaction Key, and Signature Key securely. Do not send these credentials through email. As a best practice, create an Account Administrator user for your web developer. This user can generate the API credentials and should be removed once the web developer has finished configuring the payment solution.

Do not configure your payment solution to use your Merchant Interface login ID and password. These credentials are only for signing in to the Merchant Interface and should not be shared with anyone.

Generating your API ID and Transaction Key

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Click Settings.
  4. Under General Security Settings, click API Credentials & Keys.
  5. Under Create New Key(s), click New Transaction Key.
  6. Click Submit.
  7. When prompted, request and enter a validation PIN.
  8. Your API Login ID and Transaction Key appear.

After you have created your API Login ID, you may not change it in the Merchant Interface. To reset your API Login ID, contact Customer Support.

Generating a New Transaction Key or a Signature Key

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Click Settings.
  4. Under General Security Settings, click API Credentials & Keys.
  5. Under Create New Key(s), click New Transaction Key.
  6. Click Submit.
  7. When prompted, request and enter a validation PIN.
  8. Your Transaction Key or Signature Key appears.

Important: Check Disable Old Transaction Key or Disable Old Signature Key if you suspect that your current keys are being used fraudulently, and you need to disable the keys immediately. Otherwise, the previous Transaction Key or Signature Key remain valid for 24 hours to provide time to change the keys in your payment solution.

Security Settings

The following features of Authorize.net help prevent fraudulent transactions:

Enhanced Address Verification Service

The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a system provided by issuing banks and card associations to help identify suspicious payment card activity for e-commerce transactions. AVS matches portions of the customer's billing address, as provided by the merchant, to the billing address on file with the issuing bank. Authorize.net then accepts or rejects the transactions according to the settings that you specify.

The default AVS settings are set to reject transactions when the billing street address or ZIP code do not match the issuing bank's records. International cards typically do not support AVS, and they are typically rejected by default.

Review and configure your AVS settings to suit your business model. Contact your Merchant Service Provider to discuss AVS best practices for your business.

To review and edit your AVS settings:

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Under Basic Fraud Settings, click Address Verification Service.
  4. Check or uncheck the box next to each AVS response code to indicate that you want to reject or accept transactions with that AVS response.

Click Help in the top right corner if you have questions about the response codes.

Card Code Verification

Card Code Verification (CCV) compares the card code submitted by the customer with the card code on file with the issuing bank. The card code appears at the end of the signature panel on the back of the card, or for American Express cards, on the front of the card just above the end of the credit card number.

Card codes provide extra security against unauthorized credit card transactions. Because card codes cannot be stored in payment solutions, checking the card code helps to ensure that the customer authorized the transaction. You can use CCV to better decide whether to accept or reject credit card transactions.

Contact your Merchant Service Provider to discuss CCV best practices for your business.

To review and edit your CCV settings:

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Under Basic Fraud Settings, click Card Code Verification.
  4. Check or uncheck the box next to each CCV response code to indicate that you want to reject or accept transactions with that AVS response.

Click Help in the top right corner if you have questions about the response codes.

Daily Velocity Filter

The Daily Velocity Filter is a tool that allows you to specify a threshold for the number of transactions allowed per day. All transactions exceeding the threshold in that day are flagged and processed according to the actions that you specify. It is a useful tool for preventing high-volume attacks that are common with fraudulent transactions.

To configure the Daily Velocity Filter:

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Under Basic Fraud Settings, click Daily Velocity.
  4. Check Enable Filter.
  5. Under Transaction Velocity Threshold, enter the number of transactions that you expect to process every day.
  6. Under Filter Actions, choose the action that you want to take on transactions submitted after you reach your Transaction Velocity Threshold.
  7. Click Save.

Click Help in the top right corner if you have questions about the filter actions.

Advanced Security

Authorize.net offers the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite, a set of customizable, rules-based filters and tools that identify, manage, and prevent suspicious transactions.

For more information on Advance Fraud Detection Suite, click Tools on the main toolbar, then click Fraud Detection Suite.

General Settings

Use the following settings to customize your Authorize.net account for your business.

Time Zone

Set your Authorize.net account to use the time zone in which your business is located. This setting enables transactions, statements, and reports to display timestamps in your local time zone, and ensures that your transaction cut-off time is accurate.

To update the time zone:

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Under General Information Settings, click Time Zone.
  4. Choose a time zone from the drop-down menu.
  5. Click Submit.

Transaction Cut-Off Time

The Transaction Cut-Off Time setting specifies the daily cut-off time for batched transactions to be submitted to your processor for settlement. Transactions submitted after the cut-off time are sent to the processor after the cut-off time the following day. The default transaction cut-off time is 3:00 p.m. Pacific time.

To update the transaction cut-off Time:

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Under General Information Settings, click Transaction Cut-Off Time.
  4. Choose the cut-off time for your business from the hour, minute, and a.m./p.m. drop-down menus.
  5. Click Submit.

Important: Allow up to 24 hours for the transaction cut-off time to update.

User Administration

The User Administration feature enables an account owner to create unique user accounts with distinct login IDs and passwords for employees who need access to the Merchant Interface. You can also customize permissions for each user account to match each employee’s job responsibilities—helping you to keep transaction and account management activities in the Merchant Interface separate and streamlining your transaction management processes. By default, the person who activates your payment gateway account is the account owner. This account will be the only user account until you create additional accounts.

To create additional user accounts:

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Account.
  3. Click User Administration.
  4. Click Add User.
  5. Choose the type of user to add from the User Role drop-down menu. The default permissions associated with that role appear.
  6. You can uncheck boxes next to permissions that you do not want the user to have.
  7. Click Next.
  8. Create a login ID for the user. The login ID must be at least six characters long and a combination of letters and numbers. Note that account contacts do not have Merchant Interface access and do not have a login ID.
  9. Enter the user's name, title, and contact information.
  10. Check the types of email notifications for the user to receive.
  11. Click Submit.
  12. When prompted, request and enter a validation PIN.
  13. A confirmation that the user is created appears.
  14. The user receives an activation email at the email address added during Step 9. The email includes a link for activating the user account, verifying user information, and setting a password.

Virtual Terminal

The Virtual Terminal enables you to submit payment transactions manually through the Merchant Interface. Use the Virtual Terminal if you accept payments for mail order/telephone order (MOTO) sales. To submit a payment card transaction for automatic settlement using the Virtual Terminal:

  1. Log in to the Merchant Interface.
  2. Click Tools.
  3. Under Select Payment Method, click Charge a Credit Card.
  4. Under Select Transaction Type, click Authorize and Capture.
  5. Under Payment/Authorization Information, enter the customer’s payment information.
  6. Optional. Under Order Information, enter the invoice number and a description of the order.
  7. Optional. Under Customer Billing Information, enter the customer's name, ID, company, and billing address. Note that the transaction might be declined with an AVS mismatch if you do not include a billing address and if you use the default AVS settings for your account.
  8. Optional. Under Shipping Information, check Same as information entered in Billing Information, or enter a new address for shipping the order.
  9. Click Submit.

Important: You can also add/delete specific fields on the Virtual Terminal payment page for the information you wish to collect at the time you process the transaction. Simply click the checkbox under View/Edit for the field you wish to have present. You can also click the check box under Required for information you want collected before a Virtual Transaction can be processed.

If you use CCV to verify the customer’s card code, click Virtual Terminal Settings at the bottom of the Virtual Terminal, check Card Code in the Required column, and click Submit.