Order Management supports credit cards, PayPal, and gift cards, as
well as other payment methods, interfacing with a wide variety of external
payment processing services. Payment processing is configured by setting
up one or more payment providers. A payment provider associates each
payment method with an external payment processor.
Accounting is
managed using three object types:
- Payment: a payment transaction for an order, generated when
a payment is first authorized or captured.
- Invoice: the bill for items in a shipping order, generated
when a shipping order is approved. Payments are applied to
invoices.
- Credit Memo: a credit transaction for an order, generated
when a return is processed or a manual price adjustment is made.
Each payment in Order Management follows a three-step
workflow:
- Authorization: funds are held but not yet captured.
- Capture (Ensure): funds are captured.
- Application: captured funds are applied to an invoice.
The timing of each of these steps in the overall order workflow
can be configured to meet your specific business requirements. You can
even set up payment terms that let selected orders be submitted and
billed for future payment.
The Order Management interface includes three
tools for viewing and managing payments:
- Payment Manager: search for, view, and take action on any
outstanding payments, or generate an overview report of all recent
payment activity.
- Invoice Manager: search for, view, and take action on any
outstanding invoices or credit memos, generate reports of recent
invoice activity, or generate reports of recent sales by item or
customer.
- Credit Manager: functionality is identical to Invoice
Manager, but with a search tool for credit memos.
Much of the functionality related to payments and billing can be
automated. However, the Customer Service Center can be used for situations
that require user input.