Pre-approval payment process for credit card transactions

Owned by Robert Adach, created
Oct 21, 2022
2 min read

The following article outlines how ASWBCentral processes credit card transactions for pre-approval applications. View the related links for processing Money order payments, or exam registration / score transfers / practice test sales through ASWBCentral

 An applicant can be directed to the invoice page in four possible scenarios

  1. Clicking the “Next” button on the last application page

    1. this is currently the “Affadavit” page for all pre-approval applications.

  2. Clicking the “back” button on the “Application review” page which appears after a successful CC authorization attempt or the selection of a money order.

  3. If the applicant arrived at the “Invoice” page and logged out/closed their browser and then returned to the application.

  4. If the applicant was on the “Application Review” page and logged out/closed their browser and then returned to the application.

Determining payment status and action to take (applicant side)

When an applicant accesses the invoice page at any time, the system does the following in each of the above scenarios for credit card payments

  1. Checks to see if there is an existing database payment record associated to the application

    1. if there isn't (which only happens in scenario 1) - it creates the holding record. This holding record will have the same invoice and transaction number

  2. Check the selected payment method of the application

    1. If the user has not selected a payment method the invoice page is shown

    2. If the user has selected Money order , the invoice page is shown

    3. If the user selected Credit Card, proceed to step 3

  3. Using the transaction number listed on the database payment record, Authorize.net is contacted to determine the status of the transaction.

    1. If no transaction exists, proceed to step 4

    2. If the transaction is in one of the failed statuses, proceed to step 4

    3. If the transaction is in a Pending Capture status, proceed to step 8

    4. If the transaction is in one of the settled statuses, proceed to step 8

    5. If the system cannot communicate with Authorize.net or does not receive any response, an error is shown on the invoice page.

  4. User is shown the invoice screen

    1. User checks the “I agree” checkbox for the terms and conditions

    2. User selects the Credit Card payment type

    3. User clicks the next button

  5. User is directed to authorize.net

    1. User enters CC and billing address information

    2. User presses the

      1. pay now button, proceed to step 6

    3. If the user selects the Cancel link, they are reset to step 4

  6. If the authorization attempt is

    1. Successful proceed to step 7

    2. Unsuccessful (any status other than Successful) a message is shown on the authorize.net screen, and user resets to step 5

  7. The database is updated with the transaction number provided by Authorize.net

  8. User is directed to the “Application Review page”

  9. User presses Next button

  10. User is shown the final submission page

  11. User presses submit and

    1. A confirmation message is shown to the applicant

    2. The application is set to Submitted status

Processing payment (Staff side)

  1. Staff member locates item for import in ASWBCentral staff view

  2. Staff member (SM) selects to import the application

  3. ASWBCentral system determines if the application was paid

 Related articles