Virtual Terminal Guide

This utility lets you directly run credit card transactions from various Rossware applications, including ServiceDesk, SD-Mobile, and SD-RevenueBuilder. It is very well integrated within each application. It will appear when requested and with the required transaction amount. When the transaction is completed, the fact that the money was collected will automatically be recorded in the application.

The utility allows you to run transactions by typing in card information or using many card-reading devices. These devices can take card information via traditional swiping, EMV chips, contactless cards, and Apple Pay or Android Pay.

It also allows you to run transactions using stored card information.

Beginning in Q3 of 2022, we offer a Rossware-branded payment gateway called RosswarePay. This is the gateway that we now very highly encourage you to use.

To begin your setup with RosswarePay, click on the "Get started now" button that you'll see here:

https://www.rossware.com/rosswarepay

Then, please follow the prompts.

When using RosswarePay, there is only a single string that's needed by way of credentials, and it will automatically insert for you just as soon as you select "RosswarePay" as the connecting gateway:

Once you've done this, your terminal is capable of running transactions. In particular, it's capable of running transactions that are manually keyed in. If desiring to use a card-reading device, a tiny bit more setup is required.

RosswarePay, in particular, integrates with a large variety of card-reading devices.

Details are here.

There are very nice Bluetooth devices that techs can use very effectively via SD-Mobile. There are "Cloud" devices that are perfect if you run ServiceDesk in a virtualized environment, for they need no direct connection (via cable, Bluetooth, or WiFi) with the platform where ServiceDesk or similar is running. Whatever your need, there is probably a perfect device to fulfill it.

With RosswarePay, it's eminently simple.

Just click on the "Device Setup" button:

Then, in the RosswarePay section, select whether the reader that you're using falls in the "Dynamo-type" or "Cloud Reader" category:

If you select "Cloud Reader," the system will query to find a complete list of such readers as you've registered for your company, and you'll be prompted to select the particular reader that you wish to connect to:

That's all there is to it. Once you've done this, your Virtual Terminal is ready to work with the designated card-reading device.

This is very self-explanatory.

In the RosswarePay-setup scenario, three sections comprise the main body of the interface:

The first such section is designated (simply by clicking within it) if you wish to charge on a customer's stored-card information:

The second section is designated (again, simply by clicking in it) if you want to run a transaction by manually typing in the card information:

In this case, when you click to execute, you'll be transported to a browser interface where the card number, expiration date, and security code will be entered. It's by keeping such input in a secure interface that we eliminate any concerns that we would otherwise have regarding PCI compliance.

The third section is designated if you want to use a card-reading device to run your transaction:

If you've entered the Virtual Terminal from an integrated context (e.g., to charge on a job within ServiceDesk, the system will auto-fill the amount and the applicable JobRecord reference number:

Once the interface has an amount to charge and the selection of a viable processing path, the "Execute Sale" button activates. Then, it's simply a matter of clicking on the button to complete the process . . . at which point you'll quickly see the result:

Two other items are reasonably obvious in purpose and effect.

Activate this checkbox if you deliberately intend to do more than one transaction in the same amount and against the same card on the same day (otherwise, such a transaction is deemed a duplicate and will be denied:

Activate this checkbox if you want to pay money to the cardholder (otherwise known as "Refund" or "Credit") instead of taking money from the cardholder.

This latter option requires inputting a high-level password before the system accepts its activation, and it's not offered to technicians in SD-Mobile.

We have a whole separate document on this topic. Click here to read how to use the Virtual Terminal within ServiceDesk and other Rossware applications.

You can visit our RosswarePay MerchantTrack Guide online to learn how to review your transactions online.

When you talk with the setup persons at Fullsteam (the payment processing company backing RosswarePay), please do not hesitate to provide them with recent statements from your existing provider.

If you already have excellent rates, demand that they match your existing rates. They could do better, but perhaps not if you already have fantastic rates.

If your existing rates could be better, ask them to do the very best that they can. If you're satisfied with what they offer, great. If not, we suggest you show them bona fide offers from any other better company and then demand that they match these bona fide offers.

By way of guidance, our experience is that a service company is doing very, very, very well if it can get its net processing cost down to between around 2.5 percent of the total amount processed (we call this the "net effective rate;" to obtain it, just divide your total fee by the total processed). Under 3 percent is still reasonably excellent, and under 3.5 percent is reasonably good. Companies with larger volumes can usually achieve lower net effective rates. It also makes a difference if many customers use premium cards. If so, your net effective cost can't help but be higher.

A beauty of RosswarePay is that your software never handles sensitive credit card data. You will be automatically compliant.