The «Payment in Parts» and «Instant Installment» services from PrivatBank are popular financial tools that allow customers to pay for goods in equal parts over several months, which helps increase customer loyalty and stimulate sales. For a business owner, this mode is beneficial because the bank immediately transfers the full cost of the goods to the seller, minus the special service commission. However, entrepreneurs often contact technical support with a serious problem: when trying to sell goods by installment, the customer’s bank card is suddenly charged not for the first monthly payment, but for the full receipt amount at once. This leads to conflicts with customers, the need to urgently cancel the operation, and stressful situations at the checkout.
Why is the full amount charged?
The main reason is that the bank terminal processes the transaction as a regular cashless payment, not as a special bank installment service.
In Torgsoft, the ability to work with «Payment in Parts» and «Instant Installment» is implemented for PrivatBank bank terminals that work via the B-POS and JSON protocols. If, when transferring the amount to the terminal, the cashier selects the wrong operation type (merchant) in Torgsoft, or a temporary connection failure with the terminal occurs, the POS terminal screen shows the full amount to be paid and displays the basic operation type «Payment». If the customer taps the card at this moment, the full amount is charged from their own funds or credit limit.
For the transaction to be processed correctly as an installment, the terminal screen must display «Payment in Parts».
How to configure the service correctly to avoid errors
To avoid such incidents, you need to configure the service correctly in the program and train cashiers to follow a clear procedure.
Step 1. Bank and commission setup. Since the commission for using the «Payment in Parts» service is paid by the seller, these deductions must be configured first.
-
Go to «Settings — Bank» and enable the «Instant Installment» and «Payment in Parts» switches, depending on what is configured on the terminal. Both services may be configured, or only one of them may be configured.
-
For the «Payment in Parts» service, click the «Service commission» button and specify the commission percentage depending on the number of payments. The number of payments cannot be less than 2.
Step 2. Bank terminal merchant setup. The program must understand that the payment is not going to a standard account, but through a special service.
-
Go to «Settings — Parameters — Additional options — Bank terminal».
-
Add a new merchant, select the settlement account, activate the «Use service» switch, and select the «Payment in Parts» service from the list. The operation type must be «Payment».
Note: if the availability of this service is later disabled in the bank form, payment through this merchant will become impossible and will result in an error.
Cashier procedure: control point
Errors most often occur at the checkout stage. The correct sales process is as follows:
-
In the «Sale» window, the cashier selects the settlement account for which the service is configured and clicks «Pay» or «Print receipt», depending on the printing conditions.
-
The «Bank terminal merchants» window appears, or a drop-down list, depending on the user settings, where the cashier must select the merchant «Payment in Parts».
-
After that, the program will ask to enter the number of payments into which the amount is divided.
-
Critical control point: before the customer brings the card to the POS terminal, the cashier must look at the terminal screen. It must clearly display «Payment in Parts».
-
Only after this visual check may the customer tap the card. If the screen simply says «Payment», the operation must be immediately canceled using the button on the terminal, and the amount must be transferred again from Torgsoft.
How this is reflected in Torgsoft financial accounting
If the cashier has done everything correctly, the program will automatically create several documents: a financial payment document, an acquiring document, and a separate expense operation under the item «Payment in Parts service commission». The amount of this commission is calculated automatically according to the percentage you specified for the selected number of payments.
The comment to this expense document will show the commission percentage, the total payment amount, and the number of payments into which the customer divided the purchase. Such payments will be reflected as store expenses together with regular acquiring.
Important to remember: returns of payments made through installment services using an integrated bank terminal are not supported by Torgsoft. Such operations must be agreed upon and processed directly through the bank. In addition, when deleting an acquiring payment, the program will warn that the «Payment in Parts» service commission will also be deleted together with it.
Go back to the previous step