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Credit Cards
To access the Credit Card screen, select the Credit Card button from the Profile screen Options menu. (The ability to attach credit card information to a profile is controlled by the PROFILES > PROFILE CREDIT CARD application parameter. When it is set to Y, the Credit Card button appears on the Profile screen Options menu.)
(When you select a credit card payment method in the Payment field on the Reservation screen or from certain other locations within OPERA, and the guest has credit cards attached to their profile, the Credit Card screen appears automatically to assist you in choosing the appropriate credit card. See Selecting a Credit Card Payment Method, below, for details.)
The Credit Card screen allows you to add, edit, and delete credit card information associated with the profile. Entering credit card information for an individual, account, group, or source profile using the Credit Card screen saves effort and eliminates re- keying errors. Once information has been entered here, it can be quickly accessed from other areas of OPERA such as reservations, billing, accounts receivable, and elsewhere. For example, providing you have entered the guest's credit card information using the Credit Card screen, the guest's credit card number can be selected from a list of values and autofilled on the Reservation screen when a reservation is made for the guest, and on the Payment screen when the guest checks out.
Note: If you select a credit card payment method while making a reservation for a guest, accepting a payment from a guest, checking out a guest, or performing other actions that involve a credit card, and the guest does not have credit card information already associated with their profile, or the guest has credit card information that differs from the credit card information you entered, a prompt asks, "Do you want to attach this credit card to the profile?" Responding Yes records the credit card information in the OPERA database and displays it on this screen. If the credit card was swiped, the name as it appears on the credit card will be stored in the OPERA database, will appear on this screen in the Name on Card field, and is sent to the credit card interface as the Guest Name. If the field is not populated for the credit card, then the profile name will be sent to the credit card interface.
Seq. Sequence number that determines the position of this credit card information on the Credit Card screen.
Card Type. Credit card brand (e.g., Visa, MasterCard, Discover, etc.).
Credit Card Number. Credit card account number. When credit card information is masked, only the last four numbers of the credit are visible. See Masking below for more information. When the credit card icon displays at the end of the field, the Credit Card Vault functionality is active. See Credit Card Vault for details.
Note: When the user permission, RESERVATIONS > CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIEW, is granted to a user and the credit card has not been purged, the user will see the Expiration Date and can view the credit card numbers by double-clicking on the credit number in the Credit Card Number column.
Expiration Date. Card expiration date. When credit card information is masked, the expiration date is masked. If the card has expired, and the user does not have the permission of RESERVATIONS > CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIEW, the code EXP appears in this field. See Masking below for more information.
Name on Card. Card holder's name as it appears on the credit card.
IFC Card Type. Credit card interface configured to handle card swiping for this credit card type.
To add new credit card information for the current profile, select the New button. To edit existing credit card information, highlight your choice and select the Edit button. The Credit Card - New or the Credit Card - Edit screen appears.
Card Type. Select the down arrow to choose the credit card type.
Credit Card Number. Enter the credit card account number. This information may be validated when you enter it, depending on the rules set up for this credit card type in Configuration > Cashiering > Payment Types.
Note: For security reasons, if a credit card is swiped with the cursor in this field, the information associated with the credit card is initially displayed as a series of asterisks. This is also true if you manually type a credit card number beginning with a % sign (e.g., %9238...). The asterisks will resolve to the masked credit card number or to the actual credit card number if the user has been granted the RESERVATION > CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIEW permission.
Expiration Date. Credit card expiration date. Enter month and year separated by a slash (e.g., 11/09 for November 2009.).
Name on Card. Credit card holder's name as it appears on the card.
Sequence. Sequence number that determines the position of this credit card information on the Credit Card screen.
OPERA security features affect the way credit card numbers and expiration dates are stored and displayed. These features include encryption of stored credit card numbers and expiration dates, masking of credit card numbers and expiration dates on screens and reports, and more detailed user log data to track instances of viewing as well as changing credit card information.
Credit card numbers and expiration dates are stored in the OPERA database tables in encrypted (AES256) format. All user log entries containing a credit card number are also encrypted.
As applied to credit card information, masking involves displaying Xs for all numbers of a credit card, except for the last four digits of the credit card number. The expiration date is also masked with Xs. Masking of credit card numbers is controlled by the RESERVATIONS > CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIEW user permission. If the Credit Card Information View permission is granted to a user, that user may view and edit credit card numbers and expiration dates on all applicable screens. If the permission is not granted to a user, the user sees only masked information that cannot be modified. Users can identify if the card has expired, however, by viewing the word EXP in the Expiration Date column.
Note: The GENERAL > DAYS TO REMOVE UNNECESSARY CREDIT CARDS application setting, if used, will also cause credit card information for purged credit cards to be displayed in masked format because the credit card information has been removed from the database. For credit cards that have been removed, the credit card number and expiration date will display as masked for all users, including those users who have RESERVATIONS > CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIEW permission. (See Credit Card Information Purging, below, for details.)
Reports - Credit card information is always masked on all reports.
Screens - Credit card information is masked on the following screens when the RESERVATIONS > CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIEW permission is not granted to the user. Without Credit Card Information View permission, the user can enter credit card information if appropriate to the screen. Once the information is entered and saved, the user can no longer view the full credit card number and expiration date.
User Activity Log. User activity logging records all New, Edit, Delete and View activities related to credit card information. User log entries containing credit card numbers and expiration dates are masked based on the Mask Credit Card Numbers application function and CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIEW permission.
Kiosk. Credit card numbers and expiration dates are masked based on the Mask Credit Card Numbers application parameter and CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIEW permission.
Exports. In all OPERA tables, credit card numbers are stored as encrypted. The credit card information in generated export file output will not be masked and will be decrypted.
The GENERAL > DAYS TO MASK CREDIT CARD INFORMATION application setting determines the number of days after which credit card details attached to a profile (when the PROFILES > PROFILE CREDIT CARD application parameter is set to Y) or to a reservation will be permanently masked; once credit card details have been masked, all users — regardless of permissions — will be restricted from viewing and/or editing those credit card details on all screens where credit card details are normally available. If the Days to Mask Credit Card Information application setting is null (blank), this functionality is not active.
The criteria for determining the start of the countdown to the date when the credit card information will be masked is either:
For a No Show or Cancelled reservation, the countdown begins on the departure date specified on the reservation. If a new reservation is created by using the Add On feature from a reservation belonging to a guest who has checked out and who had a credit card attached to the reservation, the credit card details will not be copied to the new reservation if the date when the new reservation is created falls after the check out date of the earlier reservation, plus the number of Days To Mask Credit Card Information. This is achieved by un-checking and disabling the Payment Method check box on the Add On screen.
Here are some examples:
Assume the Days To Mask Credit Card Information setting is 2. Credit card information was added to John Doe's profile on March 15, 2008. This credit card information will not be visible or available for editing by any user, regardless of permissions, starting on March 18, 2008. The masked credit card information will continue to be available for selection to be attached to reservations as usual.
Assume the Jane Smith has a reservation from April 1, 2008 to April 3, 2008. She also has another reservation from April 15, 2008 to April 18, 2008. If the Days To Mask Credit Card Information application setting is 2, then on April 6, 2008 the credit card information on the first reservation will be masked from all users, but the credit card details on the second reservation (April 15-18) will remain available to all users, based on permissions, since it is a future reservation.
Finally, again assuming the Days To Mask Credit Card Information is set to 2, you attach Peter Jones credit card details to his profile on June 1, 2008. Then you proceed to make a reservation for Jones for June 11, 2008 to June 16, 2008. Jones credit card information will be masked if you attempt to access it from his profile on June 4, 2008. However, that set of credit card details will not be masked if you access it through his reservation on that same date (or any date until June19, 2008).
The profile-related screens where credit card details are normally displayed and where masking is implemented include:
The reservation-related screens where credit card details are normally displayed and where masking is implemented include:
The reports where credit card information masking is implemented include:
When the General > Purge Unnecessary Credit Cards application setting is employed, the number of days entered for this setting will be used to determine which credit cards are eligible for removal, provided the credit card is not attached to any other current or future reservations in any property (in multi-property environments). Actual removal is handled by the Purge Credit Cards procedure, which is included in the OPERA Data Purge Routine, and will be implemented at the next scheduled run of that routine. Here is how this setting affects credit card information removal.
The procedure will execute each time the OPERA Data Purge Routine is scheduled. The procedure will refer to the Days to Remove Unnecessary Credit Cards setting only to determine all the valid credit card information that is older than that many days.
For all users, regardless of the Reservations > Credit Card Information View permission, credit card information will only be available in masked format (e.g., XXXXXXXXXXXX4317, expiration date XX/XX) once it has been removed from the database. (After the purge routine runs, all that actually remains of the credit card number in the OPERA database is the last four digits (still encrypted); all other credit card information, including the expiration date, is entirely removed.) The masked format information will be displayed, as required, in screens and in response to requests for reports and historical information.
When you select a credit card payment method in any of the following scenarios, and the guest has credit cards attached to their profile, the Credit Card screen appears automatically:
The Credit Card screen lists all the credit cards attached to the guest profile. By default, the credit card method of payment you selected appears highlighted on this screen.
If more than one credit card associated with the guest profile has the payment method you selected (for instance, there might be two VA payment method accounts associated with the guest profile) , the entry with the lowest sequence number will be highlighted by default. Select the OK button to confirm your choice and proceed with the activity in progress. Alternatively, you may change the credit card payment method to any of the other credit cards attached to the guest profile. To do so, highlight your choice and select the OK button. If none of the credit cards associated with the guest profile has the payment method you entered, but an entry does have an IFC Type that matches your entry, this record will be highlighted.
To enter a new credit card payment method rather than selecting from the list of credit cards attached to the profile, simply select the Close button to leave the Credit Card screen without making a selection.
Note: You cannot create, edit or delete credit card records from the Credit Card screen when it is presented for selection of a payment method.
See Also
