1. Configuring and Collecting Payments
  2. Configuring Payment Channels

22 Configuring Payment Channels

Learn how to define and load payment channel IDs and descriptions into the Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) database.

Topics in this document:

About Payment Channel Information

Payment channel information is a payment property that identifies the delivery method by which customer payments are sent to a financial institution. For example, payment channels include the Internet, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) phone service, Automated Clearing House (ACH), and lockbox.

You can use the payment channel information to implement customizations in BRM, such as suspending payments, charging failed payment fees, and offering early-payment incentives.

Setting Up Payment Channel Information

To set up payment channel information for your system, you must first define and load the information into BRM, and then configure it for BRM-initiated payment processing.

For BRM-initiated payment, the payment gateway must include the payment channel information in each payment. When the payments are received by BRM, they will be processed automatically with the correct channel ID.

For externally initiated payments, the payment gateway must map the external payment channel information to BRM channel IDs in each payment file. Therefore, the payment channel information should already be included in the imported payment batch. If a payment does not contain a payment channel ID, the payment batch-level channel ID is used for that payment.

Note:

By default, verification of accurate payment channel ID mapping is not performed in BRM.

Defining Payment Channel Information in BRM

The payment channel information you load into the BRM database consists of payment channel IDs and the text strings that describe them. To define payment channel IDs, you edit the payment_channel.en_US sample file in the BRM_home/sys/msgs/paymentchannels directory. You then use the load_localized_strings utility to load the contents of the file into the /strings objects.

When you run the load_localized_strings utility, use this command: 

load_localized_strings payment_channel.locale

Note:

If you're loading a localized version of this file, use the correct file extension for your locale. For a list of file extensions, see "Locale Names" in BRM Developer's Guide.

For information about loading the payment_channel.locale file and creating new strings for it, see "Loading Localized or Customized Strings" and "Creating New Strings and Customizing Existing Strings" in BRM Developer's Guide.

Mapping Payment Channel IDs for BRM-Initiated Payments

For BRM-initiated payments such as credit card and direct debit payments, the payment channel for a particular vendor is retrieved from the payment processor configuration object and automatically saved in BRM with each payment.

To map the payment channels, you run the load_pin_ach utility to load the contents of the pin_ach file into the /config/ach object in the BRM database.

  1. Edit the pin_ach file in BRM_home/sys/data/pricing/example by specifying each vendor and its payment channel ID. The channel_id value must match a payment channel ID configured in the /strings object.

    The file contains instructions and an example.

  2. Save the pin_ach file.

  3. Use the following command to run the "load_pin_ach" utility: 

    load_pin_ach ach_file

    If you are not in the same directory as the load_pin_ach file, include the complete path to the file. For example: 

    load_pin_ach BRM_home/sys/data/pricing/example/ach_file

  4. Stop and restart the Connection Manager (CM).

  5. Verify that the pin_ach file was loaded successfully by using the Object Browser to display the /config/ach object, or use the testnap utility with the robj command. See “Reading an Object and Writing its Contents to a File" in BRM Developer's Guide.

If a payment does not contain a payment channel ID, a value of 0 will be saved with the payment by default, which configures it as Unspecified Payment Channel.

For more information on setting up merchant accounts and automated clearing houses, see "Setting Up Merchant Accounts".

Configuring Payment Channel IDs for Externally Initiated Payments

For externally initiated payments, you must configure the payment gateway or custom CRM tool with the payment channel ID information. When the payment batch is received, you use the PCM_OP_PYMT_COLLECT opcode to load the channel ID into BRM.

You can run the testnap utility to check that the payment channel IDs were loaded properly.