Below content remains same for AX2 as well as Atomic


WHAT PROBLEM DO RECONCILIATION FILES SOLVE?


Merchants may wish to reconcile the transaction data between their e-commerce application, APEXX, their acquiring bank and their business bank. This process allows merchants to verify that all movements of funds are related to a customer-initiated transaction, and that all customer-initiated transaction result in a movement of funds. 


Merchants may therefore wish to update the transaction data in APEXX with information that is held by the acquiring bank, but not fed back through the APEXX API. This data is based on events that occur after authorisation and settlement, for example

  • Chargebacks
  • Chargeback Reversals
  • Identifiers applied by the acquiring platform
  • Fees and charges applied by the acquiring platform (where supported)

Such notifications are also referred to as asynchronous transaction updates. "Asynchronous" means that the sending of the update is triggered by a specific event, rather than a request from APEXX. 


Post-authorisation updates are applied to APEXX transaction data by importing reconciliation data files supplied by the acquiring bank, which in turn triggers a webhook notification to the merchant.



WHAT IS A RECONCILIATION FILE?


A reconciliation file is a data file issued by the acquiring bank. It is similar to a bank statement and contains detailed transaction information. This data can be used to update the status of transactions in APEXX and to append additional information. The file format varies slightly between banks. 


Acquirers normally generate reconciliation files following the end-of-day process.



HOW IS A RECONCILIATION FILE PROCESSED?


Where an integration is available, the acquirer's reconciliation file is imported automatically by APEXX on a nightly basis. 



WHICH DATA POINTS ARE UPDATED BY THE RECONCILIATION FILE IN APEXX?


Generally, the reconciliation file will


  • Append a reconciliationId to transactions
  • Facilitate the generation of related reports
  • Create chargeback events and trigger webhooks
    • For a new chargeback, the transaction status will be updated from CAPTURED to CHARGEBACK
    • For a successfully contested chargeback, the transaction status will be updated from CHARGEBACK to CHARGEBACK REVERSAL
    • The webhook will contain the following attributes:


"transaction_chargeback" : {

"transaction_chargeback_id" : "string",

"case_id" : "string",

"orginal_transaction_date" : "string",

"terminal_id" : "string",

"reference_number" : "string",

"merchant_service_fee" : "number",

"settlement_currency" : "string",

"arn" : "string",

}

  • The CHARGEBACK and CHARGEBACK REVERSAL statuses are only notified when reconciliation files are implemented. This feature is only available in a Production environment, not in Sandbox



WHICH ACQUIRERS CAN APEXX PROCESS RECONCILIATION FILES FOR?


New integrations are added on an ongoing basis. Please reach out to your APEXX representative to find out how we can assist you.



RELATED ARTICLES

API Reference: Transaction Webhooks

How does APEXX track chargebacks?

What is the purpose of webhooks?