FAQ

  • General
  • Direct debits
  • Your Flo2Cash direct debit account
  • Batch processing
  • Web payments
  • China UnionPay
  • Virtual terminal

What is Flo2Cash?

Flo2Cash is a technology company that builds seriously smart systems to help businesses accept payments. Since 2003, we’ve powered the transactions for businesses of all sizes – banking institutions, start-ups, not-for-profits, and charitable organisations.

Our mission is to help businesses accept payments, grow revenues, and thrive in the global economy.

Where and when can I get your help?

Our team is here for you! Simply reach out to our team through the Contact us page. The Flo2Cash support desk is manned during our core business hours of 8.30am to 5.30pm.

Are there any hidden fees with your service?

No. All fees are transparent and outlined in our pricing document.

How soon can funds be deposited into my account?

The next business day.

How do I know if the funds have been sent?

Flo2Cash will email a credit card settlement report to the nominated business contact on your Flo2Cash account. The report will also confirm the sum of money that has been deposited to your account.

Can I view the payment details online?

Yes, and it’s available for you 24/7. Simply log on to your merchant dashboard on the Flo2Cash website. Navigate to the card transactions icon – there, you’ll see all the transactions processed on your account.

Will my customers see Flo2Cash’s name on their credit card statements?

No. ‘Flo2Cash’ will not appear on their credit card statements. Your customer will see your organisation’s name appear instead.

Is there a testing environment where I can test my integration?

Absolutely, you’ll be provided with a demo environment for testing. To test your Flo2Cash integration, simply request for a demo on the Contact us page.

What's a direct debit?

A direct debit is a method of payment. A customer gives an authority to their bank that authorises the payee (your company or organisation) to collect money from their bank account on a particular date without further action being required by the customer.

The customer might use direct debit for fixed amounts at regular intervals – or to pay bills where the amount varies from month to month (like an electricity bill). Direct debits can also be instalment payments.

What's paperless direct debit?

It’s exactly how it sounds - direct debit payment collection without the paperwork. It enables you / your company or organisation to sign up customers for direct debit collection online, over the phone, or face-to-face.

In other words, paperless direct debit allows you to obtain a direct debit authority from the customer without them having to fill a paper-based direct debit authority form. This is useful because it gives your customers more payment options, which could help improve your sales and payment processes.

Is direct debit right for me?

Organisation type

Collection

Benefits

Property management and estate agents

Rents (commercial or residential), insurance, maintenance and service charges, ground rents

Collect on specific dates. Reduce administration time and costs. Adjust payments as necessary.

Member organisations, health clubs and golf clubs

Annual subscription fees, rents, site fees, and service charges

Automatic renewal reduces member lapse rates and costs. When your fees rise, payments can be adjusted automatically

Tradespeople and window cleaners

Regular collections for products and services

Avoid the tedium of going door to door, and collect donations effortlessly weekly or monthly

Not-for-profits, aged care homes, and charitable / fundraising organisations

Donations and chargeable fees

Continuous and predictable cash flow or revenue stream

____

The greatest benefit of direct debit is the ability to vary the amount and date of payments. In this way, direct debit is right for any organisation, charitable institution, or sole trader that regularly collects payments from customers.

Check out the table for some great examples of direct debit uses and benefits.

With Flo2Cash’s direct debit capability, you’ll receive alerts of failed payments, as well as reports and data and analytics to stay on top of your customer collections.

How do I sign up for Flo2Cash's direct debits solution?

It’s easy. Reach out to our team using the Contact us page and we’ll get you started!

As a merchant, when can I expect to receive payments in my bank account?

Cleared funds are credited into the nominated bank account on the second business day from when the direct debit payment was scheduled.

Depending on your bank, you should see the funds on the third business day.

Does Flo2Cash make sure funds are clear?

Flo2Cash provides only cleared payments to your business. Flo2Cash will automatically inform you of any dishonours and issues that may impact you receiving your direct debit payments.

How would I cancel a direct debit?

You can cancel a direct debit via your merchant dashboard on our website. You can also reach out to us directly on the Contact us page, where during business hours our support team will take immediate action for you.

What’s the process for cancelling a customer’s direct debit payments?

Your customer would need to contact you, their merchant, to cancel their direct debit payment. You would then need to cancel the direct debit payment through the merchant dashboard on our website.

In certain situations, please be aware that your customer could also cancel payments by contacting their bank. If you are facing issues with cancellations, please reach out to the team on the Contact us page.

Can merchants alter their customer’s payment term?

Yes, provided the merchant has been given authority by the customer to do so.

Can multiple direct debits be setup for an individual customer?

Absolutely. A customer may have any number of direct debits. Each direct debit has its own unique number and is treated differently.

What happens if a direct debit fails?

As a merchant, you’ll be notified about unsuccessful direct debits. This happens in two ways: through the Direct Debit Transaction Report, and through the Direct Debit Dishonour and Settlement Report. Depending on the reason of failure, your client is able to reschedule the payment, or you can organise for Flo2Cash to do this for you.

Why is there a cost difference between Flo2Cash’s direct debit solution and the direct debit facility available by banks?

Flo2Cash offers a total direct debit lifecycle management solution – while banks only give you the ability to initiate a direct debit.

Comparing direct debit offerings – banks vs. Flo2Cash

Bank facility

Flo2Cash facility

Direct debit form

Client to design based on template

Included – Customised direct debit form done for client

Recurring direct
debit

Client must have software to create a recurring direct debit which would get sent to the bank on the appropriate date

Included – Ability to setup an automated recurring direct debit via the Flo2Cash console or API

Paperless direct
debit

Subject to bank approval; client needs to build a solution to track and store T&C acceptance

Included – ability to setup a paperless direct debit online or via telephone

Confirmation letter / email

Client needs to build processes and solution to send direct debit setup confirmation

Included – the direct debit solution is automated to send setup confirmation

Are there limits associated with direct debits?

Not really. A Flo2Cash merchant can direct debit any amount as long as they have been given authority by the customer.

However, it’s important to note that banks have anti-fraud and anti-money laundering software tools. Sometimes, these may stop an account from being direct debited.

Which channels or ways can I collect direct debit?

Flo2Cash offers you the ability to accept direct debits through paper forms, online web forms, and over the phone.

Will I receive confirmations and notifications about payment plans?

Yes. Flo2Cash’s direct debit capability means you can generate an email that confirms to your customer that direct debit has been set up, when the first direct debit will take place, and the ongoing frequency of the direct debits.

Merchants that give customers the ability to set up their own direct debit are also sent a notification to inform them that a direct debit authority has come through.

What types of reports would I receive from the Flo2Cash direct debit facility?

  • The Settlement and Dishonour Report – emailed to you daily.
  • The Approval Plan Report is sent out when a customer direct debit plan is approved.
  • The Ended Plan Report is sent out to you when a customer direct debit plan has ended.

You can also always access a Direct Debit Plan Report through your merchant dashboard.

How and when can I access my account?

Anytime! Your Flo2Cash merchant dashboard allows control over your direct debits 24/7.

You can add, edit, and remove information. The merchant dashboard then updates all changes in real time.

If I upload my batch of transactions, when will transactions be processed?

Your transactions will be processed at midnight the next day. Normally this will be within 24 hours.

How many transactions can I upload at a time?

Large volumes of transactions take longer to upload. We recommend that the upload size does not exceed 500 transactions per file. This will avoid ‘time-out’ issues that can occur if there are a vast number of transactions.

Can I automate the batch uploading process?

You certainly can. Our ABP (Automated Batch Processor) allows you to integrate with your own software / application to automatically upload transactions and retrieve transaction statuses.

Do file names matter when I upload my batch file?

Not really - the file names don't impact the upload.

Does the batch processor ensure that files are not processed twice?

Any files you upload are processed only once. However, if you accidentally upload the same file twice, you must cancel one of them immediately to avoid double processing.

How do I retrieve the status of processed file?

If you use the merchant dashboard to perform batch-processing, you can download your batch file anytime you like. The downloaded file will contain the status of each transaction.

How easy is web payments integration?

Very! Simply follow our Web Payments Integration Guide. Code samples are available too.

What programming languages are supported by web payments?

Web payments use standard HTTPS POST. Hence, it’s programming language-independent. Any web programming language that can perform an HTTPS POST is supported.

Why do web payments have to redirect my customers to a Flo2Cash hosted page for payment collection?

For risk management, security, and compliance.

Processing via Flo2Cash’s hosted payment page ensures you are Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant with respect to collecting and processing credit card details online.

For you as a merchant to be PCI compliant, you must make sure that no credit card details are not held by any of your systems. And if credit card information is collected online, it must meet the strictest security standards.

Flo2Cash’s hosted payment pages ensure that all payment details are collected and processed on Flo2Cash’s secure page, so that payment details are transmitted and processed safely.

Do web payments support multi-currency acceptance?

No, Flo2Cash does not support multi-currency acceptance at this stage.

However, if your customer tries to make a payment to you using a foreign currency credit card, the transaction will be processed. You as the merchant will receive the nominated amount in NZ dollars.

Your customer will be charged on their card the amount in his own currency, using the current exchange rates.

For this to happen, your Flo2Cash account must be enabled to accept foreign issued cards.

Which shopping carts are supported by Flo2Cash?

Flo2Cash currently supports:

  • WordPress – eCommerce + WooCommerce
  • Magento
  • OpenCart
  • PrestaShop
  • Drupal 6
  • Drupal 7
  • Joomla

What will my customers see when they pay using web payments?

When the hosted payment page has been added to your website, your customers will first see a page for making online payments using their Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card. (This includes China UnionPay and American Express if requested to be enabled.)

Your customer will then be directed to the secure, hosted payment page to enter their card details. When they press submit, the card details will be sent for processing. A processing payment screen will be displayed while the transaction is being processed.

Once processing is completed, the payment result screen will appear. If the customer provided their email address on the payment page, they’ll receive a thank you email and receipt.

Which transaction reports are available to me?

These reports are available under 'My reports' in the merchant console and can be setup to be emailed:

  • Daily Card Settlement Report (single date): Reports on all settlement values for a given day. You can set this report to be emailed to you regularly.
  • Card Transaction Report: Reports all card transactions processed with a range of available filters. You can set this report to be emailed to you regularly.
  • Card Settlement Report (date range): Reports on all settlement values for a date range.

How do I process a refund?

If your customer paid using recurring card payments, web payments, or invoice payments, you can process a refund.

  1. Log in to your merchant dashboard and go to the card transactions section.
  2. Search for the transaction you want to refund by entering the receipt number or transaction ID in the search box.
  3. Click on the transaction number and enter the required details in the refund box at the bottom of the page.

You will then need to contact Flo2Cash on the Contact us page to request for the refund function to be activated on your account.

What's China UnionPay?

UnionPay is the bank card scheme that operates across mainland China and internationally, issued in more than 30 countries worldwide, and accepted in more than 140 countries and regions around the world.

Who uses China UnionPay?

Any business that has a marketable product for Asian consumers and businesses (across China and other East Asian countries). They should have the ability to accept payments through UnionPay cards.

Expanding the online payment options for a business means they are catering to a wider number of online consumers.

Approximately 30% of cards worldwide are a China UnionPay card (CUP). If businesses aren’t accepting this popular payment card type online, they could be missing out on a lucrative opportunity.

What are the limits associated with China UnionPay?

All merchants have a limit on how much money they can accept per transaction and per month. Transaction limits help us screen for suspicious activity so that we can protect the merchant’s financial security.

However, merchants can always contact us to request limit alterations to better suit their business needs.

Which channels are supported?

Flo2Cash currently offers the ability to accept China UnionPay through its e-commerce products.

The main ones are: hosted payment page, shopping carts plugin, e-commerce API, and invoice payments.

Can I produce digital receipts after payments have been made?

Flo2Cash’s e-commerce products let you generate a digital receipt for the completed transaction. Merchants can access their full transaction history on their Flo2Cash merchant dashboard. There, you can also re-generate a digital receipt.

Can I refund on a card payment?

Yes, refunds are possible. You as a merchant simply need to complete a refund form and email it to our customer support team for processing.

Going forward, a merchant can perform a refund themselves in the merchant dashboard.

What sort of reports can I access?

Flo2Cash has a range of standard reports that help you manage and track payments conducted through Flo2Cash’s tools and systems.

Reports can either be downloaded on an ad hoc basis from the merchant dashboard. Some transactional reports can also be set up as automatic reports that are emailed automatically on a set frequency to one or more designated email addresses.

Is it secure to accept UnionPay cards for e-commerce payments?

Absolutely. It’s one of the safest and most secure ways to transact.

Payments made online using a UnionPay card work on a “push payment” principle, where users are actually directed to their personal bank account to authorise the payment.

This differs to the typical online Visa / MasterCard card payment process that most New Zealanders are accustomed to, but is the standard process used by UnionPay.

What information is displayed on the customer’s card statement after they've paid a merchant?

The customer will see the merchant’s company name on their card statement.

What's a virtual terminal, and is it safe?

A virtual terminal is a webpage for securely entering card details to accept payments. It's commonly used for online shopping or over-the-phone payments, for example.

It certainly is safe with us. Flo2Cash is a Level 1, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certified organisation – the key security standard within the payments industry.

Transactions processed through Flo2Cash’s payment gateway are done in a very secure manner. Your security is our policy.

Can I perform a refund on the virtual terminal?

No. Refunding is not performed in the virtual terminal.

Instead, you can go to the transaction history section within your merchant dashboard and perform a refund on a selected transaction there.

How do I download a receipt for my record after processing the transaction?

Once a transaction has been processed, a receipt will be generated. You can download the receipt by clicking on the receipt number.