Split shipments for Payment Pages

Split shipments provide you with greater control over when reserved funds are settled. Instead of performing a single settlement within 7 days, as is the case with a standard authorisation, with split shipments you can perform multiple partial settlements.

Before proceeding, you may find it useful to re-familiarise yourself with our standard settlement process. Click here for further information.

Split shipments are designed for scenarios where a customer has placed a single order for multiple items, which may be dispatched at different times. This allows you to ensure the customer has the required funds by reserving the full amount of the order and then settling the funds required for each item as they are dispatched.

(We refer to an individual split shipment as a “split”)

Benefits

Split shipments help you avoid the potential inconveniences associated with performing multiple transactions for a single order. For instance:

Insufficient funds for the later payments.
Failed Fraud checks (if enabled) on later payments.
Card expires before last payment.
Card declines before last payment.

3-D Secure

An additional benefit for merchants is that all split shipments are covered by the liability shift from the initial authorisation when it has been authenticated by 3-D Secure.

Contact your acquirer for further details before going live with a split shipment solution using 3-D Secure.

Types of split shipments

There are two methods of processing split shipments that we support:

Regular – Your system submits a request to lower the settle amount of the initial request, waits for the funds to be settled (usually takes less than 24 hours from authorisation) and only then can you start processing split shipments.
Same-day – Your system submits a request to lower the settle amount of the initial request, and then you can start processing split shipments as soon as you’re ready (even prior to settlement).

Requirements

Split shipments are only supported with Mastercard and Visa branded cards.
Please contact our Support Team to check if your acquiring bank supports split shipments, and whether or not they support same-day split shipments.

For MAESTRO, MASTERCARD & MASTERCARDDEBIT

A transaction (with authmethod “PRE“) must be settled for a partial amount within 30 days of authorisation.
e.g. £50 authorised, £10 settled (£40 still reserved).
Split shipments can be processed to settle the remaining reserved funds over a period of 30 days.
All split shipments, once initiated, must be settled within 30 days of the initial authorisation.

For DELTA, ELECTRON, PURCHASING, VISA & VPAY

A transaction (with authmethod “PRE“) must be settled for a partial amount within 31 days of authorisation.
e.g. £50 authorised, £10 settled (£40 still reserved).
Split shipments can be processed to settle the remaining reserved funds over a period of 31 days.
All split shipments, once initiated, must be settled within 31 days of the initial authorisation.

Process overview

The customer processes a transaction (an AUTH request) using your Payment Pages solution.
Use Portal to update the transaction amount to be a lower value.
Use Portal to submit subsequent requests to perform split shipments each time new items are dispatched.

Walkthrough

The following is an example of split shipments in action.

Before continuing, you will need to have a basic understanding of the splitfinalnumber field.

The splitfinalnumber is used to define how many split shipments are going to be performed for a transaction (this includes the initial AUTH). This is typically the number of items to be dispatched. The splitfinalnumber field is required in the POST to Payment Pages used when processing the initial AUTH.

Part 1) Processing the initial AUTH

The following is an example case that can be used as a template when configuring your solution. You are free to specify your own amounts and number of splits, providing the requirements specified on this page are met.

You redirect your customer’s browser to Payment Pages to process a payment for £100.
The POST includes splitfinalnumber = 4.

In practice, this means you can perform 3 splits, in addition to the initial AUTH:
1 Parent AUTH + 3 possible split requests = splitfinalnumber of 4

Note: The splitfinalnumber field must be at least 2 and not greater than 20.

<html>
  <head>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!--YOUR HTML-->
    <form method="POST" action="https://payments.securetrading.net/process/payments/choice">
      <input type="hidden" name="sitereference" value="test_site12345">
      <input type="hidden" name="currencyiso3a" value="GBP">
      <input type="hidden" name="mainamount" value="100.00">
      <input type="hidden" name="version" value="2">
      <input type="hidden" name="stprofile" value="default">
      <input type="hidden" name="authmethod" value="PRE">
      <input type="hidden" name="splitfinalnumber" value="4">
      <input type="submit" value="Pay">
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

The authmethod field in the initial AUTH must be set to “PRE”.

It is possible to configure your account to automatically submit all transactions as authmethod = “PRE”, without the need to update your payment form to submit the authmethod field every time.

Please contact our Support Team for further info.

If you have configured URL redirects to take the customer’s browser session back to your own site following a transaction, you can configure the redirects to include the posted splitfinalnumber.

Click here for a payment form example

<html>
  <head>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!--YOUR HTML-->
    <form method="POST" action="https://payments.securetrading.net/process/payments/choice">
      <input type="hidden" name="sitereference" value="test_site12345">
      <input type="hidden" name="currencyiso3a" value="GBP">
      <input type="hidden" name="mainamount" value="100.00">
      <input type="hidden" name="version" value="2">
      <input type="hidden" name="stprofile" value="default">
      <input type="hidden" name="authmethod" value="PRE">
      <input type="hidden" name="splitfinalnumber" value="4">
      <input type="hidden" name="ruleidentifier" value="STR-6">
      <input type="hidden" name="successfulurlredirect" value="http://www.yourwebsite.com/successful">
      <input type="hidden" name="stextraurlredirectfields" value="splitfinalnumber">
      <input type="submit" value="Pay">
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

Important: The names of all additional fields to be returned in the redirect (e.g. “splitfinalnumber” as shown in the example above) need to be included in the correct position within the string used to generate your request site security hash. Failure to do so will result in the customer being shown an “Invalid details” error message. Click here for further information on site security, and the default order of fields in the string.

If you have configured URL notifications to be submitted to your own server following a transaction, you can configure the notifications to include the posted splitfinalnumber.

Click here for a payment form example

<html>
  <head>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!--YOUR HTML-->
    <form method="POST" action="https://payments.securetrading.net/process/payments/choice">
      <input type="hidden" name="sitereference" value="test_site12345">
      <input type="hidden" name="currencyiso3a" value="GBP">
      <input type="hidden" name="mainamount" value="100.00">
      <input type="hidden" name="version" value="2">
      <input type="hidden" name="stprofile" value="default">
      <input type="hidden" name="authmethod" value="PRE">
      <input type="hidden" name="splitfinalnumber" value="4">
      <input type="hidden" name="ruleidentifier" value="STR-8">
      <input type="hidden" name="successfulurlnotification" value="http://www.yourwebsite.com/successful">
      <input type="hidden" name="stextraurlnotifyfields" value="splitfinalnumber">
      <input type="submit" value="Pay">
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

Part 2) Updating the initial AUTH

You perform an update using Portal to allow an amount of £50 from the initial AUTH request to be settled. Once the initial AUTH has been updated, this leaves £50 (out of the £100 originally authorised) reserved on the customer’s bank account that has not been settled.

If you are processing regular split shipments, you will need to wait for the initial AUTH request to be settled before proceeding (this typically takes up to 24 hours after the initial AUTH was processed).
If your acquiring bank supports same-day split shipments, you can process split shipment requests as soon as you need to (see below).

If you are not sure which method of split shipments your acquiring bank supports, please contact our Support Team for assistance.

Part 3) Processing the split shipments

Following the above, there are £50 of funds that can be settled via split shipments submitted through Portal.

Using the transaction search feature, select a transaction that meets the requirements for performing split shipments (see the Requirements section above) and click “Re-Auth”.

Click the “+” icon to the left of the transaction reference in the table to show additional fields.

Once expanded, set the “Auth method” field to “SPLIT” in the drop-down:

Enter an amount to be settled in the “Amount” field.
Following these steps, click the “Re-Auth” button at the bottom of the page to perform a split shipment.

Failing to change the “Auth method” field to “SPLIT” will lead to a new authorisation being processed against the customer’s card.

After a split shipment has been processed, the “Authorisation method” and “Split final number” fields can be viewed at a later time on Portal. For all split shipments, the “Authorisation method” will be set to “SPLIT”.

Part 4) Remaining split shipments

Following on from the examples above, you process the following split shipment requests:

Process 1st split for £20 (£50 – £20 = £30 remaining to be settled).
Process 2nd split for £10 (£30 – £10 = £20 remaining to be settled).
Process 3rd split for £20 (£20 – £20 = £0 remaining to be settled).

Following the splits described above, it is now not possible to process subsequent splits. This is because:

The maximum number of splits (defined in the splitfinalnumber field) has been reached.
All funds reserved in the authorisation have been settled.

Splits cannot be processed if either of the above conditions are met.

If there are remaining funds that have not been settled within the timeframe outlined in the Requirements section found at the top of this page, these funds will be released back to the customer’s bank account.

splitfinalnumber specification

This field is subject to additional requirements on its use:

In the POST to Payment Pages, the splitfinalnumber must be submitted with a value greater than or equal to ‘2’
- This value defaults to ‘1‘ when not submitted.
- If the value is ‘1’, split shipments cannot be performed.
It is not permitted to submit a greater number of split shipments than allowed in the splitfinalnumber.
We recommend that you process the same number of splits specified in the splitfinalnumber.
splitfinalnumber cannot be greater than 20.
You can lower the splitfinalnumber after the initial transaction by submitting a lower splitfinalnumber in a subsequent split request processed through Portal. This number can never be lower than the number of splits already processed, nor can it ever be increased.

If you submit the splitfinalnumber field, and the customer chooses to make a payment with a payment method that does not support split shipment, this field is ignored and will not affect the payment (and will be returned as blank in any configured redirects or notifications).

Settlement

When your system submits a valid split shipment request, the settle status of the transaction will be ‘0’ (‘Pending settlement’) for up to 24 hours before settling (status ‘100’). During this time, split shipments can be cancelled (or suspended) by updating the settle status of the split shipment:

Sign in to Portal, search for the unique transactionreference and click “Update”. Then modify the settlestatus of the transaction to “2” for suspended or “3” for cancelled.
Alternatively, you can process a TRANSACTIONUPDATE request using our Webservices API to update the settle status of a split to “2” or “3”, as required.

Split shipments can be suspended but must be settled within the timeframe outlined in the Requirements section found at the top of this page.

Refunds

It is possible to use Portal to perform refunds on any split payment that has been settled. When considering refunds, it is best to think of each split as an independent transaction, because splits are refunded independently to one another. You will need to process a refund for each split you would like to be refunded.

E.g. To fully refund a single authorisation that has been divided into 4 parts (1 Parent Auth + 3 split requests), you would need to perform at least 4 refunds.

Each split is identified using their unique transactionreference.

As with standard payments, you can only refund splits when they have been settled (settle status “100”). If a split has not been settled, you can instead use Portal to update the settle status to defer or cancel settlement.

Refunding a single split does not affect the settlement of other splits from the same initial AUTH.

Performing a refund does not prevent future splits from being processed, provided all requirements above have still been met.

Performing refunds in this manner does not make previously-reserved funds available for future splits from the same parent.

If you have reached your maximum number of splits (splitfinalnumber), refunding a split payment will not allow you to perform an additional split request.

Additional notes

Fraud checks cannot be performed on splits.
Duplicate checks are performed on splits (if enabled on your account).
Split shipments do not support DCC.

Further reading on this topic