Hello Good People:We are considering a move from Transcend to Element for our credit card gateway (only) and have questions as to the experience others may have had using it. Anyone out there able to answer the following:Would we still be able to isolate various credit card types (Visa web, vs Visa card present, for example) in both processing and reporting?Might it be a simpler process to refund cards in a card present payment method (by 'choosing' an existing credit card in the patron's account), when the card isn't present? That was a terribly constructed question, and for that I ask forgiveness. This currently doesn't function unless the card is swiped; though it looks like Tessitura accepts it, Transcend doesn't process the refund.
Any other thoughts and concerns, or even kudos would be deeply appreciated.
Happy New Year!
Kindly,
Mark
Hi Mark -
We've been using Element as a gateway only (moved from Transcend) for a while now, and I *think* you can do everything you are asking.
As Tom mentioned, the native Element reporting leaves something to be desired. We are using a download tool from Tessitura that we originally were beta testers - I have no idea if it is out in the public yet, but it makes a huge difference for us, as we can write our own balancing reports and don't have to rely on the Element web portal as much.
As I recall, Transcend was pretty strict if you defined your merchant as 'card present' and didn't include the swipe data. I don't think Element is quite as militant (which would make that refunding easier), but I'll be frank and say I haven't actually tested against that.
Happy to have further conversations offline about any of this!
- Heather
Unknown said: As Tom mentioned, the native Element reporting leaves something to be desired. We are using a download tool from Tessitura that we originally were beta testers - I have no idea if it is out in the public yet, but it makes a huge difference for us, as we can write our own balancing reports and don't have to rely on the Element web portal as much.
Just wanted to second this re: the Element download tool and local reporting that that makes possible. It is invaluable for us as well.
I am hopeful that this tool will eventually be a standard Tessitura component; I am somewhat comforted by the fact that its local table is T_EPS_TRANSACTION_DATA, rather than "LT_...". :-)
We are doing something similair to the download tool . Basically we have an SSIS package getting the data from Element and populating a local table, which we used for enhanced reporting.
Jon
Hello Good People!
Thank you all so very much for the useful, helpful, wise information. We would love to gain access to the Tessitura tool to which you are referring. As of now we don't have that table in our system tables.
Do you know who at Tessitura we might ask about getting this tool?
Thanks again for your helpful advice!