Introduction

 
Automatic Billing Updater (ABU) is a web service that provides access to updated account credentials (cards). This can be leveraged by Merchant/Acquirers/Payment Service Providers to ensure that they always have their customers’ most up to date card credentials for recurring and card-on-file payments.
Simply put, ABU allows card details to be updated automatically in the event they are no longer valid. Types of updates include:

• Expiration dates
• Replacement card numbers
• Account closures
• Issuer brand changes to Visa and MasterCard

Objectives

 
This guide aims to foster awareness and comprehension of Automatic Billing Updater (ABU) while clearly delineating the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders engaged in the ABU enablement process for a merchant.
Through visual aids, we will walk you through the process of enabling ABU for a merchant via the Admin Portal, including any additional configurations that may be necessary. 

Note: This guide aims to demonstrate to the user how to enable ABU, assuming that the user is capable of onboarding a merchant.

Benefits of ABU

 
Here are some of the benefits of Automatic Billing Updater (ABU):

• Reduce transaction disruptions due to account changes
• Prevent late fees and service disruption
• Lower operating and processing costs by reducing Card-Not-Present declines
  

Which iVeri products are ABU applicable to?

• Lite
• Enterprise
• DiVert
• Batch
• Link
• IYS
  
  

How Automatic Billing Updater works

 Below is a high-level visual representation of how Automatic Billing Updater works:

Pre-Requisites

1. Acquirer Collaboration for ABU Implementation:
2. 1. Establish an agreement with the Acquirer regarding the submission process for the Merchant Registration file.
   2. Follow the necessary steps to conclude the project with MasterCard, including customization, testing, and obtaining final approval.
3. Acquirer Configuration on Admin Portal:
4. 1. Input the provided ICA value from the Acquirer under "System > Distributor > Parameters" on the Admin portal.
5. Merchant Eligibility Requirements:
6. 1. Merchants must be actively processing Card Not Present (CNP) transactions using any of the following platforms: Lite, Enterprise, DiVert, Batch, or Link.
7. Mastercard Transaction Processing:
8. 1. Merchants should be actively processing transactions with Mastercard.
       
      

Enabling Merchants for Recurring transactions

 
Merchants that process recurring transactions need to be enabled as such via the Admin Portal.
In the authorization message that is sent to the Acquirer, as part of the transaction process, there is specific data that indicates that a transaction is recurring, and the merchant has been enabled for recurring transactions.
We will have a look at how to enable a merchant for recurring transactions via the Admin Portal.

Navigation Path to this screen:
Applications > Update > Provider Specific.

Navigate and expand on the ‘Processing’ parameter.

Scroll down to the ‘Cardholder Presence default’ parameter.
The parameter is defaulted to ‘no’

Untick the default value. From the dropdown menu, select ‘Recurring transaction’

The next parameter that needs to be update is the ‘Recurring Indicator allowed’.
The parameter is defaulted to ‘No’

Untick the default value. From the dropdown menu, select ‘Yes’.

Lastly, navigate to the ‘Update Parameters’ tab to save changes.

Enabling ABU on the Admin Portal

 Below we will look at the step-by-step process of enabling a merchant for Automatic Billing Updater via Admin Portal.

Navigation Path:
To navigate to this screen, 
Select Applications > Update > Provider Specific.
Click on the ‘Common Provider’ expansion tab.

Navigate to the ‘Supplementary’ parameter and click on the expansion tab.

Navigate to the ‘ABU enabled’ parameter. This parameter defaults to ‘No’.

To enable ABU, untick the default value.
From the dropdown, select ‘Yes’.

The next parameter that needs to be populated is the ‘ABU Merchant ID’. This parameter needs to be populated with the Merchant ID.
The Merchant ID is provided / supplied by the Acquirer.

Untick the default value and enter the ABU Merchant ID

Lastly, save the changes that you have captured by ‘Updating Parameters’.