A transaction (also called payment transaction) is a business agreement or a communication between the Site Manager and a Member for the exchange of an advertisement space for payment. The actual event occurs when a Member pays the bill carried out from the items created in his/her account. Items that require payment are the following:

• Listings in Basic, Premium, and Showcase levels
• Events in Premium, and Showcase levels
• Classifieds in Basic, Premium, and Showcase levels
• Articles
• Banners in Top, Bottom, Featured, and Sponsored Links levels

The names and prices of the levels may vary, depending on what the Site Manager set in Settings > Manage Levels.

Payment can be done by using any of the methods below:

• By Credit card – a Member who selects this method is asked to fill out the electronic payment forms
• By PayPal – a Member who selects this method is redirected to the PayPal website where the electronic payment forms to be filled out are located
• Print Invoice and Mail a Check – a Member who selects this method must print off the invoice and mail the payment check to the address specified on the invoice.

Basically, there are two kinds of transaction in eDirectory: online payment transactions, and invoice transactions. The difference between the two is explained below:

• Online Payment Transaction – This occurs when a Member selects Credit Card or Payment Gateway as his/her preferred payment method. Upon completion of the electronic payment forms, an online transaction record will be added in the Site Manager and Member accounts. A transaction record usually contains information such as Transaction ID, Status, Payment Type, Amount, Date, Member Account, IP Address, Notes, and the breakdown of what items are purchased. No credit card or payment gateway account information is saved in the Site Manager and Member accounts because this kind of information goes directly to the payment processor.
• Invoice Transaction – This occurs when a Member prefers to have the payment check mailed to the Site Manager. The Member knows the total amount to pay through the invoice generated in his/her account. Upon completion of this transaction, an invoice record will be added in the Site Manager and Member accounts. An invoice record usually contains information such as Invoice ID, Status, Amount, Issuing Date, Expiry Date, Payment Date, Member Account, IP Address, and the breakdown of what items are purchased.

Important notes to consider when monitoring transactions

• When the Site Manager receives a payment check from an invoice transaction, one important thing that he/she should do is to change the Status of the invoice record indicating that the payment has been received. After changing the Status, he/she also needs to activate the item/s covered in the transaction. For Online Payment Transactions, changing the status of online transaction record is not required since the only records added to the Site Manager account are those that have been successfully processed by the bank or payment gateway.
• When the Site Manager receives a payment from credit card or payment gateway, one thing that he/she should do is to activate the item/s covered in the transaction.  The reason is because these items whose payment has been successfully processed by the bank or payment gateway do not get automatically activated.

To learn how to activate an item, click here.

To change the status of an invoice record, do the following:

1. In the left navigation panel, click on Payment > Invoice History. After doing this, a page will appear like the one shown below:

   

2. Click on the Search sub-menu on the top of this page. After doing this, a form will appear like the one shown below:

   

3. In the Invoice id box, type the invoice id found in the memo section of the Check that you have received.

   
   You need not fill out every field in this form. The search function will work even if you provide only the Invoice id.

In eDirectory version 7.4.00, a Promotional (or Discount) Code field is added in the search form of both Invoice and Transaction History (image shown here). To use this feature, simply supply the Promotional Code of the transactions you are looking for in the box provided.

4. Click on the Search button. After doing this, the result will be displayed on the bottom area of the page.

   

5. Click on the Pending Status of the invoice record. After doing this, a form will appear like the one shown below:

   

6. In the Status dropdown list, select Received.
7. Click on the Submit button.