1.8. Recurring Payments Service

Introduction

Recurring (also Recurrent) payments transactions is a type of bank payments, where charges are applied to a cardholder in predetermined intervals for services or goods of an ongoing nature (memberships, subscriptions, loan payments). Prior to the charges, card must be registered in system. Recurring Payments Service enables automatic processing of payments on a regular schedule, such as weekly, monthly, or annually. With this service, Payers can set up their payment details once, and the system will automatically charge their credit card or bank account at the specified intervals. The Connecting Party is not required to specify the recurring schedule on Payment Gateway side. The recurring payment requests can also be initiated manually according to Connecting Party internal schedule, business model or Payer’s request. To view and manage recurring payments service from UI, contact support manager.

Direct Recurring Payments Flow

This flow implies that Connecting Party has PCI DSS certificate and is able to work with cardholder data.

@startuml
skinparam roundcorner 20
skinparam sequenceArrowThickness 1
skinparam maxmessagesize 1200
skinparam sequenceParticipant underline
actor Payer
participant "Connecting Party" as A
participant "Elecsnet" as B
autonumber
Payer -> A: Subscribe for\nrecurring payments
== Create recurring payment ==
activate A
A -> B: /api/v4/create-recurring-payment/
activate B
B -> B: Create recurring\npayment profile
B --> A: Recurring Payment ID
deactivate B
Payer <-- A: Recurring payment\nis registered
deactivate A
group If recurring schedule is set
...                                       According to schedule...
B -> B: Process scheduled\nrecurring transaction
activate B
A <- B: Callback with Final Status
activate A
A --> B: HTTP 200
deactivate B
Payer <-- A: Notify Payer
deactivate A
end
group Optional
== Process recurring payment ==
A -> B: v4/process-recurring-payment/\nwith Recurring Payment ID
activate B
activate A
A <-- B: Creating recurring transaction
B -> B: Process recurring\ntransaction
A <- B: Callback with Final Status
A --> B: HTTP 200
deactivate B
Payer <-- A: Notify Payer
deactivate A
end
group Optional
== Update recurring payment ==
A -> B: v4/update-recurring-payment/\nwith Recurring Payment ID
activate B
activate A
A <-- B: Updating recurring payment
deactivate A
B -> B: Update recurring\npayment profile
group If recurring schedule is set
deactivate B
...                                       According to schedule...
B -> B: Process scheduled\nrecurring transaction
activate B
A <- B: Callback with Final Status
activate A
A --> B: HTTP 200
deactivate B
A --> Payer: Notify Payer
deactivate A
end
end
@enduml

(2) To create recurring payment request see /api/v4/create-recurring-payment/. To create recurring payments multiple request see /api/v4/create-recurring-payments/. The difference between the single and Multiple APIs is that the Multiple uses a CSV file, the payload parameter, as well as processing many “Create recurring payments” at once.
(7, 8, 13, 14, 20, 21) To implement callback with final status handling see Connecting Party Callback.
(10) To process recurring payment request see /api/v4/process-recurring-payment/. To process recurring payments multiple request see /api/v4/process-recurring-payments/. The difference between the single and Multiple APIs is that the Multiple uses a CSV file, the payload parameter, as well as processing many “Process recurring payments” at once.
(16) To update recurring payment request see /api/v4/update-recurring-payment/. To update recurring payments multiple request see /api/v4/update-recurring-payments/. The difference between the single and Multiple APIs is that the Multiple uses a CSV file, the payload parameter, as well as processing many “Update recurring payments” at once.
(6. 19) According to schedule means that If the schedule is set, the system will automatically process transactions at the specified intervals, update the profile and notify the payer of each completed transaction. If set as manual, client can be charged only manually with the help of Recur transaction/API call.
(9, 15, 22) Results of operation can be sent by Connecting Party based on internal business model or Payer’s request.

Recurring Payments With Initial Transaction Flow

Initial payment – make initial payment to verify and authorize the Payer’s card. Any transaction type with present cardholder data will work as initial payment - sale, preauth, transfer, etc.
This flow doesn’t contain cardholder data in communication between Payer and Connecting Party, and between Connecting Party and Payment Gateway, so it doesn’t require PCI DSS certification from Connecting Party.

@startuml
skinparam roundcorner 20
skinparam sequenceArrowThickness 1
skinparam maxmessagesize 1200
skinparam sequenceParticipant underline
actor Payer
participant "Connecting Party" as A
participant "Elecsnet" as B
autonumber
hnote over Payer,B : Initial payment
Payer -> A: Subscribe for\nrecurring payments
activate Payer
activate A
== Card registration ==
A -> B: Initiate card registration\nvia v4/create-card-ref
activate B
B -> B: Create recurring\npayment profile
B --> A: Return Recurring Payment ID
deactivate B
Payer <-- A: Recurring payment\nis registered
deactivate A
deactivate Payer
group Optional
== Process recurring payment ==
A -> B: v4/process-recurring-payment/\nwith Recurring Payment ID
activate B
activate A
A <-- B: Creating recurring transaction
B -> B: Process recurring\ntransaction
A <- B: Callback with Final Status
A --> B: HTTP 200
deactivate B
Payer <-- A: Notify Payer
deactivate A
end
group Optional
== Update recurring payment ==
A -> B: v4/update-recurring-payment/\nwith Recurring Payment ID
activate B
activate A
A <-- B: Updating recurring payment
deactivate A
B -> B: Update recurring\npayment profile
group If recurring schedule is set
deactivate B
...                                       According to schedule...
B -> B: Process scheduled\nrecurring transaction
activate B
A <- B: Callback with Final Status
activate A
A --> B: HTTP 200
deactivate B
A --> Payer: Notify Payer
deactivate A
end
end
@enduml

(1) To implement Card registration and get Card reference ID see /api/v2/create-card-ref/.
(2) To initiate card registration via v4/create-card-ref request see api/v4/create-card-ref.
(9, 10, 16, 17) To implement callback with final status handling see Connecting Party Callback.
(6) To process recurring payment request see /api/v4/process-recurring-payment/. To process recurring payments multiple request see /api/v4/process-recurring-payments/. The difference between the single and Multiple APIs is that the Multiple uses a CSV file, the payload parameter, as well as processing many “Process recurring payments” at once.
(12) To update recurring payment request see /api/v4/update-recurring-payment/. To update recurring payments multiple request see /api/v4/update-recurring-payments/. The difference between the single and Multiple APIs is that the Multiple uses a CSV file, the payload parameter, as well as processing many “Update recurring payments” at once.
(15) According to schedule means that If the schedule is set, the system will automatically process transactions at the specified intervals, update the profile and notify the payer of each completed transaction. If set as manual, client can be charged only manually with the help of Recur transaction/API call.
(11, 18) Results of operation can be sent by Connecting Party based on internal business model or Payer’s request.