Transactions

A transaction is a payment made by a merchant’s customer using a card or digital wallet through the merchant’s device.

Transaction Limits & Budget Payments

• 💡 The max transaction limit is set by the paying customer’s bank.
• 💡 There is a minimum transaction limit of R10.00 set for all EMV & Tap to Pay transactions.
• 💡 iStore Pay does not support Budget Payment Facilities. All transactions are processed in full immediately. 

• To perform a transaction merchants will need to ensure they have completed their business registration on the iStore Pay App, if their business is not yet setup or registered, they will receive an error as shown below. 

  

• Once the merchant account has been setup and registration is complete, you will land at the transacting screen as per below.

  

• Merchants can begin to transact and take payments. 
• Start by entering the amount you want to charge on the iStore Pay App

• Select “Tap to Pay on iPhone “ 

  

• If Tips are enabled choose your tip % or enter the custom amount (see Tips for more on this)

• The screen will prompt you to take payment via “Tap to Pay”, ask your customer to tap their card or smart device where the EMV icon appears. 

  

• The transaction screen will show done and a payment screen will appear.  

For successful payments, there will be a green tick and a heading that states “Payment approved".

• 
• For transactions that were not successful, check the heading for the reason given, there could be various reasons that the payment was not successful. You can also view “Transaction Statuses” and “Transaction Errors Codes” for more information on this.

Receiving Tips

• iStore Pay supports multiple tipping option.
• You can offer customers preset percentages, a custom rand value, or hide the tip prompt entirely if it's not relevant to your business.
• Tips are managed from the Settings menu.

• To set up tips, please follow the below process.

  • On your iStore Pay App go to your settings, scroll down to “Tip settings” and select the “Tip settings” feature.

  

• Once in “Tip settings” ensure that your “Enable tipping” is turned on.

  

• You can then select the blue pencil icon to edit your predetermined tip %. There are three options to customise based on your business needs.

  

• You can also enable “Custom amount” which will allow your customers to enter their own amount or turn this off if you only want to allow percentage for tips. 

• Once you have setup your tip’s function, ensure to select “Save” to save the changes you have made to your App.

  

• You can now transact as per normal, after selecting “Tap to Pay on iPhone” your screen will then present the “Add Tip” feature for your customers to select a tip, enter a custom amount or choose to continue without tip. 

  

Receipts

• iStore Pay generates a digital receipt for every transaction automatically which can be shared with a customer upon their request.
• This receipt contains:
  • Merchant name
  • Transaction reference number
  • Date and time of transaction
  • Transaction amount
  • Transaction result / status (e.g. Refunded)
  • iStore Pay information

• To send a copy of the receipt to your customer upon the completion of a transaction you can:

  • Select one of the options provided: QR Code, the standard iOS share function, or Email.

  

• When selected a QR code will appear on your screen, you can ask your customer to scan the code to receive their receipt and save it directly on their mobile device.

  

• When Whatsapp is selected, you can enter your customers number and select send. Your customer will then receive a PDF copy of their receipt. 

  

• When Email is selected, you can enter your customer's email address and tap send. Your customer will then receive a PDF copy of their receipt via email.

  

• You can also browse your history to find a receipt and send it to your customer if needed.

• To do this you can go to your transacting screen and select “History” in the bottom right corner.

  

• You can use the filter feature to filter the transactions to find your specific transaction, or you can scroll to find the transaction. Once located select the transaction you wish to send a receipt for. 

  

• The transaction will open showing the details of the transaction, you will see 2 options to choose from, view receipt and refund, select “View receipt”, then choose the method you want to share the receipt as above. 

  

Transaction Fees

See Transaction Fees

Viewing Transaction History

• Merchants can view their transaction history to action a refund or to reprint a receipt. You can also view your payouts under the history tab, for more on this checkout the Payouts article 

• Below are the steps to accessing and viewing your transaction history.

  • On your transaction screen, select “History” on the bottom right corner of your phone.

  

• Enter your passcode or authorise using FaceID for security.
• This will land you on the transaction history page and will show the last few transactions that were performed. 

• Select “View full history” 

  

• A list of all your transactions will appear, you can then either scroll through to see your transactions, use the search bar to search a specific detail or you can filter your transactions based on status & dates.

• To enter the filter option select the filter icon at the top of your screen

  

• Your filter menu will then open and allow you to filter your transactions based on the status and date, choose the status you want and if you require choose the date.

  

• Once you have input your filter, your transactions will now be filtered and displayed accordingly.  

• To reset the filter and begin a new search you can select the filter icon again, select reset, and input the filter options you require. 

  

• To use the search feature under your transaction history, next to the filter icon select the search icon

  

• Once selected, type out what you want the history to search for eg: Approved

  

• A list of all the approved transaction will now be displayed. 

Transaction History Retention

• Your full Transaction history will always be visible in the iStore Pay App for as long as you retain your account with us.

Missing Transactions

If a transaction doesn't appear in your history, please contact us via any of our Support Channels with the transaction details or a receipt and we will investigate the matter and revert with feedback.

Transaction Data

• Each month, you'll receive an email with a PDF statement reflecting all your transaction history.
• If a user loses a statement or wishes to receive more than one months statement, they can contact us via any of our Support Channels and we will assist in sending another statement.

Exporting Transaction Data

• To export transaction data or history, contact us via any of our Support Channels and we'll send you a CSV file of the requested data.

Transaction Statuses

Transactions in the App may display the following statuses:

Connectivity Lost During Transaction

• iStore Pay requires a live connection for the transaction to take place. This can be over Wifi or using the mobile data on your iPhone. 
• If the connectivity drops or is lost during a payment, the transaction may or may not have been processed, depending on which part of the transaction the connectivity was lost.

• If a transaction exceeds 30 seconds of processing, it will automatically time out.

• A timeout screen will be displayed to inform the user.

  

• A merchant should use the transaction results information to assess if a transaction was processed or not.
• If they are still unclear, they can check the transaction history by logging in on the iStore Pay App and navigate to the transaction history page. 
• If a transaction timed out, the merchant must redo the transaction.
• In the event the iStore Pay App says the payment has failed but the customer’s card issuer says it was successful, wait a few minutes as the transaction should reverse. 
• Once the reversal takes place the merchant can retry the transaction. 

If for any reason there are further complications with the transaction, you can contact us via any of our Support Channels with the transaction details or a receipt and we will investigate the matter and revert with feedback.

Duplicate Transactions

• Duplicate transactions are when the same amount of funds for the same transaction is taken from the customer’s bank account on more than one occasion.
• This can occur for several reasons such as:
  • Loss or break of connectivity during transaction resulting in ghost transactions.
  • Errors can occur when a card is not tapped correctly on the iPhone, or if there is damage to the EMV chip on the card resulting in multiple attempts on the same transaction.
  • If there are connectivity issues and you suspect a duplicate transaction may have occurred, it's good practice to give the customer your contact details.
• The customer can then contact the merchant and a refund can be arranged either in person using the refund functionality or via EFT if that's more convenient for the merchant and customer.

Pricing Rules When Accepting Card Payments

The card schemes set rules for how cards must be treated at the point of sale. These rules apply to every iStore Pay merchant.

• You must accept all valid and current Visa and Mastercard cards that are presented to you (provided they support contactless and the transaction is otherwise eligible).
• You must offer your full range of goods and services at prices not greater than your normal cash prices.
• You may not add a card surcharge, convenience fee or any other extra charge for paying by card.
• You may not impose a minimum purchase amount for card payments.
• You may not impose a maximum purchase amount, except where we have set one for risk reasons.
• You may not discriminate against the use of cards, for example by giving a discount only to cash customers or by refusing certain cards.
• You may not give a cash refund for a card transaction. Refunds must always be processed back to the original card through the App’s [Refunds] flow.
• All transactions must be priced and charged in South African Rands. International cards are accepted, but the transaction is still charged in Rands.

Transaction Error Codes

When a transaction is declined, the App may display one of the following error codes.