Level 3 Processing (WorldPay/Vantiv)

Level 3 processing allows your organization to send enhanced transaction details when accepting payments from corporate, purchasing, and government credit cards. By providing extra data—such as line-item descriptions, quantities, unit costs, commodity codes, and total taxes—transactions can often qualify for significantly lower interchange rates, reducing your overall credit card processing fees.

This guide details the implementation approach, prerequisites, and specific data mapping logic required to successfully utilize Level 3 processing in Personify ThreeSixty via the WorldPay/Vantiv payment gateway.

Level 3 Interchange Qualification: Per industry-standard regulations from Visa and Mastercard, Level 3 interchange optimization is a specialized program designed to reduce risk and improve reporting for Commercial and Government transactions.

• Eligible Cards: Reduced Level 3 interchange rates apply exclusively to commercial products, including Corporate cards, Business cards, and GSA/Government-issued spending accounts.
• Personal/Consumer Cards: Transactions made with personal consumer credit cards are classified as Level 1 transactions by default. According to card network rules, personal cards are ineligible for Level 2 or Level 3 rate reductions, regardless of the amount of line-item data or supplemental information (such as commodity codes or shipping details) transmitted during the settlement process.

Note: This functionality has been introduced and supported starting with the 770 SP3 Hotfix 5.4 release. To utilize Vantiv as a payment handler, your organization must be upgraded to this specific version or later.

1. Implementation Approach

It is critical to understand that Level 3 data is not captured at the initial point of sale (Authorization).

• Approach: Level 3 data is captured, formatted, and transmitted at the time of Settlement (using the TRS process, generally referenced by batch job CCP610).
• Authorization: The initial payment authorization still only captures standard, Level 1 details (e.g., total amount, card number).
• Settlement (SALE): The actual capture or sale transaction (the step that finalizes the funds transfer) is the point where the advanced Level 3 details are linked and sent to the gateway.

2. Vantiv Interface Parameter Configuration

Administrators must activate the Level 3 logic within your Vantiv application settings before enhanced data will be generated.

To Enable Level 3 Processing:

1. Navigate to your Application Settings for payment processing.
2. Locate the specific settings for the Vantiv Interface.

3. Set the LEVEL3 ENABLED parameter to Y (Yes). (Default value is N (No)).

   

Important: Level 3 information will only be created and transmitted if this parameter is explicitly set to Y (Yes).

3. Prerequisites for Product Data (Commodity Codes)

Level 3 processing requires that every product included in a transaction has a detailed classification code to qualify for optimized rates.

Data Readiness:

You must ensure that the Commodity Code (or UNSPSC Code) field is populated on the primary Product record for any item that can be purchased.

4. Postal Code Requirement

The Postal Code field must not be left blank in the Payment Address screen at the Organization Unit level. Providing a valid postal code is mandatory for processing Level 3 data with these providers.

Validation Rules (When Level 3 is NOT Created):

Even if the gateway parameter is set to "Yes", Level 3 information will not be created or transmitted if the commodity code data is missing. The system enforces the following validation rules:

• Single-Line Orders: Level 3 data is suppressed if the product has a null or blank COMMODITY_CODE.
• Multiple-Line Orders: Level 3 data is suppressed for the entire order if any single line points to a product where the COMMODITY_CODE is null or blank. If one item is invalid, the order will not qualify for Level 3 rates.

System Verification:

Personify ThreeSixty uses the following new database tables to store the generated Level 3 data for auditing and review:

• ccp_req_ans_Level3 (Stores Master/Header data)
• ccp_req_ans_Level3_DETAIL (Stores individual line-item data)

Gateway Verification:

If you review the transaction details within the payment gateway (e.g., Vantiv Sandbox), you will see the additional line-item and master data sections have been populated with data pulled directly from the Personify ThreeSixty Order and Order Items.

To see the complete list of master and detail data fields that Vantiv captures for Level 3 processing, refer to the "Required elements" listed under the Enhanced Data section of their Required Elements article.

Managing Level 3 Database Growth

Because Level 3 processing involves capturing extensive line-item details for qualifying transactions, the associated database tables (ccp_req_ans_Level3 and ccp_req_ans_Level3_DETAIL) can grow significantly over time. It is vital to manage this data retention to ensure optimal system performance.

Automated Data Purging

To address this potential growth, we have created an automated maintenance process.

A specific SQL Job (Level3_2_Purge_Data_Job.sql) is included with the integration. When configured, this job will automatically identify and remove Level 3 transactional data that is more than one year old.

Recommendation: We highly recommend that administrators configure this job during the initial setup to manage long-term database storage efficiently.