Electronic draft capture

Abstract

A method for processing financial transactions includes transmitting an authorization request to a payment processing gateway server. The authorization request includes a supplemental header having a contract identification field that stores an identification of a contract between a merchant and a payment provider. A transaction response transmission is received from the payment processing gateway server in response to the authorization request. The transaction response transmission includes a transaction response header and a response data component. The transaction response header includes identification of a particular transaction to which the transaction response transmission is applicable. The response data component includes an indication that the contract is invalid. The indication that the contract is invalid is responded to by facilitating a rejection of the financial transaction.

1 . A method of authorizing a financial transaction, the method comprising:
 receiving a first authorization request from a point of sale device, the first authorization request including a first transaction specific data field, a first cache key field, a first cacheable data field, and a first supplemental header field, the first cacheable data field including merchant data, the first supplemental header including a first contract ID field that is used as a key to index a database and a payment type field that is used to identify a particular financial network;
 accessing a list of valid contract IDs utilizing the first contract ID field; 
   uniquely identifying a particular store submitting the first authorization request utilizing the first cache key field;   caching the merchant data in a volatile memory component of a payment processing gateway;   sending a first authorization transmission in response to the first authorization request, the first authorization transmission including a transaction identification field and a response data field, the transaction identification field identifying a particular financial transaction to which the first authorization transmission is applicable, the response field indicating a response to the first authorization request, wherein the response is selected from the group consisting of “authorized,” “declined,” “hold card,” “cut card,” “bad card,” “call issuer for further information,” and “request additional information from the purchaser”;   receiving a second authorization request from the point of sale device, the second authorization request including a second transaction specific data field and a second cache key field; and   retrieving the merchant data from the volatile memory component utilizing the second cache key field.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first supplemental header identifies a financial contract and terms of operation for a particular acquiring bank and a payment gateway provider. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the point of sale device is a retail server system that is used to connect multiple point of sale devices. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  further comprising the retail server system providing inventory control and theft protection. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein accessing a list of valid contract IDs comprises accessing an in-memory hash table. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the first authorization transmission includes a request for the point of sale device to transmit cacheable data to populate a cache. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising:
 auditing financial transaction processed by a payment process gateway utilizing the first contract ID field; and 
 utilizing the audit to ensure that merchants using the payment process gateway are properly charged. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the merchant data comprises a merchant name, a country, a state, a location, a city code/zip code, a merchant category, an acquirer bin, a time zone differential, a merchant category code, and an extra field separator. 
     
     
         9 . A method of processing a financial transaction, the method comprising:
 transmitting an authorization request to a payment processing gateway server, the authorization request including a supplemental header that includes a contract identification field that stores an identification of a contract between a merchant and a payment provider;   receiving, from the payment processing gateway server in response to the authorization request, a transaction response transmission, wherein the transaction response transmission includes a transaction response header and a response data component, the transaction response header including identification of a particular transaction to which the transaction response transmission is applicable, and wherein the response data component includes an indication that said contract is invalid; and   responding to the indication that the contract is invalid by facilitating a rejection of the financial transaction.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the authorization request further comprises a transaction specific data field that includes an indication of the identification of the particular transaction. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the authorization request further comprises a cache key field that identifies a particular business sub-unit for which data is to be cached separately from a different business sub-unit. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the authorization request further comprises a cache key field that includes an identifier that points to a particular data storage location on the payment processing gateway server. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the authorization request further comprises a cache key field that includes an identifier that points to a particular one of a plurality of data storage locations maintained on the payment processing gateway server for the merchant. 
     
     
         13 . A method of processing a financial transaction, the method comprising:
 transmitting an authorization request to a payment processing gateway server, the authorization request including a mechanism for identifying a specific one of a plurality of data storage locations maintained on the payment processing gateway server for a particular merchant; and   receiving, from the payment processing gateway server in response to the authorization request, a transaction response transmission, wherein the transaction response transmission includes a transaction response header and a response data component, the transaction response header including identification of a particular transaction to which the transaction response transmission is applicable, and wherein the response data component includes an indication that said contract is valid or otherwise authorized.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the mechanism for identifying a specific one of a plurality of data storage locations is a mechanism for identifying a particular business sub-unit for the particular merchant. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the mechanism for identifying a specific one of a plurality of data storage locations is a mechanism for identifying a particular business unit. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the mechanism for identifying a specific one of a plurality of data storage locations is a mechanism for identifying a particular store. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the mechanism for identifying a specific one of a plurality of data storage locations is a mechanism for identifying a shared data stored location made accessible as part of a web service. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the mechanism for identifying a specific one of a plurality of data storage locations is a mechanism for identifying a data stored location that is configured to support simultaneous data recordation transactions. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the mechanism for identifying a specific one of a plurality of data storage locations is a mechanism for identifying a volatile data storage memory. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the mechanism for identifying a specific one of a plurality of data storage locations is a mechanism for identifying a data storage location in which there is a collection of pre-existing transaction data for the merchant already cached.