Forte/PaySimple Implementation Process

09/18/2024 2:06 pm EDT

Contents

Purpose
Payment Processing Definitions
PaySimple vs Forte
Directing Customer Inquiries
PaySimple Contact Information
Forte Contact Information
Project Tasks
Testing Forte
Submit Lead to PaySimple
Customer Complete Application
Application Approved
Application Declined
Customer Submits EFT Data to Forte
Tracking EFT Changes Post Data Submission
Forte Data File and Data Load
Training
Revision History
 

Purpose

Forte is the third-party payment processor company authorized to integrate with Bold Group products.  Their role is to transmit the payment data among the parties involved in a payment transaction: the merchant, their customer, and their customer's bank or credit card company.   In many cases, payment processors also provide merchants with the physical equipment needed to accept card-based transactions.

Forte takes the credit card and bank account information and tokenizes it for use in Bold Group product payment processing.  This ensures PCI compliance with the end customer’s account information.

The purpose of this document is to provide a Project Manager (PM) with the process flow for incorporating the sale of the Forte integration into services projects. 

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 Payment Processing Definitions

A few definitions to help the user understand payment processing:

 
  • Merchant: The entity providing a product or service that requires payment for the product/service
  • Merchant ID: (MID) a specific identification number attached to a business that tells the payment processing systems involved in a transaction where to send funds.
  • Token: a unique identifier that encrypts and stores the credit card or bank account information  
  • PCI: Payment Card Industry
  • PCI Compliance: A baseline of technical and operational requirements designed to protect account/cardholder data
  • Payment Gateway: A virtual equivalent of a point of sale (POS) terminal.  Designed for card-not-present (CNP) transactions in which the payment information is entered on a website vs in person


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PaySimple vs Forte

It is important to understand the relationship between PaySimple and Forte.   PaySimple is an Evercommerce company and the Independent Sales Organization that manages Forte merchant accounts for  Bold Group customers.  

To initiate the implementation of Forte, a lead is submitted to PaySimple, who then works with the customer to determine the right application to complete based on the customer's specific needs. 

For customer assistance, the following guidelines should be considered in directing customer inquiries.

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Directing Customer Inquiries

To properly direct a customer's inquiry the following guidelines should be observed: 

 Direct to PaySimple:

  • Authorized signer change or ownership change
  • Legal entity name change if the tax ID (TIN/EIN) is also changing
  • Tax ID (TIN/EIN) change
  • Additional Services
  • Add credit card or ACH processing to an existing Forte merchant account
  • Add Account Updater feature to credit card processing (updates credit card expiration dates automatically)
  • Requests for processing rate/fee reductions

Direct to Forte:

  • Resend Welcome Letter / Dex Invite
  • Over Transaction Limit Notification
  • DBA Name Change
  • Bank Account Change
  • ACH Limit Increase
  • Credit Card Limit Increase
  • Hold Day Change
  • Soft Descriptor Update
  • Merchant funding/payment issues
  • Dex Access
  • Email and password reset
  • Questions regarding Forte notifications
  • Merchant general billing questions (invoices, refunds, statement questions)
  • Merchant Account Closure
  • Merchant PCI Inquiry/Enrollment
  • Merchant Reconciliation/Research questions
  • Merchant returned billing
  • Merchant returned transactions or reconciliation inquiries
  • Returned Billing Resolution
  • General Questions/Request (Reconciliation, reporting, returned transaction inquiries)
  • Merchant Contact Changes (Contact, phone and email)
  • Merchant Address Change
  • Billing inquiries –auto bill, charge back debits/credits, refunds
  • Manual billing inquiries
  • Funding Inquiry
  • Invoice Inquiry
  • Feature requests/enhancements
  • Reactivate Closed Merchant Account

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PaySimple Contact Information

For the status of lead approval from PaySimple, email the following:

To schedule a call to check the status on a PaySimple lead or discuss a lead with PaySimple use the following link: https://meetings.salesloft.com/evercommerce-paysimple/rexnielsen

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Forte Contact Information

Forte Support Matrix provides contact information for Forte.  
Please Note:  for any questions regarding the application, route the customer to PaySimple and not Forte

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Project Tasks

The following is a high-level overview of the process to implement Forte and the tasks that should be included in any project (if not already included) that includes a new implementation of Forte: 

  1. PM – Submit Lead to PaySimple and Provide Forte Documents to Customer

    1. Time frame: Prior to or immediately after the project kick-off

    2. Forte Documents (attached)

      1. Forte Account Setup Instructions for Customers

      2. Data Import Request Form

      3. Forte Token Request Template

      4. Forte Support Matrix

  2. Customer – Complete Forte Application with PaySimple

    1. Time frame: Prior to or immediately after the project kick-off
       

    2. Inform the customer that the following information is critical to the acceptance of the application:

      1. Any person that is 25% or more owner of the company must be listed

      2. Owner Name

      3. Home Address

      4. Personal Phone and Email

        1. It is important to use a personal email vs a generic email box as any notifications from the processor that go unaddressed could lead to the customer being put on the MATCH list.   Once on the MATCH list it could take up to 5 years to be removed and an application for payment processing will be rejected if the customer is on the MATCH list.

      5. SS#

      6. The correct legal name of the business and any DBA

        1. Should match name used to register EIN

  3. Customer – Confirm Forte Application Complete/Accepted

    1. The customer works with PaySimple or Forte based on questions

    2. Time frame: post Lead submission and prior to the balance of setup

  4. Customer – Setup Dex Account and Receive Dex Credentials

    1. The customer works with Forte to complete or resolve any issues

    2. Time frame:  post application approval and prior to submitting data

  5. Customer – Work with Existing EFT processor for Data Transfer

    1. Is the customer migrating data from an existing EFT Processor?

      1. Yes - Customer will need to work with existing EFT processor to ensure transfer of data and this target date is met

        1. Time frame:  Immediately - This can take several months depending on their current processor requirements.  In some cases, their current processor may need a contract in place with Forte to transfer data. 

      2. No – customer has two options to load data after the Bold Group application goes live:

        1. Manually enter their customer’s credit card and ACH information

        2. If using SedonaWeb, customer can inform their customers to log in and enter credit card and ACH information

  6. Customer - Submit EFT Date to Forte for Tokenization 

    1. Timeframe: 10 banking business days before the Bold Group application goes live

  7. Data Conversion Specialist - Upload Forte Tokenized Data

    1. Time frame: Immediately after the go-live database is created

    2. Time:  2 hours

  8. Trainer – Forte Training

    1. Time frame: Immediately after Forte data loaded to the live database

    2. The customer is to provide Forte credentials to the trainer during the session

    3. Time: 1 hour

    4. Can be combined with other post-go-live training time permitting

  9. Customers can manually update/enter new payment account information

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Testing Forte

Testing of data to/from Forte cannot be done in a Sandbox database.  It also incurs charges with Forte.   The risk to data flow is very small, therefore a test submission is not currently in the project plans.

During the implementation phase, the trainer will set up Bold Group applications to ‘Use Test Service’, which allows testing of the invoice process testing to complete without submissions to Forte.

If a test run is required, Forte will need to provide testing credentials that are applied to a live database (not called sandbox). 

 

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Submit Lead to PaySimple

To initiate the process for SedonaOffice customers only, the PM will submit a lead to PaySimple to begin the application process for the customer.  This is done as part of the project kick-off process: 

  1. Fill out the PaySimple Lead Form

    1. All contact information is for the customer

      1. First/Last Name

      2. Business Name

      3. Phone Number

      4. Email

    2. Customer Status:

      1. New Customer - never used Forte previously

      2. Existing Customer  - has used Forte previously

    3. Include the following information in the Comments Section

      1. Project Manager who is sending the lead and your email address

      2. Estimated Go Live Date

      3. Was the business recently acquired or did ownership change?

      4. Are they currently processing payments through another processor or software?

        1. If so, do they need custom processing rates?

        2. Is their current processor Forte for ACH or CC?

  2. PaySimple will reach out to the customer within 24/48 hours with the balance of the application that needs to be completed

  3. PaySimple will contact PM on status of the lead and customer application

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Customer Complete Application

Once the application is sent from PaySimple to the customer, the customer will complete and submit the application to Forte for approval.  Approval is received in 1 to 2 business days.

The PM will need to confirm with the customer that the application has been approved.

Customers will start to be billed for service upon application approval.  Bold Group cannot impact/influence this billing.    Early application is required to ensure any issues with application acceptance are resolved prior to the go-live date.  

Please Note:  for any questions regarding the application, route the customer to PaySimple and not Forte. 

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Application Approved

Once the application is approved, the PM will inform the customer they need to begin to work with their current EFT processor to ensure data will be sent to Forte on time.

Bold Group cannot assist with organizing or creating this data.   To maintain PCI compliance, Bold Group cannot see the customer data pulled for or sent to Forte.  Bold Group will only work with data from Forte that has been tokenized.

Example of approval notice from Forte:


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Application Pended

Pended means that the underwriting team at Forte is not able to fully validate/verify the business and its listed owners.  When an application is in Pended status, Forte will reach out to the PaySimple Activation Team with questions and request supporting documents.  This can include a copy of the business licenses, voided check, IRS SS_4, bank and/or merchant processing statements, authorized signer's phone bill, and/or marketing materials if a website is not provided.

PaySimple will notify a member of their sales team to reach out to the merchant and request the necessary documents.  They will copy the PM for tracking purposes.  

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Application Declined

The occasion may arise where Forte has elected to decline the customer's application.  In this scenario, the customer will need to work with the Forte underwriting group to resolve any issues that lead to the decision to decline.  Bold Group cannot intervene on customers' behalf.  In some cases, there may be a lengthy waiting period for credit issues to clear before Forte will reconsider the application.

If the issues cannot be resolved, the customer will not be able to process EFT transactions within the Bold Group application.  Forte is the only payment processor that integrates with Bold Group products at this time.   This may be a showstopper for the customer and moving forward with their implementation.   

In addition, the PM will notify the Sales Operations team via a case that the customer has been rejected :

  1. Create a case with full details of the Forte application rejection
    1. Assign the case to Sales Ops
    2. @mention Director of PMO
  2. Create a task on the project for Forte rejection tracking 
    1. Task Due date: 7 days out
      1. If no movement on case, @mention Director of PMO to follow up with Sales Ops

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Customer Submits EFT Data to Forte

The customer is responsible for ensuring their EFT data is in a format that Forte can work with and submitting their data to Forte for tokenization.  If the customer is currently using an EFT processor, they will need to work with that processor and Forte to ensure the data can be delivered by the due date.  This process should begin early in the project to ensure the current EFT processor and Forte work out any issues before the date for tokenization.  Forte does charge for this service and will provide an estimate after reviewing the data.    

Forte requires that the data be encrypted with their PGP pubic key (customer can receive this from Forte).  The data must also be transferred from a PCI compliant third party.  

The EFT data should be delivered to Forte 10 business banking days before the date Forte goes live with the Bold Group application.   Requests must be received by 2pm CDT and be in CSV format.

The customer should review Forte’s documentation (attached) and work with Forte on any questions:

  • Data Input Request Form

  • Forte Token Request Template

  • Forte Support Matrix

Data not ready for go-live may require the customer to manually process payments until Forte can provide the tokenized file,

If the data cannot be sent to Forte for any reason or Forte cannot work the data  in the current format, the customer has two options:

  • Manually add the payment information into SedonaOffice, which will be tokenized upon saving

  • If the customer has purchased SedonaWeb they can request that their customers can go into the portal and enter their new payment info   

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Tracking EFT Account Changes Post Data Submission

Once the data has been sent to Forte, the customer will need to manually track any changes to their customer account information and manual changes to the data are then done in the Bold Group application once the Forte data has been loaded

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Forte Data File and Data Load

Forte will deliver a data file with customer token information.  A Bold Group Data Conversion specialist will upload that data to the customer's Bold Group application immediately after the live database is created for the Bold Group application.

The process can take several hours but does not impact the use of SedonaOffice while loading


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 Training

After the Forte tokenized data has been loaded to the Bold Group application, a training session should be delivered immediately.

The customer will need to provide the trainer with their Dex Credentials to complete the setup during the training session:

 

  • Merchant ID:

  • Org ID:

  • API Access ID:

  • API Secure Key:

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Revision History

2/23/23 - JMK -  updated Submit Lead to PaySimple section 1.c.i to request PM's contact info.  Updated Project Task section 2.2 to provide more detailed info to customer on proper info to submit to ensure the application is not declined.


2/1/2023 - PaySimple Contact section updated to include a link to schedule a meeting for questions or to follow up on lead status.

11/19/2022 - JMK - added Forte Account Setup Instructions for Customers to attached documents and updated step to include this document in Project Tasks section

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  • — Tom on 02/16/2024

    I am unable to locate the attachment which is reference under Forte contacts "Forte Support Matrix"

  • — Tom on 02/16/2024

    The top of document links do not work

  • — Tom on 02/12/2024

    Hi, all of the links in the contents are still pointing to the old KB

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