Receipts

Receipt contents

Every receipt must contain the following information:

• Merchant name: The name the merchant does business as, which should be a name that the customer will recognize.
• Merchant address: Physical visiting address of the sales location where the transaction took place.
• VAT number or business ID: Depending on country regulations, either the business ID of the merchant or the VAT number of the merchant or nothing at all.
• Date and time: The date and time when the transaction took place.
• Transaction type: It needs to be clearly stated if the transaction was a purchase, refund, or other type of transaction.
• Transaction outcome: The outcome of the transaction, such as “approved”, “declined”, “cancelled”, etc.
• Total amount: The final total amount of the transaction, which is how much the merchant will receive for this transaction.
• Currency: The currency the amount is expressed in, which is the currency the merchant will be paid in.
• Signature: Signature line if cardholder verification method is signature.

In case DCC has been utilized for the transaction, the receipt must also contain the following information about currency conversion:

• Merchant amount: The total amount in the currency the merchant will be paid in.
• Merchant currency: The currency the merchant will be paid in.
• Customer amount: The total amount in the currency the customer will be charged in.
• Customer currency: The currency the customer will be charged in.
• Exchange rate: The exchange rate used for the conversion. The exchange rate is always given as 1 unit of the merchant currency against the exchange rate for the customer currency. The exchange rate is given as in integer with 4 decimal places, so for example 1.2345 is given as 12345.
• Exchange rate date: The date when the exchange rate was obtained from the exchange rate provider.
• Exchange rate provider: The name of the exchange rate provider.
• Mark-up fee: The mark-up fee charged for the currency conversion. This is given as a percentage of exchange rate with two decimal places, meaning one hundredths of a percent, also called basis points. For example, if the mark-up fee is 1.55%, it is given as 155.
• DCC Provider: The name of the provider of the DCC service.
• Choice and acceptance text: A text saying “I was offered a choice of currencies and chose to pay in [Customer currency].”

Printing this information in a clear format on the receipt is the responsibility of the client.

After this, the receipt must contain payment method specific information. This is provided in the transaction data as a single preformatted string, which is meant to be printed in a fixed-width font. The maximum width of this part is 32 characters per line.

CARD:************0010
APP: CREDITO DE VISA
AID: A0000000031010
MODE:ICC/PIN   SEQ: 01
AUTH:A1B2C3    RC:  00
TIME:250629115005
R:250629197805-87251720

CARD:************0010
APP: CREDITO DE VISA
AID: A0000000031010
MODE:ICC/PIN   SEQ: 01
AUTH:A1B2C3    RC:  00
TIME:250629115005
R:250629197805-87251720

All the required fields are also present as separate fields in the transaction payment method details, so the client can also opt to format them directly in the receipt. In this case, it is the responsibility of the client implementation to ensure that all regulatory requirements are met.

Receipt types

The client must ensure different kinds of receipts are clearly distinguishable.

Receipts can be printed for both successful and failed transactions. Receipts for failed transactions are required in some countries, but optional in others. Care must be taken that an error receipt cannot be mistaken as a successful sale.

Purchase and refund receipts must also be clearly distinguishable. In some countries, it is customary to print a signature line on refund receipts where the merchant signs the receipt. It is the responsibility of the client to print such a line if it is needed.

There is a difference between a receipt (which is a proof of purchase) and a payment transaction copy. The receipts contain which products were purchased, and the VAT paid for them, where as a payment transaction copy is simply a proof of payment and does not specify what was bought. Normally the customer is given just one receipt, which also includes the details of the payment transaction, but if the customer is given two separate receipts, one actual receipt and one payment transaction copy, the client must ensure that the two receipts are clearly distinguishable and the payment transaction copy explicitly states that it is not a receipt for purchase.

If receipt is reprinted, it should be clearly marked as a copy. This cannot be enforced in the API, so it is the responsibility of the client to do so.