|
US/Canada(Toll Free): +1 888 587 2278 Europe/UK: +44 (020) 7193 9408 Australia/New Zealand: +61 3 9016 4497 |
|
VP-ASP :: Shopping Cart Software
Shopping Cart Software Solutions for anywhere in the World
Add-Ons
Gift Registry Summary
Adding Items to the Cart
The registrant now goes through the normal search and browse of the shop. When ready to create the registry they use the standard checkout, which leads them to this page. On clicking the button, the items in the cart are added to the Gift Registry and the customer receives confirmation e-mail with all the items and a special confirmation that the Gift Registry has been created.
Gift Registry Summary
The Gift Registry allows a customer, called a registrant, to select a range of products from your shop. The products are not actually purchased but saved.
The customer notifies friends and relatives that they can purchase selected items by going to your Internet store. This can be used for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and other events.
Buying a gift
From the main menu, shopgiftregadmin.asp, shown below, the buyer selects “Purchase a Gift” or “Search for Event”.
Search Results
The search will result in an alphabetic list of registrants. By clicking on “View” the gift registry items will be listed.
Gift Registry Display
The Gift Registry display includes all items; those that have been purchased before cannot be bought again.
Search Results
The search will result in an alphabetic list of registrants. By clicking on “View” the gift registry items will be listed.
Merchant Gift Registry Administration
A menu oin the merchant administration allows you to view, search and display registries and the
associated orders.
The Edit link allows you to edit the Registrant table
The View Gift Registry allows you to view orders associated with the registry
Merchant View Gift Registry
The different registries can be searched. Orders taken can be displayed or registry formatted.
View displays formatted Registrant Record
Order Details
For each item purchased a quick summary is displayed. By clicking on the order number, the actual order
details are displayed.
Pin Numbers
Pin Number Installation
The installation steps include the following:
1. Copy the files to the VP-ASP directory
2. Update your Pin Numbers table
New Shop Configuration
Xpinnumber
Yes turns on the pinnumber system
Xpinnumberlowlimit
Set limit for Merchant message
Xpincustomertemplate
tmp_pincustomer.txt
Xpinproductmatch
catalogid The default field to match in products table
Merchant Messages
The merchant will receive messages that indicate a particular set of pin numbers are low. If no pin numbers are available, the merchant will receive a pin number critical message.
Pin Numbers Table
serialid
Auto number generated
catalogid
The associated product catalogid for this record
pinnumber
The pin number to be used
ordered
Automatically filled in when the pin number is used
pinproductmatch
If the catalogid field is not used to match the product record. This is the field name to be used in the match. It is assumed to be a text field. For example ccode
pinother1
Unused
Pin Number Administration
The Merchant has a number of administration facilities provided by the link Pin Number Administration.
• Edit the pinnumber table
• Bulk data entry
• Produce Reports on Pin Number usage
Bulk Data Entry
Bulk data entry provides a form where up to 50 pin numbers can be added for a specific product at a time.
Pin Report
Summarizes the pin number table. It displays number of pins for each product and the number used and number remaining.
Order Checking
The Order checking allows you three options. It can
• Delete the order and restore the pin number so that it can be reused again
• Send a message to the customer that the order did not go through
• Send a pin number to the customer manually
Order Checking Templates
Templates are used to mail the customer when the order did not go through and for pin numbers.
XpinorderfailTemplate
Template for failed orders.tmp_pinorderfail.txt
XPinCustomerTemplate
Mail Pin to Customer template. tmp_pincustomer.txt
Pin Formatting for The Merchant
When the merchant displays the order, the pin number associated with the order is displayed.
Pin Numbers
Pin Numbers
Automatically sends pin numbers, or other codes you supply, to the customer at the completion of an order.
Points Rewards
Points Rewards
Allows your customers to automatically redeem points accumulated by purchasing goods from your Internet shop.
Recurring Bill
Recurring Bill
The recurring billing facility allows the merchant to sell products such as subscriptions, loans, rentals or other types that you bill the customer on a periodic basis such as week, month or year. The billing can be set-up automatically when a customer purchases a product from the shop. The billing can also be manually configured without any purchase from your shop.
Recurring Billing Summary
Sending Out Bills
It is up to you to manually run a file from your browser. There is no time driven event in VP-ASP.
This can be done using the new billing administration menu that was created during the installation. This is described in the next section under administration. Use the Send Billing e-mail. This will send out all bills that are due to be sent out. It will look at the next billing date and send out all bills that have not been sent out since this file has been run. So it will send out bills for which the next billing date is less than or equal today’s date.
Billing Administration
Billing Administration allows you to view and modify the billing and projects table. It is implemented
with new file shopa_billingadmin.asp. With this table you can:
* Send out Bills
* Manually create new billing records or review existing billing records
* Display bills that have been sent out (projects)
* Run reports based on time periods to see what has been sent and what remains to be sent
Send Billing E-mail
This is used to read all the billing records. It determines if any mail needs to be sent and generates the
appropriate project records. This file should be run daily or as often as necessary to send out bills.
Edit Billing Table
This is just the standard VP-ASP edit facility for tables. It is placed here for your convenience.
Display Projects
This is just the standard VP-ASP display projects facility from the original Option Package. It is placed
here for your convenience.
Project Reports
The project report displays those projects (actual customer bills) that have not yet been processed. As
projects are paid, they can be marked paid and processed. The details can be updated by editing the
record.
Recurring Billing Summary
The recurring billing system adds the facility to sell products such as subscriptions, loans, rentals or other types that require that you bill the customer on a periodic basis such as per week, month or year. This is a separate VP-ASP product and needs to be purchased separately.
The billing can be set-up automatically when a customer purchases a product from the shop. The billing can also be manually configured without any purchase from your shop.
The facilities of the recurring billing system includes:
1. Automatic creation of recurring billing on purchase of a product.
2. Manual set-up of a recurring billing for a customer.
3. Ability to pay for the bill using any payment method the shop currently uses
4. Ability to set-up any number of billing installments
5. Repayments can be set as weekly, monthly, yearly or any number of days. The interval can be set to any number; for example, bill every week or every 15 days.
6. Customer receives the bill via e-mail. You can change the format of the mail message.
7. Customer pays for bill by using your VP-ASP Shopping Cart.
8. Reports available to show you how many bills have been sent out or will be sent out over any period of time
Requirements
The Billing Facility requires VP-ASP 4.0, 4.50, 5.0 or 5.50 with the Option Package.
Cost
The Recurring Billing is a fee paid add-on to the VP-ASP Shopping Cart. The cost is shown on our web site.
Installation Steps
The installation steps include the following:
1. Copy the files to the VP-ASP directory
2. Unzip the files and copy them into the VP-ASP Directory. The file is called vpasp550bill.zip.
New Shop Configuration
These are the Shop Configuration values that control recurring billing.
Xbilling
Yes turns on the billing system
Xbillemailname
Optional. Used as the name of the company sending the bills via email
Xbillemailsubject
Optional. The subject of the e-mail
Xbillemail
Optional. The e-mail address from which the bill appears to the customer
Xbilltemplate
tmp_billing.txt the default mailing template
Automatic Billing Creation
Automatic bill creation is used when you want to create an installment when the customer purchases a product from your site. It allows you to decide which products, when purchased, should start the automatic rebilling process.
When a customer orders a product from your shop, VP-ASP checks to determine if this is an installment product by looking at the following new fields in the products record. The most important is billinginstallments. If this value is non-zero, then VP-ASP will generate a billing record to start the recurring payment facility.
billprice
The amount to be billed.
billinstallments
A number representing the number of installments. For example 12 will mean that this customer should be billed 12 times.
billinstallmenttype
One of the following words:
Day
Week
Month
Year
For example if Month is in this field, the person will be billed once per month for 12 months. The name is important. The first character is checked. So D is equivalent to Daily, Or Day
billinterval
A number such as 1. This is the interval between bills in the same units as above.
Examples of Billing Summaries
Example of Bill every two weeks
billprice=50.00
billinstallments=6
billinstallmenttype=Week
billinterval=2
The customer will be sent an e-mail bill every two weeks. There will be six bills in total. Each bill will be for $50. The first bill will be sent two weeks from the original order.
Monthly billing
billprice=10.00
billinstallments=12
billinstallmenttype=Month
billinterval=1
This means send the customer a bill every month for twelve months.
Daily billing
billprice=5.00
billinstallments=999999
billinstallmenttype=Day
billinterval=7
Send the customer a bill every 7 days for $5. There is no limit to the billing. It will be billed 999999 times.
Automatic Creation Summary
At the end of an order, VP-ASP will look at each product. If the field billinginstallments is not 0 a billing record will automatically be created in the new table called “billing” for that product. The billing is done by product and not by order. So it is possible for a person to order say two products with different billing amounts and times.
Manual Creation of a Billing Record
It is not necessary for a customer to buy something from your shop. It is possible to set up manual billing. Simply create a record in the billing table with the correct values. Do this through the VP-ASP administration system by creating a new record.
Billing Table Fields for Manual Creation
These are the fields in the billing table that need to be updated.
billamount
How much to bill at each interval
billnextbilldate
The date to start the billing
billcustomer
Customer’s name
billemail
E-mail address of the customer
billdescription
The description of what the bill is for such as the product or service
billinstallments
A number representing the number of installments. For example 12 will mean that this customer should be billed 12 times.
billinstallmenttype
One of the following words:
Day, Week, Month, Year
For example if Month is in this field, the person will be billed once per month for 12 months.
VP-ASP only checks the first character of this field so Y means Year, M means Month, D means daily and W means weekly
billinterval
A number such as 1. This is the interval between bills in the same units as above.
billcreationdate
Date you are creating this billing record
billenddate
Optional. The last date for which a bill should be sent out. If not supplied VP-ASP stops sending bills when the installments are completed.
billtemplate
Optional. A special mailing template used when sending out bills for this billing record
Other fields should not normally be filled in. They will be filled in by VP-ASP as bills are sent out.
Once a billing record is created, it works exactly as if the record was created automatically through an order.
Sending out Bills
It is up to you to manually run a file from your browser. There is no time driven event in VP-ASP.
This can be done using the new billing administration menu that was created during the installation. This is described in the next section under administration. Use the Send Billing e-mail.
This will send out all bills that are due to be sent out. It will look at the next billing date and send out all bills that have not been sent out since this file has been run. So it will send out bills for which the next billing date is less than or equal today’s date.
Billing Template
What does the customer actually receive by e-mail? This is determined by a file called tmp_billing.txt. It is possible to have a different billing template used per billing record by altering the billtemplate field.
Templates are explained in the VP-ASP Option Design Guide. Since the mailing is done from the projects table, any field in the projects table can be used in this template. A sample template is shown below. The items in brackets […] is information taken from the projects table. The projects table represents a bill sent to a customer.
To: [customer]
Payment is now due for:
[billdescription]
Billing Reference:
[description]
Payment can be made by going to:
http://www.mysite.com/shopping/shopprojectlogin.asp
Project #: [pid]
Email: [customeremail]
You can modify this file (template) to add your own site-specific company and payment terms
Sending a Bill Summary
The following happens when you send out a bill.
1. A record gets created in the projects table. This is the information about how much the customer must now pay. By viewing the projects table you can see the records that represent the bills that have been sent out.
2. E-mail gets sent to the customer asking him to come back to your site to pay the bill. The “Bill” is information from the tmp_billing.txt template merged with information from the project record and e-mailed to your customer.
How does the customer pay
The customer pays by coming back to your site to file shopprojectlogin.asp. A hyperlink to this file is automatically generated in the e-mail that went to the customer.
They enter the project number that has been e-mailed to them and their e-mail address. VP-ASP then automatically adds the project to their shopping cart and they continue to checkout normally.
Nothing prevents them from browsing your shop and purchasing other items as well as paying the bill.
On entering their project number and e-mail address, the service is added to the cart in this form automatically.
After the project is added to the cart it is treated like any other “product”. The customer can add another project by using shopprojectlogin.asp or can simply start the checkout process to pay for this bill and other items being purchased.
Project Payment Updates
Unless you tell VP-ASP, it does not automatically mark the bill paid.
VP-ASP can automatically mark the bill paid when the customer checks out or you can choose to verify each bill manually. To allow automatic updates, set
Xprojectupdate
Yes. This automatically updates the project record when payment is made
If you have xprojectupdate=No, it will be up to you to look at all orders received, note which project they belong to and manually mark that they have been paid. This can be done using the project report described in the next section.
Billing Administration
Billing Administration allows you to view and modify the billing and projects table. It is implemented with new file shopa_billingadmin.asp. With this table you can:
• Send out Bills
• Manually create new billing records or review existing billing records
• Display bills that have been sent out (projects)
• Run reports based on time periods to see what has been sent and what remains to be sent
Send Billing E-mail
This is used to read all the billing records. It determines if any mail needs to be sent and generates the appropriate project records. This file should be run daily or as often as necessary to send out bills.
Edit Billing Table
This is just the standard VP-ASP edit facility for tables. It is placed here for your convenience.
Display Projects
This is just the standard VP-ASP display projects facility from the original Option Package. It is placed here for your convenience.
Project Reports
The project report displays those projects (actual customer bills) that have not yet been processed. As projects are paid, they can be marked paid and processed. The details can be updated by editing the record.
Link Back to Original Billing Record
By clicking the number under the billing # header, you will see a formatted billing record that was responsible for the creation of this project record.
Billing Reports
The billing reports allow displaying a summary of how many bills were sent out over a period of time or will be sent out in a period of time.
Summary Report - Future
A Summary Report is used to list the number of bills sent and or the number remaining to be sent in a given period. The report below is for a future period. In this period there will be 3 bills e-mailed for a total of $80. The future reports simple list the count based on next billing date. They DO NOT do forward projections based on number of installments that may occur in the future.
Summary Report – Past or Current
In this report 1 bill was e-mailed for the date.
Detailed Report
A detailed report lists a summary of a few billing fields. Hyperlinks are generated to the original order or the billing record.
In the report above, sorted by next billing date, there are three bills to be sent out. Two of them have orders and were created by a customer ordering a product. The first one has no order number and was created as manual billing record.
The third one had one bill already sent out on September 23. The first two have had no bills yet sent out.
Billing Administration Miscellaneous
Here are some hints.
Stopping billing records from being generated.
If you want to stop VP-ASP from generating any more bills for a specific billing record, edit that billing record and set
billcanceled
True (or not zero)
Stopping automatic billing records from being created
If you do not want VP-ASP to automatically create billing records based on customer orders, set the Shop Configuration value xbilling=No.
Xbilling
No
Billing Intervals
The billing system uses three VP-ASP tables.
Billing
This holds control information that tells VP-ASP how often to bill, how much, when to stop
Projects
Holds the actual bills that are sent to the customer to pay. E-mails are generated to the customer from this table. Records are added when you click the Bill Administration Send Billing E-mail function.
Orders
This holds the original order that may have caused a billing record to be created and it holds the actual payment for a project.
Project Billing Fields
New fields have been added to the Projects table. These fields include:
Billid
This is the record number in the billing table that caused this record to be created
Billdescription
This is a copy of the original product that the customer has purchased. It comes from the billdescription field in the billing table record. This is used so that the customer knows what they are paying for
New Fields in the Products Record
These fields are used if you want VP-ASP to automatically start the installment billing when a customer purchases a product. The field billinginstallments determines whether a billing record gets created at the time the customer purchases this product.
Billprice
The amount to be billed
billinstallments
A number representing the number of installments. For example 12 will mean that this customer should be billed 12 times.
billinstallmenttype
One of the following words:
Day, Week, Month, Year
For example if Month is in this field, the person will be billed once per month for 12 months.
billinterval
A number such as 1. This is the interval between bills in the same units as above.
Billing
This is a control table. It is used to determine how many bills to send out, how often, at what interval.
billamount
How much to bill each interval
billnextbilldate
The date to start the billing
billcustomer
Customer’s name
billemail
E-mail address of the customer
billdescription
The description of what the bill is for such as the product or service
billinstallments
A number representing the number of installments. For example 12 will mean that this customer should be billed 12 times.
billinstallmenttype
One of the following words:
Day, week, Month, Year
For example if Month is in this field, the person will be billed once per month for 12 months.
billinterval
A number such as 1. This is the interval between bills in the same units as above.
billcreationdate
Date you are creating this billing record
billenddate
Optional. The last date for which a bill should be sent out. If not supplied VP-ASP stops sending bills when the installments are completed.
billorderid
It is the original order that caused this billing record to be created
billlastmaildate
The date the last bill was sent out
billsentcount
The number of e-mail bills that have been sent to the customer
billcanceled
If True, then the merchant has decided to stop sending bills to the customer
billcompleted
If true, it means that this billing record is no longer used since all installment e-mails have been sent. It is normally set by VP-ASP automatically after the last installment is sent
billcreationdate
The date this billing record itself was created.
billorderitemid
The record number in the oitems table for the original order that created the billing record
billenddate
Used to stop billing at a certain date regardless of whether the number of installments has been reached. Normally this field would not be used
billtemplate
Optional. Used to specific a unique mailing template for bills generated from this billing record
billother1
Unused
billother2
Unused
Rewards
Rewards Configuration
The following configuration option controls how the rewards system works.
Xpointsredeem
Yes Turns on rewards system
Xpointsredeemrate
.10 The number multiplied against the points to obtain a $ amount or a percentage if using couponpercent
Xpointsredeemtemplategift
tmp_pointsredeemgift.txt
xpointsredeemtemplatecoupon
tmp_pointsredeemcoupon.txt
Xpointsredeemtype
Gift or Coupon or PercentCoupon The type of reward to be created. Only one type is allowed per shop
xpointsredeemcouponproducts
List of product numbers for which coupon can be used For example: 1,77,88
xpointsredeemcouponcategories
List of categories for which product can be used For example: 2,3
Xpointsredeemminpoints
Minimum number of points that can be redeemed
Xpointsredeemmaxpoints
Maximum that can be redeemed at one time
Xpointsequalcurrency
Yes means that the points are calculated using the price rounded to an integer. For example $5.55=5 points $6.85 = 7 points
Shopa_pointsorder.asp
A new administrative utility shopa_pointsorder.asp allows you to add or subtract points from a customer easily. To use this new facility, assign it to one or more administrator userids manually.
1. Login to VP-ASP Administration
2. Go to User Control Menu
3. Edit a userid
4. At the bottom of the menus in the left column check Points Administration
Difference between Coupons and Gift Certificates
This section will help you decide which rewards system you may wish to use.
Coupons can be used only once.
They deduct the face value from the amount of purchase for products only. If a customer purchases say a $40 product and $10 shipping and the coupon has a face value of $60, they do not pay anything for the product but have to pay the $10 shipping but they also cannot use the remaining $20 of the coupon.
Coupons are automatically available for use.
Gift certificates act more like cash and can be reused.
If a person has a $60 gift certificate, and purchases $40 worth of goods plus $10 shipping, the remaining $10 can be used again at some later time. Shipping is always paid for automatically by gift certificate. Gift certificates are not automatically available for use unless the merchant has set set xgiftautoenable=Yes.
Difference between a Coupon and PercentCoupon
A coupon generates a fixed currency amount. This is done by multiplying the redeemrate by the number of points. So 1000 points at .01 redeem rate gives a coupon value of $10. A coupon percent gives a percent discount and not a fixed amount. So 1000 points at .01 = 10% discount.
Coupon and Gift Certificate names
The certificate/coupon is generated with the following name:
Points-hhmmss-n
The hhmmss is the time of purchase
The n is the customer id
The word points is a constant name.
Mailing
Mailing is done by either of two templates depending on which reward is allowed. You should edit the template to add your own store details.
Xpointsredeemtemplategift
tmp_pointsredeemgift.txt
xpointsredeemtemplatecoupon
tmp_pointsredeemcoupon.txt
Only fields in the coupons table can be used for the coupon template. Only fields in the gifts table can be used for the gift certificate template.
Handling Fraud
New fraud checks have been added to the points system.
If a person does not pay using one of the valid payments set in shop configuration xendofordervalidpayments, the points are recorded with the order but they are not automatically added to the customer record. This prevents a person from fraudently buying something and then redeeming the points to buy something else.
If the order will be processed, it is up to the merchant to manually add the points to the customer record. The point value is stored in the order record. A note is placed into the order record in the “other1” field that the points have not been added. We supply a utility called shopa_pointsorder.aps that can be used to add and subtract points from the customer record.
Points remaining 100
This tells you that 100 points were accumulated for the order but not added to the customer record.
Handling Coupons and Gift Certificates
Any purchase made with gift certificate or coupon that has the word “points” in it, will not accumulate new points. This prevents the doubling up of points.
How do I limit products that can be purchased using points
Only coupons can limit purchase to specific products or category of products. Suppose you only want customers to be able to purchase certain items using points. Put in a value like “redeem” into the field pother1 of the product record and then create a hyperlink on your site such as
p>a href="shopquery.asp?pother1=redeem">Product for points/a>/p>
This will display all products that have redeem in the pother1 field Then use the following Shop Configurattion value to limit purchase to those products. These numbers will be site specific.
Xpointsredeemcouponproducts
List of product numbers for which coupon can be used For example: 1,77,88
Xpointsredeemcouponcategories
List of categories for which product can be used For example: 2,3
Setting points per product
To set your own points per product, edit each product record and put the number of points in the points field of the record.
Using Price to set points
Instead of setting a value for each product individually, the product price can be used to automatically calculate the points.
Use the following shop configuration value
Xpointsequalcurrency
Yes means that the points are calculated using the price rounded to an integer. For example $5.55=5 points $6.85 = 7 points
End of Order Payment Checking
To prevent hackers from accumulating points and then using them, a check is made against a list of valid payment methods that you trust.
Xendofordervalidpayments
Visa,Authorizenet
This is a list of payment methods, which VP-ASP will check. If a payment is made using one on the list, the points are immediately added to the customer record. Otherwise the points are stored with the order record but not automatically added to the customer record and therefore cannot be used by the customer.
Redeeming Points
A new menu appears on the Customer Service menu (shopcustadmin.asp). Link #9 in this example.
A new page is displayed showing the customer the number of points remaining and allowing them to
select the number of points to be redeemed
The customer clicks continue, a coupon or gift certificate is created and an email is sent to both the
merchant and the customer.
Manually adding/deleting Points
Once an order has gone through, you wish to now add the points to the customer record. This can be done
using a new file shopa_pointsorder.asp. This form allows you to add points or remove points from the
customer record.
Once an order number is entered, a confirmation screen will be displayed
This says that the order was worth 100 points. Do you want to proceed? If not use the back button. There
is no error indication in the order. This means that the order may have already added the points to the
customer during the order process.
Gift Registry Summary
Adding Items to the Cart
The registrant now goes through the normal search and browse of the shop. When ready to create the registry they use the standard checkout, which leads them to this page. On clicking the button, the items in the cart are added to the Gift Registry and the customer receives confirmation e-mail with all the items and a special confirmation that the Gift Registry has been created.
Gift Registry Summary
The Gift Registry allows a customer, called a registrant, to select a range of products from your shop. The products are not actually purchased but saved.The customer notifies friends and relatives that they can purchase selected items by going to your Internet store. This can be used for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and other events.
Buying a gift
From the main menu, shopgiftregadmin.asp, shown below, the buyer selects “Purchase a Gift” or “Search for Event”.
Search Results
The search will result in an alphabetic list of registrants. By clicking on “View” the gift registry items will be listed.Gift Registry Display
The Gift Registry display includes all items; those that have been purchased before cannot be bought again.
Search Results
The search will result in an alphabetic list of registrants. By clicking on “View” the gift registry items will be listed.
Merchant Gift Registry Administration
A menu oin the merchant administration allows you to view, search and display registries and the
associated orders.
The Edit link allows you to edit the Registrant table
The View Gift Registry allows you to view orders associated with the registry
Merchant View Gift Registry
The different registries can be searched. Orders taken can be displayed or registry formatted.
View displays formatted Registrant Record
Order Details
For each item purchased a quick summary is displayed. By clicking on the order number, the actual order
details are displayed.
Pin Numbers
Pin Number Installation
The installation steps include the following:
1. Copy the files to the VP-ASP directory
2. Update your Pin Numbers table
New Shop Configuration
| Xpinnumber | Yes turns on the pinnumber system |
| Xpinnumberlowlimit | Set limit for Merchant message |
| Xpincustomertemplate | tmp_pincustomer.txt |
| Xpinproductmatch | catalogid The default field to match in products table |
Merchant Messages
The merchant will receive messages that indicate a particular set of pin numbers are low. If no pin numbers are available, the merchant will receive a pin number critical message.Pin Numbers Table
| serialid | Auto number generated |
| catalogid | The associated product catalogid for this record |
| pinnumber | The pin number to be used |
| ordered | Automatically filled in when the pin number is used |
| pinproductmatch | If the catalogid field is not used to match the product record. This is the field name to be used in the match. It is assumed to be a text field. For example ccode |
| pinother1 | Unused |
Pin Number Administration
The Merchant has a number of administration facilities provided by the link Pin Number Administration.
• Edit the pinnumber table
• Bulk data entry
• Produce Reports on Pin Number usage
Bulk Data Entry
Bulk data entry provides a form where up to 50 pin numbers can be added for a specific product at a time.
Pin Report
Summarizes the pin number table. It displays number of pins for each product and the number used and number remaining.
Order Checking
The Order checking allows you three options. It can
• Delete the order and restore the pin number so that it can be reused again
• Send a message to the customer that the order did not go through
• Send a pin number to the customer manually
Order Checking Templates
Templates are used to mail the customer when the order did not go through and for pin numbers.
| XpinorderfailTemplate | Template for failed orders.tmp_pinorderfail.txt |
| XPinCustomerTemplate | Mail Pin to Customer template. tmp_pincustomer.txt |
Pin Formatting for The Merchant
When the merchant displays the order, the pin number associated with the order is displayed.
Pin Numbers
Pin Numbers
Automatically sends pin numbers, or other codes you supply, to the customer at the completion of an order.
Points Rewards
Points Rewards
Allows your customers to automatically redeem points accumulated by purchasing goods from your Internet shop.
Recurring Bill
Recurring Bill
The recurring billing facility allows the merchant to sell products such as subscriptions, loans, rentals or other types that you bill the customer on a periodic basis such as week, month or year. The billing can be set-up automatically when a customer purchases a product from the shop. The billing can also be manually configured without any purchase from your shop.
Recurring Billing Summary
Sending Out Bills
It is up to you to manually run a file from your browser. There is no time driven event in VP-ASP.This can be done using the new billing administration menu that was created during the installation. This is described in the next section under administration. Use the Send Billing e-mail. This will send out all bills that are due to be sent out. It will look at the next billing date and send out all bills that have not been sent out since this file has been run. So it will send out bills for which the next billing date is less than or equal today’s date.
Billing Administration
Billing Administration allows you to view and modify the billing and projects table. It is implemented
with new file shopa_billingadmin.asp. With this table you can:
* Send out Bills
* Manually create new billing records or review existing billing records
* Display bills that have been sent out (projects)
* Run reports based on time periods to see what has been sent and what remains to be sent
Send Billing E-mail
This is used to read all the billing records. It determines if any mail needs to be sent and generates the
appropriate project records. This file should be run daily or as often as necessary to send out bills.
Edit Billing Table
This is just the standard VP-ASP edit facility for tables. It is placed here for your convenience.
Display Projects
This is just the standard VP-ASP display projects facility from the original Option Package. It is placed
here for your convenience.
Project Reports
The project report displays those projects (actual customer bills) that have not yet been processed. As
projects are paid, they can be marked paid and processed. The details can be updated by editing the
record.
Recurring Billing Summary
The recurring billing system adds the facility to sell products such as subscriptions, loans, rentals or other types that require that you bill the customer on a periodic basis such as per week, month or year. This is a separate VP-ASP product and needs to be purchased separately.
The billing can be set-up automatically when a customer purchases a product from the shop. The billing can also be manually configured without any purchase from your shop.
The facilities of the recurring billing system includes:
1. Automatic creation of recurring billing on purchase of a product.
2. Manual set-up of a recurring billing for a customer.
3. Ability to pay for the bill using any payment method the shop currently uses
4. Ability to set-up any number of billing installments
5. Repayments can be set as weekly, monthly, yearly or any number of days. The interval can be set to any number; for example, bill every week or every 15 days.
6. Customer receives the bill via e-mail. You can change the format of the mail message.
7. Customer pays for bill by using your VP-ASP Shopping Cart.
8. Reports available to show you how many bills have been sent out or will be sent out over any period of time
Requirements
The Billing Facility requires VP-ASP 4.0, 4.50, 5.0 or 5.50 with the Option Package.Cost
The Recurring Billing is a fee paid add-on to the VP-ASP Shopping Cart. The cost is shown on our web site.Installation Steps
The installation steps include the following:
1. Copy the files to the VP-ASP directory
2. Unzip the files and copy them into the VP-ASP Directory. The file is called vpasp550bill.zip.
New Shop Configuration
These are the Shop Configuration values that control recurring billing.| Xbilling | Yes turns on the billing system |
| Xbillemailname | Optional. Used as the name of the company sending the bills via email |
| Xbillemailsubject | Optional. The subject of the e-mail |
| Xbillemail | Optional. The e-mail address from which the bill appears to the customer |
| Xbilltemplate |
tmp_billing.txt the default mailing template |
Automatic Billing Creation
Automatic bill creation is used when you want to create an installment when the customer purchases a product from your site. It allows you to decide which products, when purchased, should start the automatic rebilling process.
When a customer orders a product from your shop, VP-ASP checks to determine if this is an installment product by looking at the following new fields in the products record. The most important is billinginstallments. If this value is non-zero, then VP-ASP will generate a billing record to start the recurring payment facility.
| billprice | The amount to be billed. |
| billinstallments | A number representing the number of installments. For example 12 will mean that this customer should be billed 12 times. |
| billinstallmenttype |
One of the following words: Day Week Month Year For example if Month is in this field, the person will be billed once per month for 12 months. The name is important. The first character is checked. So D is equivalent to Daily, Or Day |
| billinterval | A number such as 1. This is the interval between bills in the same units as above. |
Examples of Billing Summaries
Example of Bill every two weeks
billprice=50.00
billinstallments=6
billinstallmenttype=Week
billinterval=2
The customer will be sent an e-mail bill every two weeks. There will be six bills in total. Each bill will be for $50. The first bill will be sent two weeks from the original order.
Monthly billing
billprice=10.00
billinstallments=12
billinstallmenttype=Month
billinterval=1
This means send the customer a bill every month for twelve months.
Daily billing
billprice=5.00
billinstallments=999999
billinstallmenttype=Day
billinterval=7
Send the customer a bill every 7 days for $5. There is no limit to the billing. It will be billed 999999 times.
Automatic Creation Summary
At the end of an order, VP-ASP will look at each product. If the field billinginstallments is not 0 a billing record will automatically be created in the new table called “billing” for that product. The billing is done by product and not by order. So it is possible for a person to order say two products with different billing amounts and times.Manual Creation of a Billing Record
It is not necessary for a customer to buy something from your shop. It is possible to set up manual billing. Simply create a record in the billing table with the correct values. Do this through the VP-ASP administration system by creating a new record.Billing Table Fields for Manual Creation
These are the fields in the billing table that need to be updated.
| billamount | How much to bill at each interval |
| billnextbilldate | The date to start the billing |
| billcustomer | Customer’s name |
| billemail | E-mail address of the customer |
| billdescription |
The description of what the bill is for such as the product or service |
| billinstallments |
A number representing the number of installments. For example 12 will mean that this customer should be billed 12 times. |
| billinstallmenttype | One of the following words: Day, Week, Month, Year For example if Month is in this field, the person will be billed once per month for 12 months. VP-ASP only checks the first character of this field so Y means Year, M means Month, D means daily and W means weekly |
| billinterval | A number such as 1. This is the interval between bills in the same units as above. |
| billcreationdate | Date you are creating this billing record |
| billenddate | Optional. The last date for which a bill should be sent out. If not supplied VP-ASP stops sending bills when the installments are completed. |
| billtemplate | Optional. A special mailing template used when sending out bills for this billing record |
Other fields should not normally be filled in. They will be filled in by VP-ASP as bills are sent out.
Once a billing record is created, it works exactly as if the record was created automatically through an order.
Sending out Bills
It is up to you to manually run a file from your browser. There is no time driven event in VP-ASP.
This can be done using the new billing administration menu that was created during the installation. This is described in the next section under administration. Use the Send Billing e-mail.
This will send out all bills that are due to be sent out. It will look at the next billing date and send out all bills that have not been sent out since this file has been run. So it will send out bills for which the next billing date is less than or equal today’s date.
Billing Template
What does the customer actually receive by e-mail? This is determined by a file called tmp_billing.txt. It is possible to have a different billing template used per billing record by altering the billtemplate field.Templates are explained in the VP-ASP Option Design Guide. Since the mailing is done from the projects table, any field in the projects table can be used in this template. A sample template is shown below. The items in brackets […] is information taken from the projects table. The projects table represents a bill sent to a customer.
To: [customer]
Payment is now due for:
[billdescription]
Billing Reference:
[description]
Payment can be made by going to:
http://www.mysite.com/shopping/shopprojectlogin.asp
Project #: [pid]
Email: [customeremail]
You can modify this file (template) to add your own site-specific company and payment terms
Sending a Bill Summary
The following happens when you send out a bill.
1. A record gets created in the projects table. This is the information about how much the customer must now pay. By viewing the projects table you can see the records that represent the bills that have been sent out.
2. E-mail gets sent to the customer asking him to come back to your site to pay the bill. The “Bill” is information from the tmp_billing.txt template merged with information from the project record and e-mailed to your customer.
How does the customer pay
The customer pays by coming back to your site to file shopprojectlogin.asp. A hyperlink to this file is automatically generated in the e-mail that went to the customer.
They enter the project number that has been e-mailed to them and their e-mail address. VP-ASP then automatically adds the project to their shopping cart and they continue to checkout normally.
Nothing prevents them from browsing your shop and purchasing other items as well as paying the bill.
On entering their project number and e-mail address, the service is added to the cart in this form automatically.
After the project is added to the cart it is treated like any other “product”. The customer can add another project by using shopprojectlogin.asp or can simply start the checkout process to pay for this bill and other items being purchased.
Project Payment Updates
Unless you tell VP-ASP, it does not automatically mark the bill paid.
VP-ASP can automatically mark the bill paid when the customer checks out or you can choose to verify each bill manually. To allow automatic updates, set
| Xprojectupdate | Yes. This automatically updates the project record when payment is made |
If you have xprojectupdate=No, it will be up to you to look at all orders received, note which project they belong to and manually mark that they have been paid. This can be done using the project report described in the next section.
Billing Administration
Billing Administration allows you to view and modify the billing and projects table. It is implemented with new file shopa_billingadmin.asp. With this table you can:
• Send out Bills
• Manually create new billing records or review existing billing records
• Display bills that have been sent out (projects)
• Run reports based on time periods to see what has been sent and what remains to be sent
Send Billing E-mail
This is used to read all the billing records. It determines if any mail needs to be sent and generates the appropriate project records. This file should be run daily or as often as necessary to send out bills.
Edit Billing Table
This is just the standard VP-ASP edit facility for tables. It is placed here for your convenience.
Display Projects
This is just the standard VP-ASP display projects facility from the original Option Package. It is placed here for your convenience.
Project Reports
The project report displays those projects (actual customer bills) that have not yet been processed. As projects are paid, they can be marked paid and processed. The details can be updated by editing the record.
Link Back to Original Billing Record
By clicking the number under the billing # header, you will see a formatted billing record that was responsible for the creation of this project record.
Billing Reports
The billing reports allow displaying a summary of how many bills were sent out over a period of time or will be sent out in a period of time.
Summary Report - Future
A Summary Report is used to list the number of bills sent and or the number remaining to be sent in a given period. The report below is for a future period. In this period there will be 3 bills e-mailed for a total of $80. The future reports simple list the count based on next billing date. They DO NOT do forward projections based on number of installments that may occur in the future.
Summary Report – Past or Current
In this report 1 bill was e-mailed for the date.
Detailed Report
A detailed report lists a summary of a few billing fields. Hyperlinks are generated to the original order or the billing record.
In the report above, sorted by next billing date, there are three bills to be sent out. Two of them have orders and were created by a customer ordering a product. The first one has no order number and was created as manual billing record.
The third one had one bill already sent out on September 23. The first two have had no bills yet sent out.
Billing Administration Miscellaneous
Here are some hints.
Stopping billing records from being generated.
If you want to stop VP-ASP from generating any more bills for a specific billing record, edit that billing record and set
| billcanceled | True (or not zero) |
Stopping automatic billing records from being created
If you do not want VP-ASP to automatically create billing records based on customer orders, set the Shop Configuration value xbilling=No.
| Xbilling | No |
Billing Intervals
The billing system uses three VP-ASP tables.
| Billing | This holds control information that tells VP-ASP how often to bill, how much, when to stop |
| Projects | Holds the actual bills that are sent to the customer to pay. E-mails are generated to the customer from this table. Records are added when you click the Bill Administration Send Billing E-mail function. |
| Orders |
This holds the original order that may have caused a billing record to be created and it holds the actual payment for a project. |
Project Billing Fields
New fields have been added to the Projects table. These fields include:
| Billid | This is the record number in the billing table that caused this record to be created |
| Billdescription | This is a copy of the original product that the customer has purchased. It comes from the billdescription field in the billing table record. This is used so that the customer knows what they are paying for |
New Fields in the Products Record
These fields are used if you want VP-ASP to automatically start the installment billing when a customer purchases a product. The field billinginstallments determines whether a billing record gets created at the time the customer purchases this product.
| Billprice | The amount to be billed |
| billinstallments | A number representing the number of installments. For example 12 will mean that this customer should be billed 12 times. |
| billinstallmenttype | One of the following words: Day, Week, Month, Year For example if Month is in this field, the person will be billed once per month for 12 months. |
| billinterval | A number such as 1. This is the interval between bills in the same units as above. |
Billing
This is a control table. It is used to determine how many bills to send out, how often, at what interval.| billamount | How much to bill each interval |
| billnextbilldate | The date to start the billing |
| billcustomer | Customer’s name |
| billemail | E-mail address of the customer |
| billdescription | The description of what the bill is for such as the product or service |
| billinstallments | A number representing the number of installments. For example 12 will mean that this customer should be billed 12 times. |
| billinstallmenttype | One of the following words: Day, week, Month, Year For example if Month is in this field, the person will be billed once per month for 12 months. |
| billinterval | A number such as 1. This is the interval between bills in the same units as above. |
| billcreationdate | Date you are creating this billing record |
| billenddate | Optional. The last date for which a bill should be sent out. If not supplied VP-ASP stops sending bills when the installments are completed. |
| billorderid | It is the original order that caused this billing record to be created |
| billlastmaildate | The date the last bill was sent out |
| billsentcount | The number of e-mail bills that have been sent to the customer |
| billcanceled | If True, then the merchant has decided to stop sending bills to the customer |
| billcompleted | If true, it means that this billing record is no longer used since all installment e-mails have been sent. It is normally set by VP-ASP automatically after the last installment is sent |
| billcreationdate | The date this billing record itself was created. |
| billorderitemid | The record number in the oitems table for the original order that created the billing record |
| billenddate | Used to stop billing at a certain date regardless of whether the number of installments has been reached. Normally this field would not be used |
| billtemplate | Optional. Used to specific a unique mailing template for bills generated from this billing record |
| billother1 | Unused |
| billother2 | Unused |
Rewards
Rewards Configuration
The following configuration option controls how the rewards system works.
| Xpointsredeem | Yes Turns on rewards system |
| Xpointsredeemrate | .10 The number multiplied against the points to obtain a $ amount or a percentage if using couponpercent |
| Xpointsredeemtemplategift | tmp_pointsredeemgift.txt |
| xpointsredeemtemplatecoupon | tmp_pointsredeemcoupon.txt |
| Xpointsredeemtype | Gift or Coupon or PercentCoupon The type of reward to be created. Only one type is allowed per shop |
| xpointsredeemcouponproducts | List of product numbers for which coupon can be used For example: 1,77,88 |
| xpointsredeemcouponcategories | List of categories for which product can be used For example: 2,3 |
| Xpointsredeemminpoints | Minimum number of points that can be redeemed |
| Xpointsredeemmaxpoints | Maximum that can be redeemed at one time |
| Xpointsequalcurrency | Yes means that the points are calculated using the price rounded to an integer. For example $5.55=5 points $6.85 = 7 points |
Shopa_pointsorder.asp
A new administrative utility shopa_pointsorder.asp allows you to add or subtract points from a customer easily. To use this new facility, assign it to one or more administrator userids manually.1. Login to VP-ASP Administration
2. Go to User Control Menu
3. Edit a userid
4. At the bottom of the menus in the left column check Points Administration
Difference between Coupons and Gift Certificates
This section will help you decide which rewards system you may wish to use.
Coupons can be used only once.
They deduct the face value from the amount of purchase for products only. If a customer purchases say a $40 product and $10 shipping and the coupon has a face value of $60, they do not pay anything for the product but have to pay the $10 shipping but they also cannot use the remaining $20 of the coupon.
Coupons are automatically available for use.
Gift certificates act more like cash and can be reused.
If a person has a $60 gift certificate, and purchases $40 worth of goods plus $10 shipping, the remaining $10 can be used again at some later time. Shipping is always paid for automatically by gift certificate. Gift certificates are not automatically available for use unless the merchant has set set xgiftautoenable=Yes.
Difference between a Coupon and PercentCoupon
A coupon generates a fixed currency amount. This is done by multiplying the redeemrate by the number of points. So 1000 points at .01 redeem rate gives a coupon value of $10. A coupon percent gives a percent discount and not a fixed amount. So 1000 points at .01 = 10% discount.Coupon and Gift Certificate names
The certificate/coupon is generated with the following name:Points-hhmmss-n
The hhmmss is the time of purchase
The n is the customer id
The word points is a constant name.
Mailing
Mailing is done by either of two templates depending on which reward is allowed. You should edit the template to add your own store details.| Xpointsredeemtemplategift | tmp_pointsredeemgift.txt |
| xpointsredeemtemplatecoupon | tmp_pointsredeemcoupon.txt |
Only fields in the coupons table can be used for the coupon template. Only fields in the gifts table can be used for the gift certificate template.
Handling Fraud
New fraud checks have been added to the points system.If a person does not pay using one of the valid payments set in shop configuration xendofordervalidpayments, the points are recorded with the order but they are not automatically added to the customer record. This prevents a person from fraudently buying something and then redeeming the points to buy something else.
If the order will be processed, it is up to the merchant to manually add the points to the customer record. The point value is stored in the order record. A note is placed into the order record in the “other1” field that the points have not been added. We supply a utility called shopa_pointsorder.aps that can be used to add and subtract points from the customer record.
Points remaining 100
This tells you that 100 points were accumulated for the order but not added to the customer record.
Handling Coupons and Gift Certificates
Any purchase made with gift certificate or coupon that has the word “points” in it, will not accumulate new points. This prevents the doubling up of points.How do I limit products that can be purchased using points
Only coupons can limit purchase to specific products or category of products. Suppose you only want customers to be able to purchase certain items using points. Put in a value like “redeem” into the field pother1 of the product record and then create a hyperlink on your site such as
p>a href="shopquery.asp?pother1=redeem">Product for points/a>/p>
This will display all products that have redeem in the pother1 field Then use the following Shop Configurattion value to limit purchase to those products. These numbers will be site specific.
| Xpointsredeemcouponproducts | List of product numbers for which coupon can be used For example: 1,77,88 |
| Xpointsredeemcouponcategories | List of categories for which product can be used For example: 2,3 |
Setting points per product
To set your own points per product, edit each product record and put the number of points in the points field of the record.Using Price to set points
Instead of setting a value for each product individually, the product price can be used to automatically calculate the points.
Use the following shop configuration value
| Xpointsequalcurrency | Yes means that the points are calculated using the price rounded to an integer. For example $5.55=5 points $6.85 = 7 points |
End of Order Payment Checking
To prevent hackers from accumulating points and then using them, a check is made against a list of valid payment methods that you trust.
| Xendofordervalidpayments | Visa,Authorizenet |
This is a list of payment methods, which VP-ASP will check. If a payment is made using one on the list, the points are immediately added to the customer record. Otherwise the points are stored with the order record but not automatically added to the customer record and therefore cannot be used by the customer.
Redeeming Points
A new menu appears on the Customer Service menu (shopcustadmin.asp). Link #9 in this example.
A new page is displayed showing the customer the number of points remaining and allowing them to
select the number of points to be redeemed
The customer clicks continue, a coupon or gift certificate is created and an email is sent to both the
merchant and the customer.
Manually adding/deleting Points
Once an order has gone through, you wish to now add the points to the customer record. This can be done
using a new file shopa_pointsorder.asp. This form allows you to add points or remove points from the
customer record.
Once an order number is entered, a confirmation screen will be displayed
This says that the order was worth 100 points. Do you want to proceed? If not use the back button. There
is no error indication in the order. This means that the order may have already added the points to the
customer during the order process.
 |
Back |  |
Printable Version |  |
Search other topics |  |
Submit a Ticket |