Payment Method Updater

Why Zuora's Payment Method Updater?

Maintaining updated payment methods is important to avoid loss in revenue due to failed payments. The payment method refers to the form of payment customers are using, which is a credit card in the case of PMU. The Zuora PMU works with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards.

The Payment Method Updater (PMU) is for Zuora customers who have signed up with the CyberSource, Chase Orbital, Vantiv, American Express, First Data or WorldPay Account Updater Service. Merchants interested in using the PMU feature must first register for the account updater services with the provider of their choice and review the prerequisites.

Key features include:

• Automatically selects default payment methods and then requests updated account information for credit cards prior to the customers' next bill cycle day. The updater service receives the update requests from Zuora via a secure batch file, then forwards it to Visa's Account Updater Service, American Express Card Refresher or MasterCard's Automatic Billing Updater Service to obtain updated card information.
• Automatically updates credit card information into Zuora.
• Creates new payment methods in Zuora when credit card numbers have been changed (this may also include a new expiration date) and sets the new credit card as the default payment method.
• Updates payment methods with the latest expiration dates.
• For closed accounts, marks these payment methods in Zuora as closed. Closed credit cards will no longer be used to process payments.
• View and export updater credit card batches. 
• Easy to understand batch processing statuses: processing, completed, and error.

The diagram below shows the top-level view of how the PMU operates. Each month, the merchant has one or more bill cycle days (BCDs) to send bills to the customers. Before the BCD, the PMU service sends out a batch of credit cards to the appropriate updater service and updates the credit card information. The service normally takes 2-5 days to complete -- each providers' updaters have slightly different time schedules. Afterwards, the merchant reviews the batch of credit cards for any accounts that the merchant may have to follow up with, and then the end customer's bills are sent. Lastly, on the BCD, customers are billed. As discussed in the setup sections in detail, it is a good idea to submit the batch at least 5-10 days prior to the BCD.

Zuora provides a console to help track and monitor all the batch files submitted to the updater service for account updates.

Each provide will supply you with the required credentials to get set up with the Zuora PMU and to update payment methods. Zuora will collect the default payment methods for all accounts on the specified day prior to the billing day. Zuora sends this information to provider, who sends the information along to Visa, American Express and/or MasterCard. Within approximately a week, the credit card provider returns information to Zuora, and Zuora will update the payment information for the credit cards that were sent.

Enabling Zuora PMU will vary between providers, and thus separate configuration pages exist for each updater service. 

See Setting Up Payment Method Updater for more information.

Getting Started with the PMU Service

The PMU documentation guide is divided into three simple categories: PMU documentation guide is divided into three categories:

• Setting up the PMU: Separate guide pages for setting up CyberSource, Chase Orbital, American Express, Vantiv, and WorldPay updater services. They cover only the configuration and do not have many explanations.
• Using PMU: Covers how to use the PMU console, key terms, data export, and viewing batches. PMU console, key terms, data export, and viewing batches. 
• Monitoring PMU batch: Zuora strongly recommends you to configure a notification email for the PMU Batch Completed event. This article covers step-by-step guidance on how to configure the email template and provide a sample email template. 
• Troubleshooting: This section covers error codes, using data export to find invalid credit card information, and batch error handling. There are subpages for CyberSource, Chase Orbital, American Express, Vantiv, First Data and WorldPay that review specific error messages and how to reconcile account updater with PMU.