How To Manage Subscriptions And Transactions With Authorize.net

New Subscriptions with the Authorize.net Gateway

This section applies to the older Authorize.net gateway. MemberPress no longer offers it for new setups, which use Authorize.net Profile instead.

When a member signs up for a subscription, MemberPress first checks the card with a $1.00 authorization. MemberPress voids that authorization right away, so your Authorize.net account shows a voided $1.00 transaction. This is not the member’s payment. If the subscription starts with a paid trial, MemberPress charges the trial amount instead.

Authorize.net then charges the first subscription payment. MemberPress records that payment and sends the payment receipt when the Authorize.net webhook for it arrives. This can sometimes take up to 24 hours.

To give new members access in the meantime, MemberPress allows a 1 day grace period after signup. The Disable the 1 day grace period after signup option is in the Account tab. With it on, new members get access only after MemberPress records that first payment.

In Authorize.net, the voided $1.00 authorization comes first and the subscription charge comes later. If a charge is in Authorize.net but missing from MemberPress > Transactions, see Adding a Missing Payment.

With Authorize.net Profile, there is no $1.00 authorization. MemberPress records the payment taken at checkout right away.

Canceling Subscriptions in Authorize.net

1. Login to your Authorize.net account
2. Click on Tools > Recurring Billing
3. View active subscriptions
4. Find the user’s subscription in the list, and click on its Subscr ID link
5. Click “Edit Subscription” at the top
6. Click “Cancel Subscription” at the top
7. Click “OK” on the pop-up to confirm the cancellation

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Handling Failed Payments

1. Sign in to your Authorize.net account;
2. Access the Recurring Billings page under the Tools section;
3. Click the “Enable Automatic Retry” link, and then the “Enable Automatic Retry” button.

Note: Authorize.net’s Automatic Retry can not be disabled once it’s been activated in your account.

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Adding a Missing Payment

Step 1 – Find the Transaction ID for the Payment in Authorize.net

• The subscription ID (if a recurring subscription) as it appears on the MemberPress > Subscriptions page (look for a string of numbers)
• The user’s email, which can be found on the WordPress > Users page OR the MemberPress > Members page
• The date the billing occurred

With that information in hand, you can find the transaction ID in Authorize.net by doing the following (note: these steps come directly from an authorize.net’s support page; for the full page. please click here):

1. Log into the Merchant Interface at https://account.authorize.net.
2. Click Transaction Search from the main toolbar.
3. Click Search for a Transaction in the main left-side menu.
4. Enter one or more search parameters in the fields provided.
5. Click the Show drop-down to choose how many results per page to display:10 (default), 15, 20, or 25 results.
6. Click Search to display your Transaction Summary. This will pull up your results:

Copy the Transaction ID you see under the Trans ID column. You’ll use this in Step 2.

Step 2 – Manually Add the Transaction

A Single One-Time Payment (NOT associated with an existing recurring subscription):

1. Go to MemberPress > Transactions.
2. Select Add New at the top of the page.
3. Paste the Transaction ID you identified in Step 1 into the Transaction number.
4. Select the user you’d like the transaction to be associated with. You can start typing in the username, and available options will pop up.
5. Select which Membership the transaction should be associated with.
6. Add the transaction Sub-Total amount. This should be what the user paid you.
7. Add in any data related to taxes as applicable.
8. Set the Status of the transaction to Complete.
9. Set the Gateway to Authorize.net.
10. Leave the Subscription field blank.
11. Add the Created Date. The date you set here will be the date when the user paid you.
12. Add the Expiration Date. The date you set here will be the date the user’s payment is set to expire.
13. Select Create.

If you want to add a transaction to an existing recurring subscription:

1. Go to MemberPress > Subscriptions.
2. Search for the user’s subscription to which you’d like to add the missing payment.
3. Hover over the subscription’s unique ID and click on the “Add Txn” link.
4. Paste the Transaction ID you identified in Step 1 into the Transaction number.
5. Select the user you’d like the transaction to be associated with. You can start typing in the username, and available options will pop up.
6. Select which Membership the transaction should be associated with.
7. Add the transaction Sub-Total amount. This should be what the user paid you.
8. Add in any data related to taxes as applicable.
9. Set the Status of the transaction to Complete.
10. Set the Gateway to Authorize.net.
11. Leave the Subscription field as is (it should have been auto-populated with the correct ID).
12. Add the Created Date. The date you set here will be the date when the user paid you.
13. Add the Expiration Date. The date you set here will be the date the user’s payment is set to expire.
14. Select Create.

Step 3 – Verify

Note: On the MemberPress > Subscription page, the Active column of the subscription should be set to a green Yes and the Expires on column should reflect the missing payment’s expiration date.

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