DPS Payment Account Solutions

A transaction is a message sent through payment networks and used to exchange a payment for goods and services, and/or perform other transaction processes. DPS Forward consolidates all the network traffic into a single connection interface for you to consume. 

 A typical transaction is comprised of three stages:

• Authorization is the process of approving or declining a transaction amount submitted by the cardholder. This is done by sending authorization and advice messages that verify a cardholder, card credentials, and availability of funds at the time of purchase. 
• Clearing is the process of collecting final transaction data from the source, validating the transaction, calculating fees and charges, and delivering the transaction data to the issuer. 
• Settlement is the process of calculating, determining, reporting and transferring the net financial position of issuers and acquirers for all transactions that are cleared. The actual exchange of funds is a separate process.

Issuers often distinguish between a cardholder’s available balance and their ledger balance. The available balance is the ledger balance minus the amount of any outstanding transactions. The ledger balance is the account balance minus all the transactions that have cleared. 

For dual message system (DMS) transactions, a financial transaction can affect the available balance and the ledger balance at different times. Because DMS involves a two-step process, the authorization step adjusts the available balance, while the clearing step adjusts the ledger balance. Any outstanding amount is still considered part of the ledger balance until such time as the outstanding amounts have cleared.

For single message system (SMS) transactions, every financial transaction has an immediate impact on both the cardholder’s available and ledger balance. The amount on the available and ledger balances will be debited or credited simultaneously.

DPS Payment Account Solutions is the system of record for your cardholders’ available and ledger balances.