This article will guide merchants through activating and setting up their Authorize.net account.

Activate Your Account

Your welcome email includes a link that begins the account activation process. After activating your account, you will be logged in to the Merchant Interface. This interface provides administrative access for managing and protecting your Authorize.net payment gateway account. Through the Merchant Interface (https://login.authorize.net), you can:

• View and search current and settled transactions
• Process transactions manually
• Change security and account settings

The person with primary responsibility for the payment gateway account should complete the account activation process. This process establishes the account owner. The Account Owner role is one of several user roles that can be established for your account. After activation, you can add more users and assign them the Account Owner role or other roles as needed.

Account owners can access all of the Merchant Interface features and functionality. They are responsible for managing the users of the account and for properly configuring the payment gateway account's processing and security settings.

Step 1: Verify Your Identity

1. Click the activation link in your welcome email. The page for generating a verification PIN appears.
2. To send the verification PIN to the email address on file, click Send PIN.
   • Note: If you already have a verification PIN, click Already have a Verification PIN?
3. Enter your verification PIN in Enter Account Verification PIN, and click Verify PIN.
   • Note: If you have closed the Account Activation screen and no longer see the Enter Account Verification PIN field, click the activation link from your welcome email again, and then click Already have a Verification PIN?
4. The Verification PIN is valid for 10 minutes. If you need a new Verification PIN, click Generate New Verification PIN. If you do not receive a Verification PIN, check your spam filter before contacting Customer Support.

Step 2: Enter User Information

1. Review the owner and business information on file for your account, and click Edit to make corrections.
   • All fields in the Owner Information and Business Information sections, except for Website URL, are required.
2. Enter your billing information.
   • Enter the bank and credit card payment information that you will use to pay your monthly Authorize.net fees. The credit card information is a backup payment method that is used only when attempts to bill your bank account are unsuccessful.
3. Agree to the Authorize.net Payment Gateway Merchant Services Agreement and Fees.
   • To review the Authorize.net Services Agreement and your monthly fees, click the links provided. When you are ready, check the box to confirm that you accept the agreement and fees, and then click I Agree.

Step 3: Create a Merchant Interface Account Owner

1. To complete account activation, create a login ID and password for the Merchant Interface. These credentials are used by the account owner for creating additional users and for managing settings and value-added services.
2. Change your password periodically to enhance the security of your account. Users are required to change their password every 90 days.
   • Important: Store the login ID and password securely, and do not share them with anyone. Users added to the Merchant Interface will have their own unique login ID and password.
3. After you click Create Your Account, the Merchant Interface appears, and you can begin configuring your access and security settings.

Test Mode

By default, your account is in Test Mode, which allows you to submit test transactions to validate that your Authorize.net compatible payment solution can connect to the account, without submitting an actual charge. Work with your payment solution developer to test your connection to Authorize.net. After your connection is validated, you can disable Test Mode to begin processing live transactions. To disable Test Mode, click the orange banner at the top of the Merchant Interface.

You can also enable Test Mode to temporarily stop payment processing, if you notice suspicious activity on your account.

To turn Test Mode on or off:

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Click Account.
3. Under General Security Settings, click Test Mode.
4. Drag the slider to Test or Live.

Remember to turn off Test Mode when you are ready to process live transactions.

For more information on Test Mode, see: What Is test mode and how do I turn It off and on?

Transaction Processing Settings

To connect your payment solution to Authorize.net, generate an API Login ID, a Transaction Key, and a Signature Key (optional), and add these API credentials to your payment solution. The API credentials are unique to your Authorize.net account and are used to identify and validate the payment solution for transaction processing.

It is crucial to store your API Login ID, Transaction Key, and Signature Key securely. Do not send these credentials through email. As a best practice, create an Account Administrator user for your web developer. This user can generate the API credentials and should be removed once the web developer has finished configuring the payment solution.

Do not configure your payment solution to use your Merchant Interface login ID and password. These credentials are only for signing in to the Merchant Interface and should not be shared with anyone.

For more information on API ID and related Keys, see: What is the purpose of the API Login ID, Transaction Key, Signature Key and Public Key for Authorize.net, and how can I obtain them?

For more information on integration and connection options, see: Authorize.net Integration Methods Explained

Security Settings

The following features of Authorize.net help prevent fraudulent transactions:

Address Verification Service

The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a system provided by issuing banks and card associations to help identify suspicious payment card activity for e-commerce transactions. AVS matches portions of the customer's billing address, as provided by the merchant, to the billing address on file with the issuing bank. Authorize.net then accepts or rejects the transactions according to the settings that you specify.

The default AVS settings are set to reject transactions when the billing street address or ZIP code do not match the issuing bank's records. International cards typically do not support AVS, and they are typically rejected by default.

Review and configure your AVS settings to suit your business model. Contact your Merchant Service Provider to discuss AVS best practices for your business.

For more information on AVS, see: What is Address Verification Service (AVS) and how to use and configure it?

Card Code Verification

Card Code Verification (CCV) compares the card code submitted by the customer with the card code on file with the issuing bank. The card code appears at the end of the signature panel on the back of the card, or for American Express cards, on the front of the card just above the end of the credit card number.

Card codes provide extra security against unauthorized credit card transactions. Because card codes cannot be stored in payment solutions, checking the card code helps to ensure that the customer authorized the transaction. You can use CCV to better decide whether to accept or reject credit card transactions.

For more information on Card Code Verification, see: What is Card Code Verification (CVV) and how to use and configure it?

Daily Velocity Filter

The Daily Velocity Filter is a tool that allows you to specify a threshold for the number of transactions allowed per day. All transactions exceeding the threshold in that day are flagged and processed according to the actions that you specify. It is a useful tool for preventing high-volume attacks that are common with fraudulent transactions.

To configure the Daily Velocity Filter:

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Click Account.
3. Under Basic Fraud Settings, click Daily Velocity.
4. Check Enable Filter.
5. Under Transaction Velocity Threshold, enter the number of transactions that you expect to process every day.
6. Under Filter Actions, choose the action that you want to take on transactions submitted after you reach your Transaction Velocity Threshold.
7. Click Save.

Click Help in the top right corner if you have questions about the filter actions.

Advanced Security

Authorize.net offers the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS), a set of customizable, rules-based filters and tools that identify, manage, and prevent suspicious transactions.

For more information on AFDS, see: What Is the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) and how to use it?

General Settings

Use the following settings to customize your Authorize.net account for your business.

Time Zone

Set your Authorize.net account to use the time zone in which your business is located. This setting enables transactions, statements, and reports to display timestamps in your local time zone, and ensures that your transaction cut-off time is accurate.

Transaction Cut-Off Time

The Transaction Cut-Off Time setting specifies the daily cut-off time for batched transactions to be submitted to your processor for settlement. Transactions submitted after the cut-off time are sent to the processor after the cut-off time the following day. The default transaction cut-off time is 4:00 p.m. Pacific time.

For more information on the batching and settlement cut off time, see: When do transactions batch for settlement, can this timing be altered, and how to find unsettled and settled transactions?

User Administration

The User Administration feature enables an account owner to create unique user accounts with distinct login IDs and passwords for employees who need access to the Merchant Interface. You can also customize permissions for each user account to match each employee’s job responsibilities—helping you to keep transaction and account management activities in the Merchant Interface separate and streamlining your transaction management processes. By default, the person who activates your payment gateway account is the account owner. This account will be the only user account until you create additional accounts.

For more information on User Administration and Profile management, see:

• How to add and manage users in the Merchant Interface?
• How to view my profile and manage it in the Merchant Interface?

Virtual Terminal

The Virtual Terminal enables you to submit payment transactions manually through the Merchant Interface. Use the Virtual Terminal if you accept payments for mail order/telephone order (MOTO) sales. To submit a payment card transaction for automatic settlement using the Virtual Terminal:

For more information on the Virtual Terminal, see: What is the Virtual Terminal and how to use and configure it?

Activation and Getting Started FAQs

• What should I do if the activation link has expired?
  • If the links has expired you may contact your reseller or Client Services to request to have the activation email resent.
• What steps should be taken if the activation link is not working?
  • Try copying and pasting the activation url into your web browser.
  • If you continue to have issue request to have a new activation email sent from your reseller or Client Service.
• Why is the activation link not being received?
  • It is possible the email may be caught in your spam or junk folder.
  • It is possible the email address may be incorrect, to correct this please contact reseller or Client Service.