What is Customer Information Manager (CIM)?

The Customer Information Manager (CIM) is a service provided by Authorize.Net that allows merchants to securely store customer payment information on their servers, simplifying PCI DSS compliance. It offers several features that make transactions and recurring billing more efficient:

• Simplify PCI Compliance: CIM helps in protecting your customers' confidential information and ensuring PCI compliance.
• Process Recurring Transactions or Usage Charges: If you bill your customers different amounts or on different days each month, or only when the service is used (for example, utility companies or pay-as-you-go cell phones), CIM can handle this.
• Store Customer Data: CIM allows returning customers to avoid re-entering their personal data every time they visit your website.
• Provide Payment Flexibility: Your customers can store multiple payment methods for repeat purchases.
• Save Multiple Shipping Locations: Customers can also save multiple shipping locations using CIM.

CIM supports customer profiles that include billing, payment, and shipping information. Each profile is stored on secure servers and assigned an ID that is used in place of all customer information. Each customer profile can include up to 10 payment profiles and up to 100 shipping profiles. You can manage customer profiles and issue transactions manually from within the Merchant Interface, or integrate your website or other application using an Application Programming Interface (API). Additionally, in the Merchant Interface, you can view and search for customer profiles as well as review a profile's transaction history.

Configuring and Using Customer Information Manager (CIM)

Setting up and using the CIM involves a few steps:

1. Enable CIM on your Authorize.Net account: Log into your Authorize.Net account, navigate to "Account" from the main menu, then to "Merchant Profile". Under the "Additional Services" section, you can enable the CIM service.
2. Create a Customer Profile and Processing a Transaction: There are two ways to create a Customer Information Manager (CIM) customer, payment or shipping profile: through the CIM Application Programming Interface (API), or through the Merchant Interface. For details on how to create a customer, payment or shipping profile using the CIM API, please visit our Developer Center for integration guides and sample code.

To create a new customer, payment, or shipping profile in the Merchant Interface:

1. Log into the Merchant Interface
2. Click Tools from the main toolbar.
3. Click Customer Information Manager from the left side menu.
4. Click +Add Profile, or click the Profile ID of the customer profile to which you intend to add a payment or shipping profile.
5. When creating a new customer profile, you can enter the customer profile information as well as payment and shipping information. If you are adding an additional payment or shipping profile to an existing customer profile, click Add Payment Profile or Add Shipping Profile, and then enter the required information.
6. Click OK to create the profile.

To set up a customer profile, you only need to input the Customer ID, Email, or Description. You can use any of these fields individually or in combination. It's recommended to include the address and zip/postal code when validating a credit card.

When creating a payment profile, if you don't select "Perform credit card authorization before saving data," a $1.00 Test Mode transaction will be initiated to ensure the credit card information is correctly formatted. This Test Mode transaction won't appear on the customer's credit card statement, but it will send a transaction receipt email to the merchant. Please note, this test transaction only confirms the credit card information format, not its validity. To validate the card, make sure to check "Perform credit card authorization before saving data."

How to charge a stored customers profile?

Once customers information has been stored in customer, shipping and payment profiles they can be used to submit transactions:

First, locate the CIM profile:

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Select Tools from the main toolbar.
3. Select Customer Information Manager from the left side menu.
4. Select the Profile ID of the profile you are searching for.

To charge the CIM Payment Profile:

1. Under Payment Profiles, locate the Payment Profile (or Payment Method) that you want to charge. (Either a Credit Card or Bank Account)
2. Select the Charge button within that payment profile.
3. Select a Shipping Option. (If you want to include a shipping address in your transaction details. If not select "this order does not require shipping")
4. Select Continue.
5. Fill in the remainder of the transaction details.
6. Select Submit.

Information on how to charge a CIM Payment Profile via the Authorize.net API can be found on the Developer Center.

How to edit or delete a customer's profile?

Once you have successfully created a Customer Information Manager (CIM) customer, payment or shipping profile, you can then edit the details of that profile or delete it entirely at any time.

To edit existing CIM profiles:

1. Log into the Merchant Interface
2. Click Tools from the main toolbar.
3. Click Customer Information Manager from the left side menu.
4. Click the Profile ID of the profile you want to edit.
5. To edit the main customer profile, click Edit Profile Info in the Customer Profile Information section; to edit a payment or shipping profile, click the Edit link under the corresponding section.
6. Enter your changes in the desired profile fields.
7. Click OK to save the changes.

There are two ways to delete CIM profiles. You may delete an entire customer profile and any associated payment or shipping profiles from the main Customer Information Manager page by clicking the profile and clicking Delete Profile. Or you can go into each individual profile and delete it.

To delete individual CIM profiles:

1. Log into the Merchant Interface
2. Click Tools from the main toolbar.
3. Click Customer Information Manager from the left side menu.
4. Click the Profile ID of the profile you intend to delete.
5. To delete the main customer profile, including all associated payment and shipping profiles, click Delete in the Customer Profile Information section; to delete a payment or shipping profile, click the Delete link under the corresponding section.
6. Click OK in the pop-up window that appears.

Once a Profile is deleted the information it contained can no longer be retrieved; deletion is permanent.

Information on how to edit or delete CIM Profiles through the CIM Application Programming Interface (API) can be found in the CIM API implementation guides.

To cancel the Customer Information Manager (CIM) service:

1. Log into the Merchant Interface
2. Click Tools from the main toolbar.
3. Click Customer Information Manager from the left side menu.
4. Click the Discontinue Customer Information Manager link at the bottom of the page.
5. Click Yes to discontinue your service.

Once you discontinue the CIM Service, the payment gateway will store any customer payment profiles for up to a year before purging them from our system as a security precaution. If you have created a profile and wish to access it again, simply sign up for CIM again and your profiles should be available.

To sign up for CIM again:

1. Log into the Merchant Interface
2. Click Tools from the main toolbar.
3. Click Customer Information Manager from the left side menu.
4. Click Sign up for Customer Information Manager (CIM) Now. The Customer Information Manager Service Addendum page appears.
5. Click the checkbox labeled, "I have read and understand the Terms of Service".
6. Click I Agree.