Levels and processing of purchasing cards

Purchasing card levels

There are three levels of data for processing purchase cards. Each level decides whether a transaction is qualified.

Level 1

Level 1, also known as level I, card data is processed for most consumer transactions. It provides authorization and settlement information to cardholders and is limited to the purchase data returned to a cardholder. Level 1 purchasing data is usually the same information as captured during a traditional credit card purchase transaction, including the purchase amount, date, category code, retailer name, and so on.

Level 2

Level 2, also known as level II, card data is processed for business or corporate purchase cards that are used for B2B transactions, such as order number, freight amount, source/destination postal codes, and so on. These cards can have lower processing expenses for merchants. Level 2 cards provide the same information captured at Level 1, but may also include tax amount, accounting code, tax ID number, and so on. Level 2 data can be processed through either a standard credit card transaction or a purchasing card. For more information, see Level 2 data.

Level 3

Level 3, also known as level III, card data includes the same information captured at Levels I and II, and can also include quantities, product codes, product descriptions, freight amount, duty amount, order number, unit of measure, discount indicator, discount amount, tax rate applied, debit or credit indicator, and so on. Level 3 provides comprehensive line-item detail. Level 3 processing data is similar to the information on an itemized invoice, requiring greater system capability. For more information, see Level 3 data.

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NOTE

Level 2 and Level 3 card payment features are currently available only for Mastercard^® and Visa^® in the United States (US).

Check if a merchant is set up for purchase cards

For Clover merchants that accept purchase cards, you can include the level2 and level3 objects when creating charges or paying for orders. To check if a merchant is set up for purchase cards, send a GET request to the /v3/merchants/{mId}/ecomm_payment_configs endpoint. In the response, check that the purchase_card.supported value is true.

curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://sandbox.dev.clover.com/v3/merchants/ecomm_payment_configs' \
  --header 'accept: application/json'

{
  "purchase_card": {
    "supported": true,
  }
  ...
}

If a merchant is not configured for purchasing cards, the transaction is still processed, but any data passed in the level2 object is ignored, and the following warning message is returned:
Purchase card Level2 Data disregarded, merchant account does not support purchase cards.

Set level 2 data in a charge request

In the request body, set the required amount (in cents), source, and currency. When using a purchasing card, set the required fields in the level2 object. See the Create a charge for a list of possible fields that you can set.

{
  "amount": 33400,
  "currency": "usd",
  "source": "clv_1TSTA399021D...",
  "level2": {
    "tax_amount": 2353,
    "tax_indicator": 1,
    "pc_order_number": "21-200394",
    "discount_amount": 2200,
    "freight_amount": 37500,
    "duty_amount": 0,
    "destination_postal_code": "80919",
    "shipping_from_postal_code": "94145",
    "destination_country_code": 840,
    "product_description": "",
    "merchant_tax_id": ""
  }
}

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NOTE

Processing the level 2 data included with purchase cards depends on upstream systems being available when creating a payment. If a system is unavailable, the transaction is processed as a normal credit card payment and the following warning is returned:
Purchase card Level2 Data disregarded, purchase card support is currently unavailable.

Get data for a charge

If a charge includes level 2 or level 3 data, you can retrieve these details using the Get a single payment endpoint. To view the purchase-card-related information in the response purchaseCardL2 object, add the purchaseCardL2 expansion.

curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://sandbox.dev.clover.com/v3/merchants/{mId}/payments/{paymentId}?expand=purchaseCardL2' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json'

{
  "id": "HBQ8V3PZH481E",
  "amount": 808
  "purchaseCardL2": {
    "taxIndicator": "NON_TAXABLE",
    "purchaseIdentifier": "19873208776",
    "discountAmount": 2200,
    "freightAmount": 30000,
    "dutyAmount": 333,
    "destinationPostalCode": "80919",
    "shipFromPostalCode": "80903",
    "destinationCountryCode": "840",
    "merchantTaxId": "****0153",
    "productDescription": "Bike",
    "paymentRef": {
      "id": "HBQ8V3PZH481E"
    }
  }
}