Sections on every screen

Three things behave the same wherever they appear, so they are described once here rather than repeated on every screen: how searching and filtering work, the comments on a record, and its audit history. Every screen guide links back to this page.

Searching and filtering

Every search screen and every filtered list in Merchant View is built from the same parts: a text box, an optional set of filters, a list of results and a set of page controls. This page explains how those parts behave everywhere, so that each screen only has to tell you what it searches and what its results show. It answers "how do I narrow this list down, and why am I seeing what I am seeing?"

Where it appears

On the Account search, Transaction search and Contract search screens, and on the lists embedded in the Account and Payment method screens (their Transactions and Recurring Payments cards). The embedded lists show the search box and filters only when there are more than six records to look through; a short list is shown in full with nothing to narrow.

What it shows

• Division selector (search screens only). Shown at the left of the search box when you have access to more than one division; it starts on your own division and results are always limited to the division chosen. When you can see only one division there is nothing to choose and the selector is not shown. The embedded lists on an Account or Payment method are not limited by division.
• Search box, with the prompt Type to search.... It has the cursor when the screen opens, so you can start typing straight away.
  • The search runs by itself a moment after you stop typing. You do not need to press Enter, and there is no minimum length: even a single character starts a search. Clear the box and the list goes back to showing everything that matches the filters.
  • Matching is on part of a value and ignores capitals: "smi" finds Smith and SMITH. The exception is an amount, which must match exactly (searching "10" finds 10.00, not 100.00).
  • Each word you type is looked up separately in every field that screen searches (the screen's page lists them). On Account search a record must match all of the words; on Transaction search and Contract search a record matching any of the words is returned.
  • To look in one field only, write the field name, a colon and the term with no spaces, for example phone:0207 or lastname:smith. Show Advanced (below) lists the field names as links you can click to insert them.
  • Typing an identifier is recognised as such: an account, transaction or contract reference, with or without its acc_, tr_ or co_ prefix, finds that record directly, and on the Transaction and Contract searches a reference prefixed acc_, pm_ or gw_ finds everything for that account, payment method or gateway.
• Show Advanced is the sliders icon at the right of the search box (its tooltip reads Show Advanced, or Hide Advanced once open). It switches between two views of the same filters:
  • Open: a row of field-name links under the search box (click one to add field: to your search), and above it each filter with its label and its control, so you can change them.
  • Closed: each filter that is currently narrowing the list appears as a badge in capitals, for example CREATED: LAST 90 DAYS or STATUS: IN PROGRESS, each with a ×. A filter set to All, or a date range set to All Time, is not narrowing anything and has no badge.
  • The panel opens by itself when you arrive with a filter already applied (a link someone shared with you, or a reload) and stays as you left it while you move around the app.
• Filter dropdowns (for example Status, Action, Gateway) choose exactly one option at a time. The first option is always All, meaning the filter is switched off. Longer lists (more than six options) have a search box at the top of the dropdown to find an option by typing. Choosing a different option runs the search immediately.
• Date range filters (for example Created, Settled, Completed, Last Transactions) start as an All Time button, meaning no date limit. Click it to open a calendar with these presets down the side:
  • Today — today only.
  • Last 3 Days, Last 7 Days, Last 31 Days, Last 90 Days — from the start of the day that many days ago up to the end of today.
  • Or click a start day and an end day on the calendar for your own range. The range applies as soon as you pick it; whole days are used, from the start of the first day to the end of the last.
  • The chosen range is written out in short form, for example Mar 23 - Apr 2 (the year is added when it is not this year), with a clear link beside it to go back to All Time. The Transaction search screen starts with Created set to the last 90 days; see that screen's page.
  • Each date filter is a different moment in the record's life. On transactions, Created is when the payment was started (when the customer or agent submitted it), and Settled is when the gateway gave its final answer; a payment that was declined or is still in progress may have no settled date and will not match a Settled range. The other screens' date fields are explained on their own pages.
• How filters combine. Every filter that is set must be satisfied at the same time as the search text and the division: a record matching the Status but outside the Created range is not shown. Within one filter you can only choose one option.
• Results list. One row per matching record, in the order the screen states (each screen's page says what its rows show and how they are sorted). A row you have moved to with the arrow keys is highlighted.
• Loading indicator. A spinner replaces the list while a search runs; the previous results are cleared, so an empty space with a spinner means the search is still in progress, not that nothing was found.
• Page controls, centred under the results: Showing with a page size of 10, 20, 50 or 100 rows, then of followed by the total number of matching records (for example Showing 10 of 1,234), then Previous, the page numbers and Next. Up to seven page numbers are shown around the current page; the current page is highlighted, and Previous or Next is greyed out at the first or last page. The controls are hidden altogether when the results fit on one page of ten.
• No Results is shown when the search ran and nothing matched. Check the division, the date range and the badges: a default such as Created: Last 90 Days or Status: In Progress is often the reason.
• Sorry! We encountered an error with a try again link is shown when the search could not be completed. Clicking try again runs the same search once more.
• Enter search criteria or show all is shown, instead of results, when a search screen has not yet run a search. This happens on setups where the list is deliberately not loaded on arrival for a division (to avoid pulling a very large list every time the screen opens): type something, set a filter, or click show all.

What you can do

Things to note

• Changing anything in the criteria (text, division, a filter, a cleared badge) always takes you back to page 1; only the page controls keep your place.
• When you open a record from a search screen and come back, the results and page you were looking at are shown again without waiting for a new search. After you change something that affects the list (refund, capture or void a transaction, edit an account, take a new payment) the list is fetched afresh the next time you return, so what you see is current.
• The search screens keep your criteria, page and whether the advanced panel is open in the page address. Reloading the browser, or sharing the address with a colleague, re-runs the same search. The address is left plain while everything is still at its defaults.
• The embedded lists on the Account and Payment method screens are not kept in the address, do not have a division selector, and start with no date range, so they cover the record's whole history. They are hidden entirely when the record has six or fewer items.
• The order of the results cannot be changed from the search; each screen's page states the order it uses.
• What each screen searches, which filters it offers and what its result rows show is on that screen's page: Account search, Transaction search and Contract search.

Comments

The comments section is the running conversation your team keeps against a record: what a customer asked for, what was agreed on a call, why something was changed, and any documents that back it up. It answers the question "what have my colleagues already said about this, and when?" so the next person to open the record does not have to ask.

Where it appears

On the Account, Contract, Transaction and Payment method screens, and on the terminal batch screens. It is only shown when comments are enabled for your organisation.

What it shows

The section is a collapsible card headed Comments. Its header is visible even when the card is closed:

• A counter with the number of comments on this record. It is greyed out when there are none.
• How long ago the most recent comment was added ("2 days ago"). Blank when there are no comments.

Open the card to see the comments themselves, oldest first, each with:

Below the last comment is the add comment box for writing a new one.

On the Contract screen, when Show full contract chain is switched on for a contract that has been amended, the section changes shape: comments are grouped by contract version, oldest version first. Each group is headed by that version's amount and frequency (with the number of instalments where there is one) and its contract reference. The version you are on is marked VIEWING; every other reference is a link that opens that version. The counter in the header then counts comments across all versions, and No Results is shown if none of the versions has a comment.

What you can do

Things to note

• Only the author of a comment can edit or delete it; on other people's comments the author name is plain text and no menu is offered.
• On the Contract screen, editing and deleting your own comments also depends on your contract permissions. Users without them can still read and add comments.
• On the terminal batch screens, comments can only be added, edited or deleted while the batch is still open.
• A comment and its attachments together cannot exceed 1 MB. If your files go over, the message Sorry! Your comment including all attachments cannot exceed 1mb appears and Save is disabled until you remove some.
• If a save does not go through, Failed saving comment. is shown under the box and your text and files stay there for you to try again.
• While you are editing a comment, the add comment box is hidden until you save or cancel.
• In the full-chain view on a contract, new comments can only be added to the version you are viewing; to comment on an earlier version, open it first.
• Comments are not part of the audit history. What changed on the record, and who changed it, is in the Audit section on the same screen.

Audit history

The Audit section is the record of what has happened to a record over its life: every time it was created, changed or moved to a new status, when that happened, and who did it. It answers the question "what happened to this account, contract, transaction or charge, and who did it" — and, for a change, "what exactly was different afterwards". Nothing in it can be edited; it is the platform's own account of events, kept whether the change was made by one of your staff, by the customer, by a gateway, or by the platform itself.

Where it appears

At the foot of the Account, Contract, Transaction, Charge and Payment method screens. On a contract it is shown only for a recurring or scheduled contract, and a charge shows it only when it belongs to such a contract; a single-use payment method has no audit section.

What it shows

The section is a collapsible card. Its header is visible even when it is closed:

Open the card and the entries are listed oldest first, so reading down the list follows the record's life from creation to now. Each entry is one line:

Reading a change entry. Press view on an entry with a changes badge and the panel shows the record as it stood after that event, compared line by line with how it stood before:

• A line in green with a + is a value that was added or is the new value of a changed field.
• A line in red with a - is a value that was removed or is the old value of a changed field.
• A plain line is unchanged.

So a changed amount appears as a red line carrying the old amount directly above a green line carrying the new one. The comparison is always against the last entry that recorded the record's full state; status updates in between are skipped, so a change is never blamed on an event that did not make it. The first entry in a record's life has nothing to compare with, so its whole detail is shown in green.

Press view on an entry without a changes badge and the panel shows whatever detail that event carried — for a status update, the status it reported and any reason that came with it — with no comparison.

Long histories. Up to ten entries are shown in full. When a record has more, you see its very first entry, then a marker reading N entries omitted, then the ten most recent. The oldest entry is always kept in view so you can see how and when the record started.

Amended contracts. A contract whose money terms have been amended is one of a chain of versions, and by default each version carries only its own history. Switch on Show full contract chain below (in the statement section of the Contract screen) and the audit section changes to show every version, oldest first. Each version is headed by its amount and frequency (or number of instalments) and its reference; the version you are viewing is marked VIEWING, and the others are links. Its counter then shows the total across all versions, and the ten-entry limit does not apply — every entry of every version is listed.

What you can do

Things to note

• Nothing here can be changed or deleted. To add your own note to a record, use the comments section beside it.
• The section refreshes itself when something happens to the record while you have the screen open, so an action you take elsewhere on the screen appears here without reloading.
• When a record has between eleven and fifteen entries, all of them are loaded straight away and no marker is shown.
• In a long history the entry immediately below the entries omitted marker is not compared with anything, because the entry before it is not on screen: it shows its full detail and no changes badge. Once every entry has been loaded, the same applies to the second entry, which is shown in full rather than compared with the first.
• A very large entry is shown in full without the red and green highlighting.
• The changes badge counts fields, while the panel shows lines, so a single changed field can account for more than one highlighted line.
• The times shown are in your local time; the hover shows UTC alongside for anyone reconciling against gateway or bank records.
• On a batch the history is shown differently: as a simple list, ten to a page, with page controls when there are more, and a Metadata panel under each entry listing what it recorded. The header shows how many entries are on the page and the date of the latest one.