Closing A Batch

Closing a batch is a required part of credit card processing. Merchants will not be funded for the transactions they have processed until the batch is closed and this finalized form of data is transmitted to VISA/MasterCard/etc.

Processors typically have multiple “cutoff” times per day they submit files to VISA/MasterCard. See your merchant representative for exact times and implications. You may need to insure you’ve closed the batch before one of these cutoff times so that the merchant funding not unexpectedly delayed.

SLIM CD offers automatic batch closing, provides developers with a simple one-line command to close the batch or provides a CloseBatch menu item in the SLIMCD.COM user interface.

If you are using automatic scheduling, you should schedule your batch close time on SLIMCD.COM so that you’ve left enough time that your transactions get included with whatever processor target time you hope to achieve. For example, if you wanted to hit a 2AM file transfer, you should close out at 1AM on SLIM CD’s side so that we schedule your batch to close with all the others at 1AM. It may close at 1:05 or 1:35, depending on how many other batches SLIM CD is closing at the same time. Leave yourself some “wiggle room”.

If you prefer more exact control over batch closing times, then we recommend that the merchant or developer close the batch themselves with the CLOSE BATCH menu or the simple one-line CLOSEBATCH command to SLIM CD.

BEST PRACTICE: To insure the most reliable funding stream, SLIM CD recommends using your own batch closing scheduling and setting the SLIM CD batch closing to run as a “backup” in case your scheduler fails. For example, create your own scheduler to close batches at 1AM. Then set SLIM CD’s automatic batch close to run at 2AM. In the event your batch does not close, the SLIM CD system will close the batch for you. In the event an error is detected by your attempt to close the batch, you can notify the merchant that the batch did not close properly and funding may not occur as expected.