Feature of the Month: Reconcile Accounts with MeS Reports

Reconciling credit card totals can be a challenge for compliance and treasury staff on political campaigns. Crimson now offers four different credit card reconciliation reports to make the process easier.

All four reports reconcile transaction information from Merchant e-Solutions (MeS) reports with data from Crimson. These MeS reports were previously only available online through the MeS website but can now be directly accessed through Crimson. Crimson developers also customized the reports to make it easier to find transactions and donor details.

Here’s how to access and run the new MeS reports in Crimson:

1. From your Crimson account, click on the Compliance menu on the left and select CC Reconciliation.

Note: If you are processing credit cards through Crimson and do not see this option, please contact the Crimson Support Team.

A new screen will open with a filter to help you run the right report.

3. Enter the following information to be able to run an MeS Credit Card Reconciliation Report:

• Select the Fund Code you want to filter with (ie. P2016, G2016, etc.).

• Select the Account Code you want to filter with.

  • If you’re not using different account codes in Crimson, select the default of “N/A – N/A”.

• Enter a Batch Date range for the credit card transactions (ie. 5/1/2016 – 5/31/2016).

• Enter the MeS ID, which is identical to the MeS Merchant #, and then the MeS Password.*

4. Once all of the search criteria has been entered, select which report you would like to generate.

Note, if you don’t know your MeS ID/MeS Merchant # and/or your MeS Password, please contact support at CrimsonSupport@cmdi.com to obtain that information.

MeS Reports Available in Crimson:

• Reconciliation Report This report compares the totals for credit card transactions for each day that falls within the selected range. The report will display the total processed for each card type according to the Crimson database compared to what is reported by MeS daily.

This report is helpful when you are having trouble reconciling deposits in transit — transactions that were processed near the end of one reporting period and/or at the beginning of another.

• MeS Batch Summary This report displays batch totals according to MeS for each credit card type. It shows total counts and amounts for each card type as well as totals for any merchant credits or refunds that were processed via MeS’ online portal.

This report does not show daily totals. Instead it displays the totals for the entire date range entered into the criteria.

• MeS Batch Detail This report displays the MeS details for all individual transactions that match the criteria you have entered in the filters. In addition to displaying the transaction details from Crimson (e.g. batch number, batch date, card type, authorization code, amount, etc.), you can also click the links under Crimson Tran# to view the corresponding Crimson money record.

• MeS Chargeback This report pulls MeS chargebacks that were submitted by donors in your Crimson database. In addition to the chargeback details normally shown through the reports on MeS’ online portal, you can:

• Click on the Crimson Tran# to see the original transaction for which the chargeback was submitted.

• Click on Crimson CB Tran# to view the chargeback adjustment record in Crimson and confirm that it was handled properly.