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Credit Card Processing Overview #

StudioPlus has chosen to integrate the Spectra software with Merchant
Warehouse^© (in the U.S. only) and eWAY^© (in Austrialia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom) — both are industry-leading credit card processing companies. The integration
does not require any additional software. The only requirement is that
the computer you are using Spectra on has an Internet connection.

In addition to making credit card processing extremely easy, StudioPlus, Merchant Warehouse, and eWAY take much of the hassle out of the requirements necessary for your business to become PCI compliant. See the PCI compliance section below to learn more about PCI compliance and how it affects you.

You will need to contact Merchant Warehouse and eWAY to set up an account and get your unique user credentials to enter into Spectra. For more information on establishing your account, please see the links on our website at www.studioplussoftware.com/help/credit_cards.aspx.

PCI Compliance of the Data Security Standard (DSS) #

The Payment Card
Industry (PCI)
Data Security
Standard (DSS)
defines a set of requirements for the configuration, operation, and security
of payment card transactions in your business. If you allow your clients
to pay with credit cards, these standards apply to you. Failure to comply
with these standards can result in significant fines should a security
breach occur.

With Spectra 2012 the introduction of a new credit card processing routine with Merchant Warehouse opened the U.S. to easier and beneficial PCI credit card handling. Now, with eWAY integration, credit card processing can be used in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, making PCI compliance become much easier, too. Using this credit card feature allows Spectra to remove credit card processing from the PCI compliance scope. This is achieved because Spectra will never touch the credit card number and will never store any credit card numbers in its database. Using token* processing through Merchant Warehouse and eWAY this credit card routine works on single transactions as well as automatic payment plans. If you’ve been using Spectra previously, and have been storing credit cards in Spectra, then, you need to turn on this new feature and you must purge the database of all existing credit card details. Click here for more information on the new setting and purge routine. 

* An access token is a data object enclosing the secure identity information in a process so it remains secure (an encrypted block of characters surrounding the information and thereby creating a locked container, for example).