Bureau of the Fiscal Service

1

OTCnet Printable Job Aid

Process a Card Payment – Process Payment

To capture a card payment with Process Payment, complete the following steps:

1. From the Card Processing tab, click Process Card Payment. The Card Capture – Perform 

Card Transaction page appears.

OTCnet verifies the OLB connection. Next, OTCnet validates card terminal registration, 

the “Registration found!” message appears. 

2. Under Transaction Data, enter the Amount of the card payment.

• An amount must be entered (it displays in the Amount field) or the Card Operator

receives the message, “Please enter an amount.” 

• Enter the amount using two decimal places e.g., for a $25.00 payment, enter: 

“25.00”.

• When entering an amount, only two decimal places can be entered and no alpha 

characters. 

• When entering characters in the Amount field, the only symbol accepted is a “.” 

Card Operators receive an “Invalid character entered in the transaction amount 

field” message if any other characters are entered. 

• The amount entered must be greater than $0.00 and less than $24,999.99. An 

amount must be entered, or the Card Operator receives a message to “Please enter 

an amount. Please inform the customer to try again. Then click the Process 

Payment button.” The amount displays in the Amount field (see Figure 8). Click 

Process Payment.

• When digits are entered in the Amount field that are less than 0.01, the Card 

Operator receives the message, “The transaction amount entered cannot be less 

than 0.01.”

3. Under Terminal Controls, click Process Payment as shown in Figure 1. Press Clear to 

clear the Amount field. The customer is presented with the Transaction Amount screen. The 

customer makes a card payment by inserting the card into the chip insert slot, tapping a 

contactless card on the screen, or swiping the magnetic strip of a card on the right side of 

the card terminal. The card terminal begins to process the payment.

Application Tip

Application Tips
Bureau of the Fiscal Service

2

OTCnet Printable Job Aid

Figure 1. Card Capture – Perform Card Transaction, enter Amount and Process Payment

Once you click Process Payment, Cancel Transaction is enabled, and you can cancel 

the transaction.

4. On the card terminal, the Your Total is screen appears, with the dollar amount of the 

payment. The customer presses the Pay Now button.

5. The card terminal responds: Press Enter PIN or Press Green Enter to Bypass Pin. The 

customer presses the green (O) button. The card terminal completes the payment process.

Application Tip
Bureau of the Fiscal Service

3

OTCnet Printable Job Aid

• When making a card payment using a debit card, the customer must enter the card 

pin. If the pin is not entered, you receive this message in OTCnet: “The card was 

declined. Please inform the customer to try again. Then click the 'Process Payment' 

button.”

• Dual Interface debit cards can bypass pin entry, non-dual interface debit cards 

cannot. A debit card is non-dual interface if there is no major payment network logo 

on the card (i.e., Visa or Mastercard). When a non-dual debit card is used and the 

customer chooses to bypass pin entry, the payment is declined, because a signature 

is required for these payments. Card terminals are configured not to accept 

signatures. If the card is a dual interface debit card, and the customer chooses to 

bypass pin entry, the payment will be processed as a credit. 

• On the card terminal, a number of messages may appear for the customer, 

depending on whether the customer inserts or swipes a card or taps a contactless 

card. After the customer completes the payment, OTCnet displays the “Transaction 

was processed successfully. Card invoice ID XXXXXXXXXXXX, Amount $XX.00” 

message.

• The Amount field is cleared out. Process Payment and Print Receipt are enabled. 

To print a receipt, you have 4-6 seconds to click Print Receipt. If Print Receipt is not 

clicked within the allotted time, it grays out. If a receipt is still needed, access Topic 

3: Process a Paper Receipt from the Card Terminal in this user guide.

• When the terminal is in a busy state (i.e., currently being used by another Point of 

Sale [POS]), the terminal displays this message: Card terminal is busy when the 

Card Operator clicks Process Payment. 

• Typically, the customer only waits a few seconds. When a card is declined, you 

receive the message, “The card was declined. Please inform the customer to try 

again.”

Application Tips