Patent ID: 7814013

Claim:
A system for preparing electronic payments received by a merchant for processing, the system comprising: a payment handler device located at a merchant location to generate an electronic payment transaction message for processing of an electronic payment by an electronic payment processing system, wherein the payment handler device includes: a first interface to receive transaction information related to a sale transaction between a merchant and a consumer where the consumer is paying via an electronic payment, wherein the transaction information includes a transaction price and electronic payment information for the consumer; a second interface to a communication network utilized to provide external communications; a processor; and a processor-accessible storage medium to store a unique identification for the payment handler device, a merchant profile identifying parameters related to a merchant account between the merchant and an electronic payment processor, and processor executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor causes the processor to: upon receipt of the transaction information via the first interface, retrieve the merchant profile; and upon unsuccessful retrieval of the merchant profile from the processor-accessible storage medium, generate a request for the merchant profile and transmit via the second interface the request to a configuration system, wherein the request includes the unique identification for the payment handler device; and a configuration system to track the merchant profile associated with the merchant account and to associate the unique identification for the payment handler device provided to the merchant with the merchant account, wherein the configuration system includes: an interface to a communication network utilized to provide external communications; and a computer-accessible storage medium to track merchant accounts and to store for each merchant account the associated merchant profile and the unique identification for the payment handler device assigned thereto, and computer executable instructions, which, when executed by a computer causes the computer to: upon receipt via the interface of the request for the merchant profile from the payment handler device, determine if the unique identification included in the request is associated with a merchant account; and upon determination the unique identification is associated with a merchant account, retrieve the associated merchant profile and transmit via the interface the associated merchant profile to the payment handler device.