Managing Billpay Transactions

This guide contains instructions for managing billpay transactions that have been initiated as well as how to manage billers. This guide also contains information about the External Trans API.

Along with this guide you may want to read these other guides:

• About Bill Pay — General information about bill pay at Galileo
• Creating a Billpay Transaction — Instructions for creating billpay transactions, including adding billers and creating scheduled transactions

Displaying billpay transactions

• Call Get Scheduled Bill Payments to retrieve transactions with process dates that are equal to or later than the current date.
• Call Get Bill Payment History to retrieve all billpay transactions between the start and end dates, both past and future.
• Call any transaction-retrieval endpoint that returns posted transactions to display billpay transactions in a full transaction list:
  • Get Account Overview
  • Get Transaction History
  • Get All Transaction History

Canceling billpay transactions

To cancel a billpay transaction, follow one of these procedures:

• Cancel an electronic transaction
• Cancel a paper check transaction
• Cancel one scheduled billpay transaction
• Cancel a scheduled billpay series

Cancel an electronic transaction

You can cancel an electronic transaction using the Program API or CST when it is in status: N (not processed).

1. Call Get Bill Payment History. The endpoint returns a billpay_transaction_id under bill_payments.
2. Call Cancel Bill Payment and populate the billpayTransactionId with the ID that you retrieved in the previous step.

If the transaction can be canceled, the endpoint returns success.
If the transaction cannot be canceled, the endpoint returns status_code: 435-02.

Cancel a paper check transaction

You can cancel a paper check transaction using the Program API or CST when it is in status: N (not processed), status: W (waiting to be processed) or status: P (processed). In status: Q (printed) you might be able to cancel it through the CST. (Sometimes, it's too late to cancel a check after it's been printed.) You can also cancel paper transactions that are scheduled for the future.

1. The account holder launches a "cancel transaction" control on your interface for a paper biller.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Recommended. Check the status of the payment first. Call Get Bill Payment History and get the status on the transaction:
     • N, W or P — The transaction can be canceled with the CST or the Program API. Call Cancel Bill Payment.
     • Q — The transaction must be cancelled in the CST.
     • Other — The transaction cannot be canceled.
   • Call Cancel Bill Payment.
     • If the transaction can be canceled, the endpoint returns success.
     • If the transaction cannot be canceled, the endpoint returns status_code: 435-02. The endpoint does not return the status, so if the transaction is in status: Q, when it can be cancelled in the CST, you will not know.
3. The transaction is changed to status: K (check cancellation requested) and the current datetime is set as the return date.
4. Galileo confirms with the bank that the check has been cancelled. This process takes approximately two days.
5. If the amount had already been adjusted out of the account, Galileo returns the amount to the account, sends the BADJ: adj event message, and includes the adjustment in the Posted Transactions RDF.
6. If the CHC (check cancellation) fee has been set up, Galileo assesses the fee, sends the BFEE: fee event message, and includes the fee in the Posted Transactions RDF.
7. The transaction is changed to status: X.

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Note

When you cancel a billpay check in the CST, Galileo sends the BPCL: billpay_cancelled event message. This message is not sent when using Cancel Bill Payment.

Cancel a future billpay transaction

To cancel a non-recurring payment that is scheduled for the future, follow these steps:

1. Call Get Scheduled Bill Payments. The endpoint returns a billpay_transaction_id under future_scheduled_payments.
2. Call Cancel Bill Payment and populate billpayTransactionId with the ID that you retrieved in the previous step.

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Note

You cannot cancel one particular payment of a recurring payment series, because its billpay_transaction_id is not created until the day the payment is scheduled to take place.

Cancel a scheduled billpay series

If an account holder has set up recurring billpay transactions and wants to cancel the whole series, follow these steps:

1. Call Get Billers to retrieve the biller_id and type:
   • type: E — Call Modify RPPS Biller.
   • type: P — Call Modify Paper Biller.
2. Do one of these things:
   • Set the endDate to today's date.
   • Pass Null for these parameters: frequencyType, nextDate, endDate.

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Note

You cannot cancel future or scheduled transactions by removing the biller.

Deleting a biller

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Note

When you delete a biller, any scheduled or future transactions for that biller are not deleted. If you also want to deactivate the scheduled transactions, first follow the procedure in Cancel a scheduled billpay series and then afterwards remove the biller using the steps below. You might also need to manually delete any future non-recurring transactions.

To remove a biller, follow these steps:

1. Call Get Billers to retrieve the biller_id of the biller to delete.
2. Call Remove Biller and populate billerId with the ID you retrieved in the previous step.

Closing an account with billpay

If there are pending payments for a closed account, follow the steps in Cancel a scheduled billpay series to cancel the remaining transactions. As necessary, follow the steps in Cancel a future billpay transaction to cancel non-recurring transactions.

If you do not cancel the remaining transactions, on the day the next transaction is scheduled, Galileo checks for an active account, and because the account is closed, the process stops, and Galileo sends BSPF: sched_billpay_fail.

Fees

You can configure these fees for your product, as desired:

The fee is assessed at the time that the billpay amount is adjusted out of the account. If there are insufficient funds for the billpay amount plus the fee, Galileo denies the transaction.

However, you can choose to defer the fee if there are insufficient funds for it by setting the BPPPF parameter. With that parameter set, the transaction is approved if there are sufficient funds for the billpay amount but not the fee. The fee remains in a pending state until sufficient funds are deposited in the account, at which time the fee is assessed.

In the Posted Transactions RDF, the fee is a separate transaction from the billpay adjustment, with the transaction code as shown in the table above.

See About Fees for additional information about fees for Billpay. See Processing fees for the workflow.

External Trans API

If you are the system of record for your accounts, you can implement the Billpay Webhook of the External Trans API. Galileo sends you a webhook message for each scheduled billpay transaction before it is adjusted out of the account, which you approve or deny for insufficient funds. Set the BPOTB parameter so that Galileo does not check for limit violations or for sufficient funds before sending you the webhook message.

When using the Billpay Webhook, you can also determine whether transactions that you approve can drive the account negative, by setting the AAIGB parameter.

If you are the system of record for your program, perform your own balance check before calling the Create Bill Payment endpoint.

External Trans API workflow

This flowchart shows the verifications that a transaction must pass ("happy path") before it is sent via the Billpay Webhook for your approval. To see a complete picture of the billpay checks and their error messages, refer to the Scheduled transaction workflow in Creating a Billpay Transaction.

1. The transaction is created by the scheduler, and Galileo runs through the same series of checks as in the Scheduled transaction workflow.
2. Galileo creates the transaction in status: N and sends the BPCQ: billpay_request_made event message.
3. Galileo sends you a billpay webhook message for the transaction.
4. You check the account balance and send back a response code:
   • 99 (error; retry) or no response — If retry is set up for your program, Galileo sends the BPAR: billpay_retry event message, waits for a configured interval, and then resends the webhook message.
   • 01 (insufficient funds) or 98 (error; no retry) — Transaction is changed to status: E and Galileo sends the BRRJ: billpay_rejected event message for electronic transactions only.
   • 00 — The adjustment is posted to the account. Galileo sends the BPAY: billpay event message.
5. The billpay process checks for a fee.
   • If there is a fee, the Processing fees process is followed.
   • If there is no fee, the process continues.
6. Galileo changes the transaction to one of these statuses:
   • status: O — Electronic transaction. See Processing an electronic transaction for next steps.
   • status: W — Paper check transaction. See Processing a paper billpay transaction for next steps.

Billpay transaction codes

These are some of the transaction codes that are associated with bill pay. To see exactly which transaction codes your program uses, consult the Funds Flow document that you received from Galileo.

Events API

Arrange with Galileo to have some or all of these events sent to you to alert you of billpay-related events in real time.

Galileo setup

Galileo will configure these product parameters according to your use case.