About PostFinance
General information about PostFinance
Computop’s Paygate supports various online transfers in different countries via the acquirer PPRO. Merchants benefit from the payment guarantee, the immediate execution by advance payment and the large reachable customer base. On the other hand, customers use the familiar environment of their online banking and thus also gain confidence in the online shop. This lowers the number of cancelled orders and increases the conversion rate.
The PostFinance-Bank’s Yellowpay online transfer operates without a transaction limit, but with a payment guarantee for the merchant and reaches more than 3.5 million potential in Switzerland.
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| Info | PostFinance is an online banking payment method in Switzerland and is the market leader in Swiss payment transactions with a market share of around 60%. With PostFinance merchants can reach over 3.5 million potential customers. |
| Type | Payments by Online Bank Transfer EN |
Further information can be found on the webpage of PostFinance (https://www.postifnance.ch/).
Process flow chart
PostFinance process flow
Paygate interface
Format Description a alphabetical as alphabetical with special characters n numeric an alphanumeric ans alphanumeric with special characters ns numeric with special characters bool boolean expression (true or false) 3 fixed length with 3 digits/characters ..3 variable length with maximum 3 digits/characters enum enumeration of allowed values dttm ISODateTime (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss) Abbreviation Description CND condition M mandatory O optional C conditional Notice: Please note that the names of parameters can be returned in upper or lower case.Definitions
Data formats
Abbreviations
Comment If a parameter is mandatory, then it must be present If a parameter is optional, then it can be present, but it is not required If a parameter is conditional, then there is a conditional rule which specifies whether it is mandatory or optional
Payment with PostFinance via Paygate form interface
To make a payment with PostFinance (E-Finance) online transfer in Switzerland, go to the following URL:
Notice: For security reasons, Paygate rejects all payment requests with formatting errors. Therefore please use the correct data type for each parameter.
The following table describes the encrypted payment request parameters:
Parameter | Format | CND | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
MerchantID | ans..30 | M | MerchantID, assigned by Computop. Additionally this parameter has to be passed in plain language too. |
TransID | ans..64 | M | Merchant transaction number, which must be unique |
RefNr | ans..40 | O | Unique reference number. Only characters a-zA-Z0-9,-_ are allowed. |
Amount | n..10 | M | Amount in the smallest currency unit (e.g. EUR Cent) Please contact the helpdesk, if you want to capture amounts < 100 (smallest currency unit). |
Currency | a3 | M | Currency, three digits DIN / ISO 4217. Only EUR and CHF permissible. |
MAC | an64 | M | Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) with SHA-256 algorithm |
OrderDesc | ans..768 | M | Description of goods and prices. Intended purpose on the statement of account |
URLSuccess | ans..256 | M | Complete URL which calls up Paygate if payment has been successful. The URL may be called up only via port 443 This URL may not contain parameters: In order to exchange values between Paygate and shop, please use the parameter UserData. |
URLFailure | ans..256 | M | Complete URL which calls up Paygate if payment has been unsuccessful. The URL may be called up only via port 443 This URL may not contain parameters: In order to exchange values between Paygate and shop, please use the parameter UserData. |
Response | a7 | O | Status response sent by Paygate to URLSuccess and URLFailure, should be encrypted. For this purpose, transmit Response=encrypt parameter. |
URLNotify | ans..256 | M | Complete URL which Paygate calls up in order to notify the shop about the payment result. The URL may be called up only via port 443 It may not contain parameters: Use the UserData parameter instead. |
UserData | ans..1024 | O | If specified at request, Paygate forwards the parameter with the payment result to the shop |
ReqID | ans..32 | O | To avoid double payments, enter an alphanumeric value which identifies your transaction and may be assigned only once. If the transaction is submitted again with the same ReqID, Paygate will not carry out the payment, but will just return the status of the original transaction. Please note that the Paygate must have a finalized transaction status for the first initial action. Submissions with identical ReqID for an open status will be processed regularly. |
SellingPoint | ans..50 | O | Selling point |
Service | ans..50 | O | products or service sold |
Channel | ans..64 | O | configuration channel of the PPRO contract (account and ContractID are stored in the system). If it exists, it may overwrite channels stored in the system |
| Language | a2 | O | 2-letter language code (e.g.. de) that should be preferred when presenting payment pages to the consumer |
AccOwner | ans..50 | M | Name of account holder |
Device | a6 | O | Device selection: if “Mobile” is submitted the mobile version of PostFinace is called instead of the desktop version |
ProductName | a..24 | O | preselection of payment type to be used - yellownet (for eFinance) - PostFinanceCard (for PostFinance card) Notice: If this parameter is not submitted, the customer can select payment type by himself later. |
Plain | ans..50 | O | A value to be set by the merchant to return some information unencrypted, e.g. the MID |
Custom | ans..1024 | O | The merchant can submit several values separated by | which are returned unencrypted and separated by &. Custom=session=123|id=456 will change in the answer to Session=123&id=456 |
Parameters for payments with PostFinance
The following table describes the result parameters that the Paygate transmits to your URLSuccess, URLFailure or URLNotify. If you have specified the Response=encrypt parameter, the following parameters are forwarded Blowfish encrypted to your system:
Parameter | Format | CND | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
MID | ans..30 | M | MerchantID, assigned by Computop |
PayID | an32 | M | ID assigned by Paygate for the payment, e.g. for referencing in batch files. |
XID | an32 | M | ID for all single transactions for one payment assigned by Paygate |
TransID | ans..64 | M | Merchant’s transaction number |
RefNr | ans..40 | O | Merchant’s unique reference number. Only characters a-zA-Z0-9,-_ are allowed. |
Status | a..30 | M | OK in the case of URLSuccess and AUTHORIZE_REQUEST or FAILED in the case of URLFailure |
Description | ans..1024 | M | Further details in the event that payment is rejected. Please do not use the Description but the Code parameter for the transaction status analysis! |
Code | n8 | M | Error code according to Paygate Response Codes (A4 Error codes) |
MAC | an64 | M | Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) with SHA-256 algorithm |
UserData | ans..1024 | O | If specified at request, Paygate forwards the parameter with the payment result to the shop |
TID | ans..40 | O | Transaction reference for PostFinance |
PaymentPurpose | ans..26 | M | Unique ID which is generated by PPRO and provided within the own settlement file of PostFinance. This ID should be used for closing out open positions. For this payment method the loop through of the own reference number (RefNr) is not possible. |
PaymentGuarantee | a..12 | C | NONE = no payment guarantee, VALIDATED= customer account valid, but no payment guarantee, FULL= payment guarantee Notice: This parameter is only returned if the Status=OK. |
ErrorText | ans..256 | C | Detailed PPRO error message. Notice: Is returned only if Status=FAILED. Use is possible only in agreement with Computop support. |
TransactionID | an..20 | O | Unique transaction number from PPRO |
Plain | ans..50 | O | A value to be set by the merchant to return some information unencrypted, e.g. the MID |
Custom | ans..1024 | O | The merchant can submit several values separated by | which are returned unencrypted and separated by &. Custom=session=123|id=456 will change in the answer to Session=123&id=456 |
Return parameters for URLSuccess, URLFailure and URLNotify with PostFinance
Credit with reference
Credits (refunds) are possible via a Server-to-Server connection. For a Credit with reference to a capture the amount of the Credit is limited to the amount of the previous capture.
To carry out a credit with a reference transaction, please use the following URL:
Notice: For security reasons, Paygate rejects all payment requests with formatting errors. Therefore please use the correct data type for each parameter.
The following table describes the encrypted payment request parameters:
Parameter | Format | CND | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
MerchantID | ans..30 | M | MerchantID, assigned by Computop. Additionally this parameter has to be passed in plain language too. |
PayID | an32 | M | ID assigned by Paygate for the payment to be credited |
TransID | ans..64 | M | ID assigned by Merchant for the payment process to be credited |
Amount | n..10 | M | Amount in the smallest currency unit (e.g. EUR Cent) Please contact the helpdesk, if you want to capture amounts < 100 (smallest currency unit). |
Currency | a..3 | M | Currency code, three digits DIN / ISO 4217 |
MAC | an64 | M | Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) with SHA-256 algorithm |
| ReqID | ans..32 | O | To avoid double payments, enter an alphanumeric value which identifies your transaction and may be assigned only once. If the transaction is submitted again with the same ReqID, Paygate will not carry out the payment, but will just return the status of the original transaction. Please note that the Paygate must have a finalized transaction status for the first initial action. Submissions with identical ReqID for an open status will be processed regularly. |
Parameters for credit payments with PostFinance via socket connection
The following table describes the Paygate response parameters:
Parameter | Format | CND | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
MID | ans..30 | M | MerchantID, assigned by Computop |
PayID | an32 | M | ID assigned by Paygate for the payment, e.g. for referencing in batch files |
XID | an32 | M | ID for all single transactions (authorisation, capture, credit note) for one payment assigned by Paygate |
TransID | ans..64 | M | Merchant’s transaction number |
Status | a..50 | M | OK or FAILED |
Description | ans..1024 | M | Further details in the event that payment is rejected. Please do not use the Description but the Code parameter for the transaction status analysis! |
Code | n8 | M | Error code according to Paygate Response Codes (A4 Error codes) |
RefNr | ans..40 | O | Merchant’s unique reference number. Only characters a-zA-Z0-9,-_ are allowed. |
ErrorText | ans..256 | C | Detailed PPRO error message. Notice: This parameter is only returned if the Status=FAILED. Use is possible only in agreement with Computop support. |
Response parameters for credit payments with PostFinance via socket connection
Batch processing via the interface
Basic information about using Batch files and about their structure can be found in the Batch Manager manual. Within batch processing not alle functions are available which are usually available for the online interface.
This section describes the parameters which must be transferred within the data set (Record) for executing a PostFinance credit and which information can be found within the response file about the payment status.
Following table gives an overview of all batch versions that are possible for a specific action and their specialities:
Action | Version | Description |
|---|---|---|
Credit | 1.0 / 2.0 | Standard version without return of parameter Code |
| 1.x / 2.x | with RefNr (valid for all versions other than 1.0) |
Description of the possible batch versions
The structure for a PostFinance credit within a Batch file to be submitted is the following:
HEAD,<MerchantID>,<Date>,<Version> PostFinance,Credit,<Amount>,<Currency>,<TransID>,(<RefNr>,)<PayID> FOOT,<CountRecords>,<SumAmount> |
Example for Master MID Funktion:
| HEAD,[Master]MerchantID,Date,2.x Type,Action,[Slave]MID,Amount,Currency,TransID,Data (depends on Action) FOOT,CountRecords,SumAmount |
The following table describes the individual fields and values used within the data set (record) in the batch file:
Parameter | Format | CND | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Type | a..11 | M | HEAD for Header, FOOT for Footer, PostFinance for PostFinance |
Action | a..20 | M | The parameter Action defines the type of transaction: Credit |
Amount | n..10 | M | Amount in the smallest currency unit (e.g. EUR Cent) Please contact the helpdesk, if you want to capture amounts < 100 (smallest currency unit). |
Currency | a3 | M | Currency code, three digits DIN / ISO 4217 |
TransID | ans..64 | M | TransactionID which should be unique for each payment |
RefNr | ans..40 | O | Unique reference number. Only characters a-zA-Z0-9,-_ are allowed. |
PayID | an32 | M | ID for this transaction given by Paygate |
Description of fields within the record for Batch files
The record area within the response file for Batch transactions looks the following way:
HEAD,<MerchantID>,<Date>,<Version> PostFinance,Credit,<Amount>,<Currency>,<TransID>,(<RefNr>,)<PayID>,<Status>,<Code> FOOT,<CountRecords>,<SumAmount> |
The following table describes the response parameters which the Batch Manager saves in the Record area for each transaction (standard parameters not explained here, such as <TransID> or <RefNR> and request parameters are returned unchanged and correspond to the call as specified before):
Parameter | Format | CND | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Action | a..20 | M | The parameter Action defines the type of transaction: |
PayID | an32 | M | ID for this transaction given by Paygate |
Status | a..50 | M | OK or FAILED |
Code | n8 | M | Error code according to Paygate Response Codes (A4 Error codes) |
Description of result parameters within the record for Batch files