WooCommerce Activation and Configuration

WooCommerce is a flexible, open-source e-commerce platform that is built on WordPress (a website builder). WooCommerce is a plugin or extension for WordPress, transforming a WordPress website into an e-commerce store. The Bank of America Extension is used to connect a Merchant Services account, provided by Bank of America, to WooCommerce sites.

WooCommerce's integration with the extension leverages Bank of America's Microform Integration and Card Not Present Integration Toolkit integration methods to help meet the Self-Assessment Questionnaire A (SAQ A) Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance level.

Requirements

In addition to a Merchant Services account with Bank of America, the following are required to activate the solution.

Download and install the Bank of America Extension

Follow the steps below to download and install the Bank of America Extension.

1. Access the WooCommerce Marketplace.  
2. Type "Bank of America" in the search bar. 
3. Select the Bank of America tile. 
4. Select Add to store. 
5. Proceed to checkout and complete order. 
6. On the Order Confirmation page, select Add to Site. 
7. Authorize connection to connect the web store to your WooCommerce account. If you encounter a "We couldn't connect to your site" error then the extension will need to be downloaded and installed manually.

   Manually install and download the Bank of America Extension

   1. Log in to your WordPress admin account. 
   2. Select WooCommerce > Downloads and find the Bank of America product.
   3. Select Download and save the zip file. 
   4. Go to the WordPress admin dashboard and select Plugins.
   5. Select Add New.
   6. Select Upload.
   7. Select Choose File and select the saved zip file or drag and drop the file.
   8. Select Install Now > Activate.
   9. "Bank of America for WooCommerce" will display in the list of installed plugins.
   10. Once connected, the Bank of America Extension will appear as "Bank of America Payments - Credit Card" in the WordPress admin dashboard > WooCommerce > Settings > Payments.

Configure the extension settings

Set up your payment settings in WooCommerce. You can set them up for the production environment or, optionally, for testing in a test environment first. 

IMPORTANT!
If you choose to do testing in the test environment, you will need to configure the payment settings a second time, when you are ready to switch to the production environment. 

To generate security keys and configure payment settings

1. Generate security keys for the production (live) environment or test environment.
   
   
2. Configure WooCommerce payment settings. 

   To configure WooCommerce settings

   
   

   1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
   2. In the left navigation, select WooCommerce > Settings > Payments > Bank of America Payments - Credit Card.
   3. Choose an environment option depending on whether you are configuring settings for the production server or for testing on the test server.
       

      

      
      
   4. Copy and paste your Merchant ID, and security key details, generated above, to WooCommerce.
       

      

      table of key fields in Bank of America and WooCommerce accounts 

      Bank of America key fields	WooCommerce key fields
      Merchant ID	Merchant ID
      Key	API Key Detail
      Shared Secret	API Shared Secret Key

      
      
   5. Configure additional settings. 

      Table of Bank of America Extension settings and description of each setting

      Setting	Description
      Enable/Disable	• Enable: The Enable this gateway checkbox must be checked to use the Bank of America Extension. • Disable: The Enable this gateway checkbox must be unchecked to discontinue using the Bank of America Extension. Once disabled, payments will not be processed through Bank of America.
      Title	Text shown for the payment during checkout and on the Order Received page.
      Description	Text shown under the gateway's title during checkout. Limited HTML is allowed. If you have the Environment setting enabled for Test mode, this section will also display a notice along with test credit card numbers.
      Card Verification (CSC)	Display the card security/verification field at checkout.
      Saved Card Verification	Display the card security/verification code field when using a saved card at checkout.
      Transaction Type	Controls how transactions are submitted to Bank of America. The default setting is Charge and is used to automatically capture payments.  If you select Authorization, you must manually capture and settle payments in your Bank of America account or on the WooCommerce orders screen after the transaction has been submitted.  If Transaction Type is set to Authorization: • Charge Virtual-Only Orders: Enable to automatically capture charges for orders with only virtual products. For downloadable products, this will grant downloads access right away. • Capture Paid Orders: Enable to automatically capture charges when orders move to a paid status. Void handling: • Charge: You can void when the transaction has not yet been settled, e.g., funds haven't been transferred from the customer's account to your Bank of America account. • Authorization: You can void when the transaction has been authorized but not yet captured. • Bank of America does not accept partial voids. If a transaction is no longer eligible to be voided, you must refund the order.
      Accepted Card Logos	Determines which card logos are displayed during checkout. This has no impact on which cards are accepted with your Merchant Services account.
      Tokenization	Allows customers to save their payment methods for future use at checkout.  NOTE: This is required for subscriptions or pre-orders.
      Detailed Decline Message	Display detailed messages to customers to provide reasoning for declines instead of a generic error message when possible.
      Debug Mode	When enabled, you can choose to log API requests directly on the checkout page, save them to the WooCommerce > Status > Logs page, or both.
      Fraud Management	Used to help reduce your fraudulent transaction rate. This service must be enabled on your Merchant Services account through Bank of America.  If you wish to add Fraud Management services to your account, please reach out to your Merchant Services representative or call 855.225.9300. Once enabled, transactions flowing through your Merchant Services account will approve, hold or reject orders based on your fraud settings. • Approved orders: go directly to Processing status. • Held orders: go to On Hold status until it has been reviewed or rejected in your Bank of America dashboard. An order is held if it is assigned a Review outcome by your rules risk profile or hits a Review List match in Fraud Management. Transactions that are held for review are automatically rejected by the system after 30 days if not approved or rejected by a reviewer prior. • Rejected orders: go to Failed status, with more details available in the order notes. An order is rejected if it is assigned a Reject outcome by your rules risk profile or hits a Reject List match in Fraud Management. NOTE: If your Transaction Type is set to “Authorize”, then your approved orders (whether approved directly or approved after review in Fraud Management) will go to On Hold status until you manually capture them in WooCommerce.

   6. Click Save Changes. 

3. Run a test transaction using test credit card numbers.
   

   IMPORTANT! To test transactions using the Bank of America Gateway, without downtime to your live web store using another payment gateway, you can set up a test version of your WooCommerce web store. Learn more at https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-staging-environment-for-a-wordpress-site/.

4. If you tested in the test environment, after successful testing, repeat the steps above to configure payment settings for the production environment.

To disable the Bank of America Extension

Resources

• https://woocommerce.com
• Bank of America Documentation on WooCommerce
• WooCommerce Self-Service Troubleshooting Guide
• WooCommerce Frequently Asked Questions