Setting Up Commodity Codes for Electronic Payments

Overview

Add the commodity codes your business uses so Aspire can send them to Fiserv with your electronic card payments. Once your codes are in place, Aspire assigns one to each invoice automatically, and you can change the assigned code before you submit a payment.

Things to know

Choose the code system that fits your business. The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC) is a common choice, but you can use whichever system best matches how you categorize your services.
Aspire doesn't create codes for you, and it doesn't verify them against a published code set. Enter values that accurately describe the work your business does. Your payment processor audits the data Aspire sends, so codes need to be real, verifiable values that correspond to goods or services you actually provide.
Code accepts from three through 25 characters and needs at least one letter or number. Description accepts up to 120 characters.
Each code value can appear once in your Aspire account. Aspire also rejects values that don't describe real work, including placeholder entries such as "test," "temp," "TBD," "n/a," "none," "sample," and "demo," along with values too short or repetitive to be meaningful.
Start with a small set of codes that covers the services you invoice most. You can add more at any time.

Requirements

Access to the Lists screen in the Administration module. No additional permission governs the Commodity Codes list.
Electronic payments configured to process card payments through Fiserv.

Steps

Add a commodity code

Follow these steps to add a commodity code to your Aspire account.

Go to Administration > Application > Lists.
Select Commodity Codes.
Select New.
In the Code field, enter the code value.
In the Description field, enter a short description of the work the code covers. For example, enter "Grounds maintenance services".
Select Save.

Repeat for each code your business uses. New codes are active as soon as you save them.

Edit, deactivate, or delete a commodity code

Follow these steps to change a code you've already added.

Go to Administration > Application > Lists, then select Commodity Codes.
Select the code you want to change.
Update Code or Description, or clear the Active checkbox to stop using the code.
Select Save.

An inactive code stays on the list but isn't assigned to new payments and doesn't appear in the dropdown on the Electronic Payment screen. To delete a code outright, select Delete from the code's detail screen and confirm.

Caution: Deleting a commodity code cannot be undone. To stop using a code and keep it on the list, make it Inactive instead.

Change the assigned code on a payment

Aspire assigns a code to each invoice when you process a payment. Follow these steps if you want to send a different one.

Process an electronic payment as described in Process and Manage Electronic Payments.
Find the Commodity Code column for the invoice you want to change. The column shows the description of the assigned code, not the code value.
Select a different code from the dropdown. The dropdown lists your active codes only, and there's no free-text entry.
Submit the payment.

Note: Your selection applies to this payment only. It doesn't change the Commodity Codes list or affect which code Aspire assigns next time.

Tips

Write descriptions in the same language your invoices use. Aspire matches invoice services, descriptions, and service types against your code values and descriptions, so wording that mirrors your invoices produces more accurate assignments.
Keep codes distinct. Several codes with similar descriptions make the assigned code harder to predict.
Contact Aspire Support if you'd like help choosing the codes that fit your business.

What happens next

Each time you process an electronic card payment, Aspire assigns an active code to every invoice in the payment and sends it to Fiserv. If a payment covers more than one invoice, each invoice is sent as its own line item with its own code. Codes assigned to at least one invoice show a checkmark in the In Use column on the Commodity Codes list.

Troubleshooting

Aspire won't save my code. Check that the code has at least three characters, includes at least one letter or number, and isn't already on the list. Aspire also rejects values that don't describe real work, such as placeholder entries and values too short or repetitive to be meaningful. Because your payment processor audits this data, every code needs to correspond to goods or services you actually provide.

No commodity code is showing on the payment screen. Confirm your Commodity Codes list has at least one active code. Aspire assigns a code only when an active code exists.

The column is blank on an older payment. Payments processed before commodity codes were available don't have a code, so the column displays empty and read-only.

Aspire keeps assigning a code I wouldn't have chosen. Matching compares your code values and descriptions against the services, descriptions, and service types on the invoice. Revising the description to match how the work appears on your invoices usually improves the assignment. You can also select a different code on the Electronic Payment screen before you submit.