Handling the "Unspecified Payment Type" or "Unspecified" Payment Type

Introduction

There are two circumstances where you might find a payment type called "Unspecified Payment Type" or "Unspecified" in My Lists | Payment Types, on transactions, and on payment type dropdown lists:

• Case 1: "Unspecified Payment Type" means that at some point an admin saved a payment type in My Lists | Payment Types without a name (doing so is no longer possible). In most cases, that resulted in payment transactions with a blank ("no name")  payment type assigned.
• Case 2: "Unspecified" means that at some point an admin saved a gateway setup in My Lists | Gateways without a choosing a payment type (doing so is no longer possible). This meant gateway payment transactions were created without any payment type assigned.

In the second case, our data engineers first updated where possible payments missing a payment type with a payment type that could be determined by other known information. For example, if you have a gateway called "Credit Card" and you had payments processed through that gateway that had no payment type assigned, our engineers have assigned to those transactions the payment type that you currently have set in your "Credit Card" gateway. The remaining transactions were assigned "Unspecified."

This article discusses methods you can use to now update your data with the appropriate payment types. If you have any questions or concerns after reviewing this article, please reach out to Customer Support.

Getting Started

If Case 1 ("Unspecified Payment Type") applies to you, as your first step determine how many transactions, if any, are assigned the "Unspecified Payment Type" payment type (it is conceivable there may be none):

1. Go to Admin Menu > My Lists and choose Payment Types from the Administer list
2. Click on "Unspecified Payment Type" in the list
3. Review the note under the title for the number

If you see "Not used in your site," you can simply delete the payment type. And Congrats, you are done!

Otherwise, you will see a count of

• the number of transactions using the payment type
• the number of gateways using the payment type

Important: If you see a count of gateways, that means you are still automatically making new transactions with the formerly-nameless payment type. Be sure to review your My Lists | Gateways setups to make sure you are using appropriate payment types there.

To see a list of the transactions:

1. Go to Admin Menu > Transactions
2. Set the filters like this:
   
   Type = Payments Only
   Dates = a wide range (e.g. starting 1/1/1970)
   Payment Types = Unspecified Payment Type or Unspecified (as your case may be)
   
   
3. Filter

Pay particular attention to the Notes column, as a long string (e.g. #py_1I8XVlFy8kPIscdvNL0xO03K) indicates a payment over the gateway. Or, perhaps, you have notes like "PayPal Monthly."

Updating Your Data

Method 1: Merge "Unspecified Payment Type" or "Unspecified" in My Lists | Payment Types

This is the easiest and best method, especially in Case 1, if you have an existing payment type to which the involved transactions ought to be assigned. For example, the transactions are credit card payments that were somehow assigned the nameless payment type long ago. Or the transactions are checks but the manual gateway lacked the assignment of "Check" as the payment type.

If Case 2 applies to you, please note that you can only merge the entire group of involved transactions into one existing payment type. So, if your involved transactions fall into more than one type, you will have to decide whether or not to merge all transactions into the payment type that covers most of the payments or to simply keep the status quo. If you decide against merging, you can still rename the payment type to something more descriptive, as explained below. For example, maybe you had one manual gateway for Wire Transfer and another for Certified Check and both were set up and operated without a payment type for a period of time. You could rename "Unspecified" to "Wire or Certified" and cover both types.

Important: Make sure that the settings (the four checkboxes below the Name field) of the payment type that will survive the merge are consistent with the settings of "Unspecified Payment Type" or "Unspecified" (or that any differences are not of concern) as your transactions will be assigned the surviving/target payment type .

1. Go to Admin Menu > My Lists and choose Payment Types from the Administer list
2. Click on "Unspecified Payment Type" in the list
3. Click the Merge link next to the save button
   
   
   
   
4. Choose the payment type you want to use instead of "Unspecified Payment Type" or "Unspecified"
5. Click Merge Now

In this example, all transactions with "Unspecified Payment Type" will be assigned the "Credit" payment type instead.

Method 2: Rename the "Unspecified Payment Type" or "Unspecified" in My Lists

Use this method where you do not already have an existing payment type to merge this type into. For example, maybe you had a payment type called "Credit" that was accidentally saved without a name. Simply edit the name.

1. Go to Admin Menu > My Lists and choose Payment Types from the Administer list
2. Click on "Unspecified Payment Type" or "Unspecified" in the list
3. Edit the name to give the type a new and unique name
4. Review the options and make any changes as required (e.g. type is considered tax-deductible)
5. Save Changes

As noted above, this method is a good Case 2 option where the involved payments cover more than one payment type and you would prefer not merging types as a result. For example, maybe you have one manual gateway for Wire Transfer and another for Certified Check and both were set up and operated without a payment type for a period of time. You could rename "Unspecified" to "Wire or Certified."