In an event-driven payments configuration, deposits can be configured to occur in a cumulative or noncumulative way:
- In WebSphere Commerce, a cumulative deposit is a deposit that is made only when all the money is available to deposit. For example, if a payment is approved for $100 (U.S. dollars) for a sweater and a shirt, and funds are available for capture at $60 (sweater) in one release and $40 (shirt) in a later release, the individual deposits for $60 and $40 do not occur individually. Rather, the system "waits" until all $100 is available for deposit. A cumulative deposit captures funds as late as possible. Merchants pay lower processing fees for this type of deposit because it minimizes the amount of processing activity that occurs with a back-end financial system. Cumulative deposits are commonly associated with the sale of inexpensive order items, where merchants have high tolerance of risk should payments not occur.
- A noncumulative deposit is a deposit that captures funds as soon as possible. Deposits take place as they occur even if only a portion of the total amount is available for capture. When more than one release is involved, the amounts are deposited as they occur and are not accumulated to be deposited at once. Merchants usually pay additional fees for processing noncumulative deposits because there is a greater amount of deposit processing activity occurring with the back-end financial system. Noncumulative deposits are often associated with the sale of expensive order items, where merchants might have a low tolerance of risk should payments not occur.
The type of deposit to perform, cumulative or noncumulative, is configured in the CorePaymentActions XML file. (For instructions on how to configure the type of deposit, refer to that file description.) Unless you are writing or adding a new payment plug-in or modifying the event-driven payment rules established by default in WebSphere Commerce, you should not have a need to change the deposit configuration.
By default, the type of deposit configured in the CorePaymentActions.xml file is cumulative.