--- title: "Offline Payments" description: "A non-technical overview of Offline Payments in RevCent, focused on how alternate payment records represent sales and payments completed outside RevCent's direct credit-card gateway flow, including manual or non-transactional sales, third-party shop payments, and supported providers such as Sezzle, Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay, and Amazon Pay." type: "item" company: "RevCent" canonical: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/ecosystem/item/OfflinePayment.md" relationships: - name: "Sale" url: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/ecosystem/item/Sale.md" - name: "Product Sale" url: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/ecosystem/item/ProductSale.md" technical_links: web_app: "https://kb.revcent.com/en/payments/offline" api: section: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#section-offline_payments" operations: - name: "Get Offline Payments" operation_id: "GetOfflinePayments" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-GetOfflinePayments" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/GetOfflinePayments.json" - name: "Get An Offline Payment" operation_id: "GetOfflinePayment" operation: "https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#operation-GetOfflinePayment" schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/api/operation/GetOfflinePayment.json" mcp: overview: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/OverviewOfflinePayment.md" operations: - name: "Get Offline Payments" operation_id: "GetOfflinePayments" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/GetOfflinePayments.md" available_via_ai: true - name: "Get An Offline Payment" operation_id: "GetOfflinePayment" markdown: "https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/GetOfflinePayment.md" available_via_ai: true bigquery_schema: "https://revcent.com/documentation/files/bigquery/dataset.json" bigquery_tables: - "offline_payment" --- # Offline Payments Offline Payments are RevCent items that represent payments or sale activity completed outside RevCent's normal credit-card gateway transaction flow. Offline Payments are also commonly understood as alternate payments. They can represent manual or non-transactional sales, as well as payment activity from supported third-party payment processors such as Sezzle, Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay, and Amazon Pay. An Offline Payment is not a payment gateway configuration. It is an item-level payment record associated with a sale, customer, campaign, third-party shop, metadata, and related commerce records. Conceptually: ```text Customer pays or receives a sale through an external, manual, alternate, or non-card path ↓ RevCent records the payment as an Offline Payment ↓ The Offline Payment is connected to the related Sale and customer context ↓ The business can view, retrieve, refund when supported, reconcile, and report on the payment ``` --- ## Why Offline Payments Are an Item Offline Payments are an item because each Offline Payment is a specific record of a payment or sale-related event. A user does not configure a reusable Offline Payment and apply it everywhere. Instead, each Offline Payment represents one actual alternate payment record tied to a customer and sale context. This distinction matters in the RevCent ecosystem: ```text Third-party integration = configured provider connection Sale = purchase/order record Offline Payment = specific alternate/manual/external payment record ``` A business may configure a small number of alternate payment providers, but it may create many Offline Payment records over time as customers pay through those providers or as sales are created without direct RevCent card processing. --- ## Technical Links | Area | Link | |---|---| | Web App | `https://kb.revcent.com/en/payments/offline` | | API | `https://revcent.com/docs/api/v2#section-offline_payments` | | MCP / AI | `https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/mcp/operation/OverviewOfflinePayment.md` | | BigQuery Schema | `https://revcent.com/documentation/files/bigquery/dataset.json` | | BigQuery Tables | `offline_payment` | --- ## Core Purpose The core purpose of an Offline Payment is to preserve payment visibility when money or sale activity does not pass through RevCent's standard credit-card gateway transaction flow. Offline Payments help answer questions such as: ```text Was this sale paid outside a RevCent credit-card gateway? Was this a manual or non-transactional sale? Was the payment associated with a third-party provider? Which provider was used? Which Sale and customer are connected? Which campaign or shop generated the order? Can the payment be refunded through RevCent? What metadata or external reference identifies the payment? How much alternate-payment revenue came from this provider, shop, or campaign? ``` Without Offline Payments, a business may lose RevCent visibility into non-card and external payment activity. With Offline Payments, those payments can still belong to customer history, sale history, support workflows, fulfillment, reconciliation, and reporting. --- ## Offline Payments vs Credit Card Transactions Offline Payments are different from credit-card Transactions. | Concept | Meaning | |---|---| | Credit card Transaction | A card payment attempt processed through a RevCent Gateway. | | Offline Payment | A payment or sale-related record completed through an external, manual, alternate, or non-card path. | Examples of credit-card Transactions: ```text Visa payment through Authorize.net Mastercard payment through NMI Subscription renewal charged through a credit-card gateway Trial expiration billed to a stored card ``` Examples of Offline Payments: ```text Sezzle payment Affirm payment Klarna payment Afterpay payment Amazon Pay payment Manual external payment Third-party shop payment method Non-transactional replacement sale Product giveaway sale without a RevCent-processed payment ``` Both record revenue-related activity, but they represent different payment paths. --- ## Manual or Non-Transactional Offline Payments Offline Payments can represent sales that do not have an actual RevCent-processed payment transaction. The Knowledge Base describes this as a way to create sales without charging the customer through RevCent. Common examples include: ```text Replacement order for a damaged product Product giveaway to avoid a refund Manual payment recorded outside RevCent Cash-like sale record Operational sale record created without processing a card External payment already collected elsewhere ``` By default, an Offline Payment sale behaves like a cash-style record. It preserves the sale/payment context in RevCent, but it does not automatically mean RevCent can modify or refund the external payment source. This makes manual Offline Payments useful for operational history, customer service, product fulfillment, and internal revenue tracking when the payment itself is not processed through RevCent. --- ## Third-Party Alternate Payments Offline Payments can also represent third-party or alternate payment methods. This is especially important for ecommerce businesses that accept Buy Now Pay Later or external checkout providers. Supported examples include: | Provider | Common Use | API Identifier | |---|---|---| | Affirm | Buy Now Pay Later / financing-style checkout. | `affirmpay` | | Afterpay | Installment-style alternate checkout. | `afterpay` | | Amazon Pay | Amazon Pay alternate checkout. | `amazonpay` | | Klarna | Buy Now Pay Later and installment checkout. | `klarna` | | Sezzle | Buy Now Pay Later checkout. | `sezzlepay` | These providers are not processed as standard RevCent credit-card gateway Transactions. Their corresponding RevCent records are Offline Payments. When a supported third-party provider is linked through a RevCent third-party integration, RevCent can associate the Offline Payment with that configured provider account. --- ## Third-Party Integration Context An Offline Payment from a supported third-party provider may include third-party integration context. Conceptually: ```text Site third-party integration = RevCent-supported provider type User third-party integration = the user's configured provider account and credentials Offline Payment = payment record associated with that configured provider ``` For example: ```text Provider: Sezzle User integration: My Sezzle Integration Payment record: Offline Payment created from a Sezzle-paid sale ``` The Offline Payment can then show that it came from the configured provider, rather than being only a generic manual payment. This matters because connected provider accounts can allow RevCent to retrieve provider-specific payment details and, for supported providers, handle refunds from within RevCent. --- ## Refunds for Supported Third-Party Offline Payments Manual Offline Payments and connected third-party Offline Payments behave differently. A basic manual Offline Payment records that a payment or sale occurred outside normal card processing. RevCent may not be able to modify or refund the external source because there may be no connected provider account. A supported third-party Offline Payment can be more powerful. If the provider account is linked in RevCent, RevCent can use that integration to retrieve payment details and support refunding the payment from RevCent for supported providers. Conceptually: ```text Customer pays through Klarna, Sezzle, Affirm, Afterpay, or Amazon Pay ↓ RevCent records the payment as an Offline Payment ↓ The Offline Payment is linked to the configured third-party integration ↓ Support or automation can review the payment in RevCent ↓ A supported refund can be initiated through RevCent instead of the provider dashboard ``` This gives ecommerce teams a more centralized workflow for alternate payment methods. --- ## Relationship to Sales Offline Payments are closely connected to Sales. A Sale represents the purchase/order. The Offline Payment represents the alternate, manual, external, or non-card payment record associated with that Sale. Conceptually: ```text Sale = what the customer bought or what order was created Offline Payment = how the payment was represented when it was not a RevCent card transaction ``` An Offline Payment can help explain why a Sale exists without a normal credit-card Transaction. Examples: ```text Sale created for a replacement item ↓ Offline Payment records the non-transactional payment path Sale imported from WooCommerce and paid with Sezzle ↓ Offline Payment records the Sezzle payment context Sale created through API with payment_type = offline_payment ↓ Offline Payment records the alternate payment method ``` --- ## Relationship to Customers Offline Payments preserve customer purchase and payment context even when the payment did not run through a RevCent credit-card gateway. This matters because customers who pay with Sezzle, Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay, Amazon Pay, or a manual payment method should still appear in RevCent customer history. Customer support teams can use Offline Payment records to understand: ```text Who paid? Which alternate provider was used? Which Sale was involved? Which shop or campaign generated the payment? Was the payment manual, external, or third-party supported? Was there an external transaction ID? Can the payment be refunded in RevCent? ``` This helps support agents answer customer questions about orders paid through alternate methods. --- ## Relationship to Third-Party Shops Offline Payments can be created from third-party shop orders. For example, a WooCommerce shop may use a payment method such as Sezzle, Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, or Amazon Pay. Because the payment is completed outside the RevCent credit-card gateway flow, RevCent records the payment as an Offline Payment while still preserving the sale, customer, product, shipping, and campaign context. For third-party shops, RevCent can import additional payment methods and allow the user to associate a shop payment method with a configured RevCent third-party integration. Conceptual shop flow: ```text WooCommerce or third-party shop has alternate payment methods ↓ RevCent imports additional shop payment methods ↓ User links a shop payment method to a configured third-party integration ↓ Orders paid with that method become Offline Payments with provider context in RevCent ``` This keeps shop-originated alternate payments visible inside RevCent. --- ## API Metadata for Third-Party Offline Payments When creating a sale through the API using `payment_type = offline_payment`, RevCent can link the Offline Payment to a third-party provider when the required metadata values are included. The key metadata entries are: | Metadata Name | Purpose | |---|---| | `offline_payment_third_party_integration_id` | The RevCent ID of the configured user third-party integration. | | `offline_payment_third_party_transaction_id` | The external transaction or order ID provided by the third-party payment provider. | | `offline_payment_third_party` | The provider API identifier, such as `sezzlepay`, `klarna`, `affirmpay`, `afterpay`, or `amazonpay`. | Conceptual API sale request: ```json { "request": { "type": "sale", "method": "create", "payment": { "payment_type": "offline_payment" }, "metadata": [ { "name": "offline_payment_third_party_integration_id", "value": "REVCENT_THIRD_PARTY_INTEGRATION_ID" }, { "name": "offline_payment_third_party_transaction_id", "value": "12345678" }, { "name": "offline_payment_third_party", "value": "sezzlepay" } ] } } ``` This metadata lets RevCent detect the third-party payment context and make the appropriate association. --- ## Common Offline Payment Fields Offline Payment detail and list responses expose business context such as: | Field or Area | Meaning | |---|---| | `id` | Offline Payment ID. | | `amount` | Offline Payment amount. | | `status` | Current Offline Payment status. | | `created_date_unix` | When the Offline Payment record was created. | | `updated_date_unix` | When the record was last updated. | | `campaign_id` / `campaign_name` | Campaign associated with the Offline Payment. | | `customer` | Customer object associated with the payment. | | `third_party_integration` | Supported provider integration context, when applicable. | | `third_party_shop` | Originating third-party shop context, when applicable. | | `metadata` | Name/value metadata used for external references, provider identifiers, and custom context. | Offline Payment records may also contain related item references such as sales, product sales, shipping, tax, discounts, invoices, pending refunds, chargebacks, fraud detections, or API calls. Use the related IDs to retrieve deeper context from the appropriate item operations when needed. --- ## Offline Payments and Fulfillment Offline Payments can still support fulfillment workflows because they are associated with Sales and related commerce records. For example: ```text Customer pays through Sezzle ↓ Sale is created in RevCent ↓ Offline Payment records the Sezzle payment ↓ Shippable products and Shipping records can still exist ↓ Fulfillment and support teams can process the order ``` This is important because the payment method should not disconnect the order from operational fulfillment. --- ## Offline Payments and Subscriptions Offline Payments should not be treated as subscription-capable payment methods. RevCent subscription billing requires credit-card sales/payments. Offline payment methods such as Sezzle, Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay, Amazon Pay, manual payments, or other alternate payment sources should not be used as the payment method for recurring subscription billing, subscription renewals, or trial expiration billing. If an Offline Payment record exposes subscription-related IDs or context, treat that as relationship or history context only. It does not mean the Offline Payment itself can bill future recurring subscription events. Correct guidance: ```text Use credit-card payments for subscription-capable billing. Use Offline Payments for one-time alternate, manual, external, or third-party payment visibility. ``` --- ## Viewing Offline Payments in the Web App Users can view Offline Payments in the RevCent web app. Common web-app path: ```text Payments > Offline > Offline Payments ``` The Knowledge Base also references the Offline Payments list page: ```text https://revcent.com/user/offline-payments ``` The web app is useful for human review, support workflows, and operational inspection of alternate payments. --- ## API and MCP Context The API and MCP / AI workflows can retrieve Offline Payments directly. Common operation patterns: | Operation Pattern | Use Case | |---|---| | Get one Offline Payment | Retrieve details when the Offline Payment ID is known. | | List Offline Payments | Retrieve filtered or paginated Offline Payment records. | | Filter by customer | Review alternate payments for one customer. | | Filter by campaign | Review alternate payments from a campaign. | | Filter by shop | Review payments from a third-party shop. | | Filter by metadata | Locate payments with provider or external reference metadata. | | Use BigQuery | Analyze amounts, counts, trends, providers, campaigns, shops, customers, or metadata at scale. | Typical filters include: ```text date_start date_end limit page campaign_filter currency_filter shop_filter metadata_filter customer_id ``` Use retrieval operations for item-level details. Use BigQuery for reporting, aggregation, dashboards, and cross-record analysis. --- ## BigQuery Table: offline_payment The primary BigQuery table for Offline Payments is: ```text offline_payment ``` Use this table for analysis such as: ```text Total Offline Payment amount by provider Offline Payment count by campaign Offline Payment volume by third-party shop Sezzle, Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, or Amazon Pay revenue over time Manual payment volume by reason or metadata Average Offline Payment amount by provider Customers with the most alternate payment volume Offline Payments with missing external transaction IDs Offline Payments requiring reconciliation ``` Because BigQuery schema fields can evolve, use the BigQuery schema link or schema-inspection tooling before writing exact SQL. --- ## Reporting and Reconciliation Offline Payments are especially important for reporting because alternate payment activity can otherwise be fragmented across external dashboards. Reporting use cases include: ```text How much revenue came through Klarna this month? How many Sezzle payments were created by campaign? Which shop generated the most Affirm payment volume? How many Afterpay sales were imported from third-party shops? What is the average Offline Payment amount by provider? Which customers use alternate payment providers most often? Which external transaction IDs need reconciliation? ``` Reconciliation use cases include: ```text Match RevCent Offline Payments to external provider transactions Confirm third-party transaction IDs are present Compare shop orders to RevCent records Identify manual Offline Payments created without provider context Review refunded or support-sensitive alternate payments ``` Metadata should be used consistently so reports can group and filter Offline Payments reliably. --- ## Metadata Best Practices Metadata makes Offline Payments much more useful. Good metadata examples: ```text payment_provider = klarna bnpl_provider = affirm external_order_id = shop_12345 external_payment_id = sezzle_abc123 shop_platform = woocommerce checkout_source = third_party_shop manual_payment_reason = replacement_order ``` Use consistent names. Avoid mixing multiple names for the same concept unless there is a clear reason. Good: ```text payment_provider external_order_id manual_payment_reason ``` Avoid inconsistency: ```text provider paymentProvider offline_provider payment_provider ``` Consistent metadata helps support, AI workflows, Functions, API integrations, and reporting. --- ## Common Ecommerce Use Cases ### Buy Now Pay Later ```text Customer pays with Sezzle, Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay, or Amazon Pay. RevCent records the payment as an Offline Payment. The business can still connect the payment to customer, sale, campaign, shop, and fulfillment context. ``` ### Replacement Orders ```text Customer receives a replacement for a damaged product. A sale is created without charging the customer through RevCent. An Offline Payment records the non-transactional sale path. ``` ### Product Giveaways ```text Business offers a product giveaway to avoid a refund or improve customer satisfaction. The sale/order is still represented in RevCent. The Offline Payment documents why no normal credit-card transaction exists. ``` ### External Payment Collection ```text Payment is collected outside RevCent. RevCent records the sale and payment context as an Offline Payment. Support and reporting still have visibility. ``` ### Third-Party Shop Orders ```text WooCommerce or another shop sends an order paid through an alternate payment method. RevCent maps that payment method to a configured third-party integration. The resulting Offline Payment keeps provider and shop context in RevCent. ``` --- ## Common Mistakes to Avoid Avoid these mistakes: ```text Treating Offline Payments as credit-card Transactions. Assuming manual Offline Payments can always be refunded through RevCent. Forgetting to link supported third-party provider accounts. Using inconsistent metadata names for provider or external order IDs. Using Offline Payments as subscription-capable payment methods. Assuming subscription-related context means Offline Payments can bill renewals. Creating third-party Offline Payments without preserving external transaction IDs. Using paginated retrieval operations for reporting questions that belong in BigQuery. ``` --- ## AI/MCP Guidance When working with Offline Payments, AI and MCP clients should: 1. Determine whether the user means a manual/non-transactional Offline Payment or a third-party alternate payment provider. 2. Treat Offline Payments as item-level payment records, not gateway Transactions. 3. Use Offline Payment retrieval operations for a known Offline Payment or paginated list. 4. Use BigQuery for reports, totals, trends, provider analysis, campaign analysis, shop analysis, and reconciliation questions. 5. Review `third_party_integration` to identify providers such as Sezzle, Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay, or Amazon Pay. 6. Review `third_party_shop` to understand where the payment originated. 7. Review `metadata` for provider IDs, external transaction IDs, external order IDs, and custom labels. 8. Retrieve the related Sale when order-level context is needed. 9. Explain that supported connected third-party providers may allow refund workflows from within RevCent. 10. Never state that Offline Payments are subscription-capable. Only credit-card sales/payments support RevCent subscription billing. --- ## Summary Offline Payments are RevCent item records for payments and sales completed outside the normal RevCent credit-card gateway transaction flow. They can represent: ```text Manual payments Non-transactional sales Replacement orders Product giveaways External payment collection Third-party shop payment methods Sezzle payments Affirm payments Klarna payments Afterpay payments Amazon Pay payments ``` Offline Payments are important because they keep alternate payment activity connected to RevCent customer, sale, shop, campaign, fulfillment, support, and reporting context. The most important distinction is: ```text Credit-card Transaction = card payment attempt through a RevCent Gateway. Offline Payment = external, manual, alternate, or third-party payment record. ``` Used well, Offline Payments allow RevCent to act as the central operational record for both standard credit-card payments and alternate payment methods. --- Document Parent Directory * [Items](https://revcent.com/documentation/markdown/ecosystem/item/index.md) - Non-technical markdown documentation for items within the RevCent ecosystem. An item is an entity that is spawned as a result of a feature or operation conducted within the RevCent ecosystem.