WIC Direct System Guide. Version: 2.12

Transcription

1 Version: 2.12

2 Table of Contents 1 Document Information Document History Acronyms and Definitions Introduction Document Purpose Document Organization Document Standards and Naming Conventions Getting Started WIC Direct System Overview WDWUI Manual Functions Operating System and Browser Support Logging In to the WIC Direct User Interface Managing your Account User locked out Logging Out of the WIC Direct UI An Overview of the WIC Direct User Interface Understanding Core Interop WIC Direct Configuration Accounts Cards Pricing WIC Direct Website Settings WIC Direct Host Settings WIC Direct Billing Settings Interface Settings WIC Direct Stale Data Settings File Settings Accounts Adding an EBT Account Table of Contents 2

3 4.1.2 Adding a Cardholder to an Account Searching for an Existing EBT Account Viewing an Existing EBT Account Actions on an EBT Card Updating an Account Viewing Participant Benefits Adding Benefits to an Account Adjusting Benefits for an Existing Time Period Exporting Account Information Exporting Benefits Warehouse Authorizations Transactions and Account History Cards Searching for Cards Checking Card Status Ordering Additional Cards and Tracking Status Users Searching for a User Adding a User Updating User Information Unlocking a user Deactivating a User Exporting User Information Products NTE Pricing Concepts Managing Products Managing Categories Managing Subcategories Managing Units of Measure Vendors Searching for and Viewing Vendor Information Adding a Vendor Table of Contents 3

4 4.5.3 Updating Vendor Information Deactivating and Reactivating a Vendor Viewing Bank Details and Transaction History Exporting Vendor Information Banks Associating a Bank with a Vendor Transactions Account History Retail History Administrative History Reconciliation Drawdown Gateway History ACH History Financials Recoupment Unmatched Auto-Recon Unreconciled Auto-Recon System Balancing Case Month Billing Reports Benefit Balance Activity Exceptions Card Activity Financial Activity (By Institution) Financial Activity (By Transaction Type) Financial Activity (Comparison) Formula Rebates Gateway Transaction Volume Recoupment Activity Redemptions (By Issue Month) Retail Activity Table of Contents 4

5 Retail Sales Benefit Reconciliation Case Month Billing Daily Drawdown Direct Connect Reconciliation (Daily) Direct Connect Reconciliation (Disbursement) Gateway Reconciliation (Daily) Gateway Auto-Reconciliation Out of Balance Accounts Third Party Processor Reconciliation (Daily) User/Group Listing System Activity Balance System Balance Exceptions Jobs Viewing Job Details Updating Job Configuration Manually Starting a Job Manually Stopping a Job Manually Starting and Stopping All Jobs Generating Approved Product List Files on Demand Files ACH Prenotification APL History WIC Direct FTP Directory Structure Devices Messages Searching for and Viewing a Message Parsing Messages Creating a Message Template Message Builder Message Reader Message Sender Table of Contents 5

6 4.13 Logs Table of Contents 6

7 1 Document Information 1.1 Document History Version Comments 1.0 Initial draft 1.1 Updated for USDA FNS review 1.2 Updated based on comments from MAXIMUS 1.3 Updated based on comments from BAH 1.4 Updated based on release General updates 1.6 Added Appendix B WIC Direct Security Groups 1.7 Updated to reflect release Major changes affecting the WIC Direct UI include: Enhanced auditing, logging, debugging, and system administrative capabilities Customized configuration, including vendor activation and reactivation Improved job management, including the ability to generate approved product list (APL) files on demand APL and NTE history support Added the ability to denote accounts used for educational or compliance purposes Added the ability to distinguish farmers markets from individual farmers for reporting purposes 1.8 Updates to reflect sprint 82 and 83 changes and feedback from states 1.9 Changes since the last release include: Merged compliance and educational account flags into account types Added the ability to activate and deactivate products Removed the restriction that required a PIN to be selected when a new card is added to an account 2.0 Updated copyright date, TOC, performed spellcheck, verified appendix headers 2.1 Updated per stories 10060, 23370, 23919, and 21412, 20910, Added information for Cat/Subcat NTE Added note of caution for disabling prompts and warnings 2.3 Updated per stories 30211, 30209, 27042, Updated per story Updated to reflect new recoupment feature in the following areas: Vendor Details Retail History Reports File Settings Retail History Details 2.6 Updated to reflect new Zone Administrator field for: User Details Document Information 1

8 Version Comments Unlock User Deactivate User 2.7 Rebranded with new CDP logo. Updated to reflect the following changes: New Web User Interface Header New Vendor Type field and Warehouse vendor type on vendor pages Ability to link Categories to Vendor Types on Add/Update Category pages Cardholder Address on various account/cardholder pages 0 Day Expungement Setting New UI settings including Default Time Zone and Observe Daylight Savings Time Removed Appendix B WIC Direct Security Groups as content exists in other documents Removed CDP Customer Support contact information because contacts vary based on contracts and other non-system information Updated Financial Activity, Formula Rebates, and User/Group Listing reports with new formats New Mailed Card Replacement feature New cardholder deactivate/restrict feature 2.8 Content added to Reports section 2.9 Updated to reflect release 4.20 updates, including new formula warehouse functionality in the following areas: Accounts Products Vendors Added section 3.2 WDWUI Manual Functions 2.10 Updated Pricing to include new NTE Settings and renamed settings Updated Adding a Cardholder to an Account to include new card reader/wedge feature Updated 4.5 Vendors with new X9 number description Updated 4.9 Jobs to include three new buttons on the Jobs page 2.11 Updated Managing Products to reflect Vendor MIS Number field name on Authorization pages Updated 4.4 Products to reflect new field for APL types on Product Details Updated 4.5 Vendors to reflect new field for APL types on Vendor Details 2.12 Added section 3.3 Operating System and Browser Support Updated 3.4 Logging in to the WIC Direct User Interface with note about offline mode Updated 3.9 WIC Direct Configuration website, billing, and interface settings Updated Viewing Participant Benefits with new Benefit Balance pop-up page Document Information 2

9 Version Comments Updated Exporting User Information to include assigned groups and zone administrators fields on the export Updated Vendor Details to include new recoupment history area Updated Exporting Account History and Transactions to include new fields on the Account History export Updated 4.7 Reconciliation with the following new sub-tabs and pages: Drawdown, Gateway History, Financials, Recoupment, System Balancing, and Case Month Billing Updated ACH History with New ACH External Payment Request page and updated ACH Details Updated 4.8 Reports with new report locations/screens that report data can now be pulled from. Some reports have moved to Data Direct. 1.2 Acronyms and Definitions Acronym/Term Definition ACH APL BDK Benefit BIN BKLK Card Acceptor Terminal Cardholder Category EBA EBT Expungement Period HGTN IVR Automated Clearing House. An electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. Authorized Product List. A listing of approved products provided to retailers by WIC authorities. Base Derivation Key. A static key stored on a PIN pad device, which is used to derive unique keys for encrypting data. A product provided by the WIC program to a WIC participant. For the purposes of this system, a WIC benefit is an authorized food product. Bank Identification Number. It identifies the major industry (e.g., finance or banking) and the card issuer. Base Key Loading Key. A key used to encrypt keys stored on a PIN pad device. A number that uniquely identifies a card terminal (i.e., the POS device in the store). The individual who is in possession of the WIC EBT card for a household. A grouping of WIC authorized food products, such as milk or formula Electronic Benefit Account Electronic Benefits Transfer. The electronic transfer of government benefits to individuals through the use of card technology and point-of-sale terminals. Also referred to as ewic. The number of days after which an unused benefit is removed. Host Generated Trace Number. The unique trace number assigned to a transaction by the host server. Interactive Voice Response. An automated phone system that allows WIC participants to obtain current account and benefit information. Also referred to as Automated Response Unit (ARU). Document Information 3

10 Acronym/Term KSN Merchant MIS NTE Participant PIN PLU POS Retailer S&F STAN Subcategory Transaction Transaction Time UI Unit of Measure UPC USDA FNS Vendor WIC WIC Agency Definition Key Serial Number. A number stored on a PIN pad device that is incremented each time a PIN is entered. The KSN and BDK together are used to derive a key that is used to encrypt a PIN. See Vendor Management Information System. A state s WIC certification and management information system. Not to Exceed Price. WIC authorities establish the maximum price that the state will reimburse for an approved WIC item. The WIC certified individual to whom WIC benefits are issued. Personal Identification Number. An alphanumeric code issued to or selected by a cardholder, which must be utilized by the cardholder in conjunction with a card to initiate a transaction. Price Look-Up Code. A store-assigned numeric designation for products that are typically of variable measure (e.g., meat, seafood, fruits, grains). Point of Sale. An electronic device used by retail businesses to process credit and debit transactions. See Vendor Store and Forward. The process by which a WIC retail transaction is stored during a system disruption, and then forwarded to the EBT host when service is restored. System Trace Audit Number. A number assigned by the message initiator to uniquely identify a transaction. A specific type of authorized food product within a WIC category. For example, subcategories for milk include whole milk and skim milk. Subcategories can be either broadband (code 000) or specific (codes greater than 000). Any event that effects change to the WIC Direct database. This includes participant balance inquiries and WIC redemptions. The date and time when the transaction occurred. User Interface The measurements used for WIC-approved products that are stored in WIC Direct. Universal Product Code. The code used to identify retail items, including WICapproved items. It is represented by a bar code. United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service A dealer in foodstuffs, meats, produce, and dairy products. In the context of this document, the term also covers any parties authorized by the state to be a vendor of WIC-approved items, or who perform WIC-related computing or financial transactions for them. Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. A governmental organization that oversees the WIC program for a jurisdiction, such as a state or tribal organization. A WIC Agency is responsible for issuing WIC food benefits. Document Information 4

11 Acronym/Term WIC Host WDWUI WDInterface Definition An information system that manages data exchange between a vendor and a WIC Agency. The WIC host includes communication, database, file posting, security authorization, and may include terminal application downloads. Electronically, it acts as a proxy for a WIC Agency in the processing of WIC EBT benefits and redemptions. WIC Direct Web User Interface The online messaging interface into the system X9.93 The standard that defines the message and file formats used in performing WIC EBT transactions. Zone Administrator A security role assigned to State personnel. Users with this security role have the same permissions as the User Support group; however they can only perform user administration for users that they created directly, or that were created by other users within their zone. Document Information 5

12 2 Introduction 2.1 Document Purpose This document describes the functionality, configuration, and operation of the WIC Direct System. The target audiences for this guide include: System and network administrators Customer support State program administrators 2.2 Document Organization This document is organized into the following sections: Section 3, Getting Started describes key concepts that users must understand before using the application for the first time, such as the general application layout and how to start and log into the application. Section 4, provides descriptions of how to use system functions. Appendix A: WIC Direct FTP Directory Structure provides information about the general directory structure for files transferred between WIC Direct and external systems. 2.3 Document Standards and Naming Conventions Throughout the document, the following conventions are used: The terminology click and select indicate that the user should left-click their mouse button once. CAPITALIZED FONT signifies text found in buttons, icons, and links displayed on various application screens. Courier font represents text that the user enters via their keyboard. Nomenclature such as GENERAL->MAIN MENU signifies a navigation path. Introduction 6

13 3 Getting Started 3.1 WIC Direct System Overview At a high level, WIC Direct connects clinics where participants are certified eligible for WIC; stores (vendors) and farmers markets where WIC participants exchange benefits for food; government employees who administer the WIC program; and banks who electronically reimburse stores and farmers markets for WIC purchases. WIC participants access their benefits using a magnetic stripe card, similar to a debit card, instead of a traditional paper food instrument. Highlights of the EBT process include: WIC Agencies use WIC Direct to manage the list of WIC-eligible food items, prices, and retailers. Participants are certified as WIC eligible at a clinic. After verification of eligibility and risk assessment, food benefits are issued and posted electronically to the household account stored in WIC Direct. Food benefits are aggregated into a single household account. The household account consists of specific types and quantities of food items, each with specific eligibility and expiration dates. Dates are cyclic and are set by the WIC Agency. Getting Started 7

14 An EBT card is issued to one or more cardholders in each household. The card is secured with a personal identification number (PIN). Participants can access food benefits when shopping in stores and at farmers markets. When checking out, the participant swipes their EBT card and enters their PIN. WIC Direct verifies available benefits and prices for food items as part of the purchase transaction. The businesses where WIC participants shop receive electronic payment from the State for WIC-eligible purchases via an automated clearinghouse (ACH) settlement process. Collectively referred to as vendors throughout this document, vendors can connect directly to WIC Direct or via a value-add third party provider. The settlement process between a bank and vendor varies depending on how the vendor connects to WIC Direct. Section 4.7, Reconciliation describes this process in more detail. WIC Direct supports the WIC EBT process by providing: Electronic Benefit Account (EBA) maintenance Universal Product Code (UPC), Price Look UP (PLU), and maximum price maintenance Clinic transaction processing Retail transaction processing Vendor maintenance Payment to vendors Financial reconciliation Reporting WIC Direct interfaces with the external WIC Management Information System (MIS) that supports the Universal Interface specification. Communication between WIC Direct, banks, and vendors is via X9.93 messaging. The selected file transfer protocol (FTP) is used to transfer files between WIC Direct, vendors, and other systems. For information regarding the general directory structure used for transferring files via the selected file transfer protocol, refer to Appendix A: WIC Direct FTP Directory Structure. 3.2 WDWUI Manual Functions Based upon configured security roles, certain WDWUI users may have the ability to directly update information stored in WIC Direct. In general, most data updates will originate from an external system such as the WIC MIS using the WDInterface. Therefore, it is important to understand the consequences that can arise from potentially having multiple points of update for data stored in WIC Direct. Note that some states may opt to lock down security roles in a way that severely restricts which users (if any) can update data through the WDWUI. The following table lists some of the various WDWUI update capabilities and the impact that subsequent WDInterface operations may have on WDWUI initiated updates. Getting Started 8

15 Section/Function Notes Adding an EBT Account An account added through the WDWUI may not be subsequently added using the Add EBA method from the WDInterface. An account added through the WDWUI may be subsequently updated using the Update EBA method from the WDInterface Adding a Cardholder to an Account A cardholder/card added through the WDWUI may not be subsequently added using the Add Cardholder/Card method from the WDInterface. A cardholder/card added through the WDWUI may be subsequently updated using the Update Card/Cardholder method from the WDInterface Changing a PIN A PIN changed through the WDWUI may be subsequently changed using the Add or Update PIN method from the WDInterface Clearing PIN History A card that has had its PIN history cleared (i.e. all previous PINs erased) through the WDWUI may have its PIN set again using the Add or Update PIN method from the WDWUI Unlocking a PIN A card that has had its PIN unlocked (i.e. count of invalid attempts set to 0) through the WDWUI may have its PIN history cleared through the WDWUI. A card that has had its PIN unlocked (i.e. count of invalid attempts set to 0) through the WDWUI may not be subsequently unlocked using the Add or Update PIN method from the WDInterface unless the PIN has already become locked again Deactivating a Card A card that is deactivated through the WDWUI may not be subsequently updated by any mechanism (through the WDWUI or WDInterface). The card may be subsequently replaced through the WDWUI or the WDInterface Cardholder Deactivate and Restrict A cardholder that is deactivated through the WDWUI may not be subsequently updated by any mechanism (through the WDWUI or WDInterface). The card for a deactivated cardholder may not be subsequently replaced by any mechanism Replacing a Card A card (non-mailed) replaced through the WDWUI may be subsequently replaced using the Update Card/Cardholder method from the WDInterface as long as the Getting Started 9

16 Section/Function Notes method call properly specifies the current card number that was replaced through the WDWUI. A cardholder may only have one active card (a household may have multiple cardholders). Therefore, the replacement card issued from the WDWUI and subsequently replaced using the Update Card/Cardholder method will be deactivated Mailed Card Replacement A mailed card replacement through the WDWUI may be subsequently replaced in the clinic using the Update Card/Cardholder method from the WDInterface. If the replacement is requested before WIC Direct sends the record to the card vendor to have the card mailed, then WIC Direct will suppress creation of the record and no card will be mailed. If the request is received after WIC Direct sends the record to the card vendor to have the card mailed, then WIC Direct will deactivate the mailed card so that it cannot be used. Depending on the timing of the method call (before or after WIC Direct has finalizes the replacement), the subsequent replacement through the WDInterface will only be successful if the method call specifies the current active card number for the cardholder Update a Cardholder A cardholder/card updated through the WDWUI may be subsequently updated using the Update Card/Cardholder method from the WDInterface Updating an Account An account updated through the WDWUI may be subsequently updated using the Update EBA method from the WDInterface Adding Benefits to an Account Any benefit operations in WIC Direct are cumulative. In other words, it is not possible to overwrite a benefit in the same way it may be possible to overwrite changes to other record types. Benefits added through the WDWUI may be subsequently subtracted using the Add or Update Benefits method from the WDInterface (and vice versa). Similarly, benefits subtracted through the WDWUI may be subsequently added back using the Add or Update Benefits method from the WDInterface (and vice versa). It is also possible that a benefit added through the WDWUI may be added again using the Add Getting Started 10

17 Section/Function Notes or Update Benefits method from the WDInterface. It is not possible to take account balance negative through the repeated application of benefit subtractions Adjusting Benefits for an Existing Time Period Any benefit operations in WIC Direct are cumulative. In other words, it is not possible to overwrite a benefit in the same way it may be possible to overwrite changes to other record types. Benefits added through the WDWUI may be subsequently subtracted using the Add or Update Benefits method from the WDInterface (and vice versa). Similarly, benefits subtracted through the WDWUI may be subsequently added back using the Add or Update Benefits method from the WDInterface (and vice versa). It is also possible that a benefit added through the WDWUI may be added again using the Add or Update Benefits method from the WDInterface. It is not possible to take account balance negative through the repeated application of benefit subtractions Overriding an NTE Price An NTE that is overridden through the WDWUI may be subsequently updated in one of two ways: o o If the NTE for the product and peer group appears in the WIC UPC/PLU file, then the NTE value from the file will overwrite the value set through the WDWUI. If the agency is configured to have WIC Direct run a batch process to calculate NTE values, then a value set through the WDWUI will be overwritten the next time that the batch job runs Deactivating and Reactivating a Product If a product is deactivated through the WDWUI and it is desired that the product remain deactivated, then the product should either: o Not appear in the WIC UPC/PLU file; o Or appear in the WIC UPC/PLU file with same end date used to deactivate the product. If a product is reactivated through the WDWUI and it is desired that the product remain reactivated, then the product should Getting Started 11

18 Section/Function Notes either: o Not appear in the WIC UPC/PLU file; o Or appear in the WIC UPC/PLU file with same begin date used to reactivate the product. In any case, if the product subsequently appears in the WIC UPC/PLU file, then the product record will be overwritten with the details of the record included in the WIC UPC/PLU file Adding a New Category A category added through the WDWUI must appear in the next WIC Category Subcategory file from the WDInterface. A category added through the WDWUI that does not appear in the next WIC Category Sub-category file will be deactivated. A category added through the WDWUI may be subsequently updated through the WIC Category Sub-category file from the WDInterface Updating a Category A category updated through the WDWUI will be updated to whatever values appear with the category in the next WIC Category Sub-category file from the WDInterface (provided that the category is present in the file). If the category is not present in the next WIC Category Sub-category file, then the category will be deactivated Deleting a Category A category deleted through the WDWUI must not appear in the next WIC Category Sub-category file from the WDInterface. If the category appears in the next WIC Category Sub-category file, then the category will be added and will be active. However, the category will only be active according to the begin and end dates provided with the record in the file Adding a New Subcategory A subcategory added through the WDWUI must appear in the next WIC Category Subcategory file from the WDInterface. A subcategory added through the WDWUI that does not appear in the next WIC Category Sub-category file will be deactivated. A subcategory added through the WDWUI may be subsequently updated through the WIC Category Sub-category file from the WDInterface Updating a Subcategory A subcategory updated through the WDWUI Getting Started 12

19 Section/Function Notes will be updated to whatever values appear with the category in the next WIC Category Sub-category file from the WDInterface (provided that the subcategory is present in the file). If the subcategory is not present in the next WIC Category Sub-category file, then the subcategory will be deactivated Deleting a Subcategory A subcategory deleted through the WDWUI must not appear in the next WIC Category Sub-category file from the WDInterface. If the subcategory appears in the next WIC Category Sub-category file, then the subcategory will added. However, the subcategory will only be active according to the begin and end dates provided with the record in the file Adding a Vendor A vendor added through the WDWUI does need not to appear in the next WIC Vendor file from the WDInterface. The vendor will remain on the system even if it does not appear in the WIC Vendor file. A vendor added through the WDWUI may be subsequently updated through the WIC Vendor file from the WDInterface. If the vendor appears in the WIC Vendor file, then the details of the vendor record for a particular vendor will be overwritten with the details of the vendor included in the WIC Vendor file Updating Vendor Information If a vendor is updated through the WDWUI and subsequently appears in the WIC Vendor file, then the vendor record will be overwritten with the details of the record included in the WIC Vendor file Deactivating and Reactivating a Vendor If a vendor is deactivated through the WDWUI and it is desired that the vendor remain deactivated, then the vendor should Getting Started 13 either: o Not appear in the WIC Vendor file; o Or appear in the WIC Vendor file with same end date used to deactivate the vendor. If a vendor is reactivated through the WDWUI and it is desired that the vendor remain reactivated, then the vendor should either: o o Not appear in the WIC Vendor file; Or appear in the WIC Vendor file with same begin date used to reactivate the vendor.

20 Section/Function Notes In any case, if the vendor subsequently appears in the WIC Vendor file, then the vendor record will be overwritten with the details of the record included in the WIC Vendor file. 3.3 Operating System and Browser Support The following operating systems and browsers are officially supported for client machines using WIC Direct: Windows bit with IE 11 Windows 8 32-bit/64-bit with IE 11 Windows 8 32-bit/64-bit with IE 11 Please note, while other browsers such as Firefox and Edge may work for the most part, using them is not recommended and may yield unpredictable results. For further information on the end-ofsupport dates for Microsoft Windows, please visit Logging In to the WIC Direct User Interface The web-based WIC Direct user interface (UI) is used to configure and manage WIC Direct operations. The WIC Direct UI is accessed through the CDP Portal or directly via a website address. At the Login screen, enter your user name and password and click. Note that the screen shots will be branded to reflect the specific WIC Agency name and configuration. After logging in, you will be presented with the screen below. Getting Started 14

21 All WIC Direct screens include two rows of menu items and a footer. Notice that the full name and user name of the person logged into WIC Direct is displayed to the right of the menu items. To view or update the profile to display different information, refer to Section 3.4. The first three menu items in the first row are user-specific. Refer to Section 3.4, Managing your Account for more information. The final menu item (Settings) is used to configure the WIC Direct application. The second row of items is used to manage and monitor WIC Direct operations. These menu items are described in Section 4,. NOTE: When WIC Direct is running in offline queue mode the following message will be displayed across all screens, Please note, this installation of WIC Direct is running in an offline queue mode. Some features may be disabled." For more information about installation level settings and offline mode, refer to the WIC Direct System Settings document. The information in the footer contains general WIC Direct operating information, including: WIC Direct Version Number: The WIC Direct software version number is displayed in brackets. This number changes when a new release is deployed on the WIC Direct production server. Example: Print Page: A WIC Direct screen can be printed at any time by clicking found in the footer. Session ID: The Session ID is a 120-bit, random number that is represented by a 20- character string. Session IDs are assigned every time a user logs in. Example: Refresh Session: Users will be automatically logged out of the WIC Direct UI after 20 consecutive minutes of inactivity. Each time a user interacts with the UI by clicking on an icon or link, the 20-minute timer is reset and the session expiration time (in brackets) will be updated. To refresh the session without going to a new screen, click. Example: Getting Started 15

22 Server Type: The Server Type indicates the server that is in-use. In WIC Direct, there are several types of servers, including: Demo, Staging, Quality Assurance, and Production. Example: Typically, this information is beneficial for developers and support personnel who routinely access WIC Direct servers that operate in different environments. Current Installation: WIC Direct is designed so that a single server can connect to multiple installations. The current installation(s) are displayed in brackets. Example: Build Date: The date that installers for the current build were compiled. Time Zone: Users should select the time zone in which they are working. To change the time zone, use the Time Zone drop-down list. Select Yes from the Observe DST, if Daylight Saving Time applies. The setting will be retained at the next log in. 3.5 Managing your Account The first three items in the top row of the WIC Direct UI menu is used to log out of the WIC Direct UI, change your WIC Direct UI password, and update your profile. To change your password, click. Enter the old password and a new password that conforms to the password requirements determined by the WIC Agency or system administrator. Confirm the new password by entering it again in the Confirm New Password field. Click the Change Password button at the bottom of the screen to complete. If the New Password and Confirm New Password fields do not match or the new password does not meet the password requirements, you will receive an error message similar to the following: Getting Started 16

23 To view or update your WIC Direct UI profile, click. When finished, click the SAVE button to save your changes Password Retrieval Forgotten passwords can be retrieved by clicking on the Login screen. You must know your user name and address on file with WIC Direct to retrieve your password. You will be assigned a random password you can use upon next log-on. When you log in with the random password, you will be prompted to change your password User locked out If you lock yourself out of your account because of multiple password failures, an is sent to the zone administrator so your account can be unlocked immediately. Getting Started 17

24 3.6 Logging Out of the WIC Direct UI To log out of the WIC Direct UI, click back to the WIC Direct Log On screen.. After successfully logging out, you will be taken 3.7 An Overview of the WIC Direct User Interface First-time users should note the following usability tips: Access to WIC Direct menu and submenu items are based on a user s membership in a security group. Security group permissions and the current WIC Direct state can impact what the user will see on the screen. For example, you will not see a button on the Job Details screen to stop a job if the job is already in the stopped state. Cases where this occurs will be called out in the appropriate section. Numbers or words written and underlined in blue are links to related information. Use the link on WIC Direct screens to navigate back to the previous screen. Do not use your browser s back button. To search for transaction or product information by price, the price must conform to the following format: Symbols are not allowed. Leading zeros are not required. For example, to search for 99 cents, enter.99 in the search field. Some material presented in this manual is not intended for use in production. This includes functions for testing or diagnostic purposes. An icon with a pencil An icon with a minus sign is used to edit information. is used to delete or deactivate a record in WIC Direct. Icons and buttons that appear blurry (e.g., ) signify a feature that is disabled. Fields identified with a red asterisk ( ) are required. If information is not entered in all the required fields, a warning message will indicate which fields have missing information. In the example below, the warning message indicates that information was not entered in the Household Number, Address 1, City, State, and Zip Code fields. Warnings and device prompts can be enabled or disabled using the drop-down lists. Device prompts are specific to the Core Interop-supported hardware device. Warnings include messages related to actions initiated by the WIC Direct user. The default settings Getting Started 18

25 are to show warnings and not to show device prompts. Warnings and prompts exist to warn users of potential issues. Disabling should only be done with discretion. Note that disabling warnings will not disable all messages. For example, WIC Direct requires a user to confirm a configuration change before it takes effect. Normally, table information displayed on a WIC Direct screen will be sorted in ascending order by the first column. The sort order can be changed by clicking any of the column headings once. For example, to sort the product list displayed below by UPC/PLU, click the UPC/PLU column heading. To change the list so that it is sorted instead by Category in ascending order, click the Category column heading. It is common for WIC Direct to prompt the user to confirm changes after clicking the SAVE button. The prompt will appear immediately below the menu bar. To proceed with the changes, click Yes. Click Yes, and stop warning me! to disable subsequent messages. Warnings can also be enabled and disabled by updating your user profile. Refer to Section 3.3, Managing your Account for details. Many WIC Direct functions provide the ability to search for record(s) or information that matches specific criteria. When searching for text, WIC Direct will return all records that contain the text that was entered. For example, entering frank in the City field on the Accounts screen will return records that contain Franklin or Frankfort for cities. Changing the search to fort will only return the records that contain the city Frankfort. When searching for numeric information (e.g., account number, zip code, price), WIC Direct will return the records that are identical to the text that was entered. Searching for zip codes that start with 406, for example, will not work. The full zip code must be entered into the search field. When searching for other numeric information, leading zeros should not be entered in the search field. Getting Started 19

26 The presence of a filter icon in one or more column headings of a list indicates that the list you are viewing is filtered. The filters displayed in the example below tell the reader that the list is filtered by date and household number. 3.8 Understanding Core Interop Periodically, you may notice a device prompt after logging in to WIC Direct. The message relates to software called Core Interop that is used for communication with hardware devices, such as an XAC PIN pad device. Note you will receive this warning even when a hardware device is not connected to your computer. The warning can be ignored if you are not using the device. or functions in WIC Direct. Core Interop is only necessary if using the PIN pad To eliminate the warning altogether, you must install the required version of Core Interop software on your computer. In order to proceed with the installation steps, you must 1) be logged in as administrator, and 2) manually uninstall any older version of Core Interop on your computer. Getting Started 20

27 To install Core Interop, click the link,. The Core Interop Download screen will be displayed. Click the link on this screen to download the software. Select Run to start the installation and click Next to proceed through the installation steps. The WIC Direct warning will disappear once installation is complete. It is strongly recommended that the computer be rebooted after installation is complete. 3.9 WIC Direct Configuration The Settings menu establishes the framework for WIC Direct operation. It is used to customize and manage: Getting Started 21

28 Accounts Cards Pricing WIC Direct UI settings WIC Direct host settings File settings Access to this function is based upon the user s role in WIC Direct. The remainder of this section describes WIC Direct configuration parameters in detail Accounts MIS Household Format allows WIC Agencies to identify households either alphabetically, numerically, or both. Allowed Cards Per Household gives WIC Agencies flexibility in setting a statewide maximum number of EBT cards allowed per household. Selecting zero means unlimited cards are allowed. MIS Vendor Format allows WIC Agencies to identify vendors either alphabetically, numerically, or both Cards BIN Number is the first six-number sequence of a financial transaction card. It identifies the card issuer. BINs are unique to each WIC State Agency. PIN Attempts Allowed defines the maximum number of PIN attempts before an EBT card will be locked. Replacement Timeframe (Days), defaults to 5 days with a minimum of 1 and maximum of 20. This setting will only appear when offline mode is enabled and controls business logic related to smart card updates. Getting Started 22

29 Card Image Update Timeframe (Days) defaults to 120 days with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 180. This setting will only appear when offline mode is enabled and controls business logic related to smart card updates. PAN Length specifies the number of digits, either 16 or 19, for primary account numbers on EBT cards. PIN Reset Time is used to indicate the time when a locked PIN can be automatically reset by a successful PIN entry. The PIN Reset Time is based on the time zone of source transactions. For retail transactions the merchant s local time will be taken into account when checking if the reset time has elapsed. For non-retail transactions, the participant s local time will be taken into account when checking if the reset time has elapsed. PIN Change Timeframe (Minutes) defaults to 15 with a minimum of two and a maximum of 120. This setting will only appear when offline mode is enabled and controls business logic related to smart card updates Pricing Not To Exceed (NTE) Settings are primarily used to set up the parameters related to the NTE Computation batch process. NTE prices are based on peer groups. Peer groups and NTE prices are defined by the WIC Agency. This batch process will create future NTE price records for processing purchases from vendors. The section entitled Jobs in this document contains more information about the scheduling of this batch process. A state agency can choose the options related to calculation of these NTE price records. The first choice is controlled by the Price Level dropdown value: Cat/Subcat This option generates UPC level records that are calculated based on aggregate historical subcategory data where the UPC resides. UPC This option generates UPC level records that are calculated based on its specific aggregate historical data as well as the records found in the Cat/Subcat option. This option is recommended. The next choice is the calculation method. All methods calculate an average price based on the historical data. There are three (3) options: Getting Started 23

30 Percentage This option generates NTE records that are based on a percentage increase of the average price. The new NTE value is the average price times the value found in the NTE Increase Percent. For example, a newly calculated average price of $2.20 with an increase of 10% would yield an NTE value of $2.42. A value of zero in the Increase Percent fields will simply insert the average price for this calculation. Standard Deviation This option generates NTE records that are based on a standard deviation method. The new NTE is the average price plus the sum of the calculated standard deviation times the value found in the Standard Deviation Factor fields. For example, a newly calculate average price of $2.20, with a newly calculated standard deviation of $0.13, with a factor of 2 would yield an NTE value of $2.46. A value of zero in the Standard Deviation fields will simply insert the average price for this calculation. Both methods If both parameters are set with non-zero values, both calculations are generated with above-average prices. If a state agency chooses the UPC Price Level with both Percentage and Standard Deviation, then four records will be generated for each UPC: UPC level based on Percentage method UPC level based on Standard Deviation method Subcat level based on Percentage method Subcat level based on Standard Deviation method The section entitled NTE Pricing Concepts in this document contains more information about the display of these records. Field descriptions: Price Level is used to select the level at which the NTE price is set by a WIC Agency. When this field is set to UPC, NTE pricing information will be displayed on the Product Details screen (Section 4.4, Products ). When it is set to Cat/Subcat, NTE pricing information will be displayed on the Subcategory screen (Section 4.4.4, Managing Subcategories ). Cat/Subcat Price Redemption Threshold is the number of item redemptions needed for a newly calculated NTE price to be flagged as a valid NTE. This is for the Cat/Subcat level. Cat/Subcat Percentage Tolerance is the maximum amount of change (as a percentage of the previous NTE) that a newly calculated NTE price cannot exceed without being flagged as a valid NTE. This is for the Cat/Subcat level. Cat/Subcat Standard Deviation Factor is the number of standard deviations added to the mean product price to obtain the NTE. This is for the Cat/Subcat level. Cat/Subcat Increase Percent sets a percentage that can be added to the mean product price to obtain the NTE. This is for the Cat/Subcat level. Maximum NTE History controls how many days of price history the user can view on the NTE History screen. Getting Started 24

31 Price Period sets the number of days used to calculate the NTE price for either level. UPC Price Redemption Threshold is the number of item redemptions needed for a newly calculated NTE price to be flagged as a valid NTE. This is for the UPC level. UPC Percentage Tolerance is the maximum amount of change (as a percentage of the previous NTE) that a newly calculated NTE price cannot exceed without being flagged as a valid NTE. This is for the UPC level. UPC Standard Deviation Factor is the number of standard deviations added to the mean product price to obtain the NTE. This is for the UPC level. UPC Increase Percent sets a percentage that can be added to the mean product price to obtain the NTE. This is for the UPC level. UPC Default Value is the maximum price assigned to new items added to WIC Direct WIC Direct Website Settings Default Time Zone is the time zone set for a state agency and is a required setting. Observe DST is a yes/no drop-down menu for observing daylight savings time and is required. The two settings together control the default profile values for new users and is also the fallback values used if household/cardholder level data is not available when determining available balance in public interfaces. Custom CSS Path is the path, relative to the root directory of the website, where the cascading style sheets (CSS) that control the WIC Direct UI appearance are stored. Theme allows states to select a theme and background color for the WIC Direct UI. Custom Image Path is the path where the WIC Direct UI graphics are stored WIC Direct Host Settings Store & Forward (S&F) is used to indicate whether WIC Direct allows store-and-forward transactions. Store-and-forward transactions are WIC purchases that are sent to WIC Direct after the actual purchase has completed. Getting Started 25

32 Reversal/Void Period is the number of days that a vendor has to submit a reversal/void. The default setting for all agencies is 120 days. S&F Cut Off Time is the maximum number of hours that a vendor has to submit a storeand-forward transaction to WIC Direct. If the transaction is forwarded before the cutoff time, WIC Direct will process the transaction. If it is after the cutoff time, the transaction will be denied WIC Direct Billing Settings Calculation Type gives users the option to calculate by End Date, Begin Date, or Begin Date (Enhanced). The Begin Date Enhanced calculation formula allows for late issuances from the previous month to be accounted for in new months. Include Voided is the option to include fully voided issuances or not when calculating the billable households Interface Settings PLU Check Digit Required is a setting that controls whether check digits on PLUs are required in UPC/NTE file and included in redemption files. This only applies to versions of these files where the check digit is not explicitly required already. Validate Unique Benefit ID is a setting that controls whether unique benefit IDs sent in issuance methods are validated for uniqueness. Return Zero Balance is a setting that controls whether zero balance items are returned in benefit balance requests from public interfaces. Getting Started 26

33 IVR Element Validation is a setting that controls what data is required and validated in order for IVR features to work. This can either be on at the household level, on at the cardholder level, or off. Mailed Card Element Validation is a setting that controls what data is required and validated in order for mailed card replacement features to work. Redemption File Type Codes setting is a required field and includes "Retail Only" and "Retail + J&T" selections in the drop-down. When "Retail + J&T" is selected, those type codes will be included in the redemption file. J&T types in the redemption file will map to any external payment requests that were approved and placed in an ACH file that day. Benefit History Range (Days) is a setting that controls the maximum number of history days that can be searched for using the benefit history interface methods. Redemption History Range (Days) is a setting that controls the maximum number of history days that can be searched for using the redemption history interface methods. Card History Range (Days) is a setting that controls the maximum number of history days that can be searched for using the card history interface methods. The Benefit Activity Files, Card Change Activity Files, Master Card Change Activity Files, Vendor Operational Activity Files, Category/Subcategory Files, Recoupment Activity Files, Redemption Activity Files, WIC ACH Payment Report Files, All Transaction Files, All Batch Files, and All User Audit Files settings together control what file versions are produced when various jobs run WIC Direct Stale Data Settings The Stale Data settings panel contains the following settings: Log4Net Retention, System Token Retention, Sign On Retention, System Balance Retention, Handshake Retention, and Sign Off Retention. Each of these settings controls the number of days after which that type of data is purged by the stale data job. To change any of the settings, manually enter the number of days in the text box corresponding to a setting File Settings Getting Started 27

34 Archive FTP Files controls whether or not files placed in the selected file transfer protocol Inbox and Outbox are also saved to a corresponding _Archive folder. Refer to Appendix A: WIC Direct FTP Directory Structure for more information. Expungement Period is used to set the number of days after which benefits will be purged from accounts. A zero day setting can be applied to ensure benefits are expunged immediately after expiration. The Days to Keep Archived Files (selected file transfer protocol) panel is used to define the number of days that the archived file types should be retained. The panel will list all possible file types and allow for retention to be set per file type. Retention is based on the date that the file was created. Getting Started 28

35 4 The WIC Direct menu is organized as follows: When a menu item is clicked, it will be highlighted and the submenu (if applicable) will appear. The example below shows what happens when Cards is clicked. The table below summarizes the WIC Direct functions that are relevant to the audiences outlined in Section 2.1 Document Purpose. WIC Direct Function Section Number System and Network Administrators Customer Support WIC Program Administrators Clinic Personnel System Developers Accounts 4.1 X X X X Cards 4.2 X X X Users 4.3 X X X Products 4.4 X X X X Vendors 4.5 X X X X Transactions 4.6 X X X X Reconciliation 4.7 X X X Reports 4.8 X X X X Jobs 4.9 X X Files 4.10 X X Devices 4.11 X X Messages 4.12 X X Logs 4.13 X X Refer to the appropriate section for instructions on how to use these functions. 4.1 Accounts The Accounts function is used to perform a variety of tasks related to WIC participant accounts stored in WIC Direct. This includes: Adding a new account Searching for an existing account Viewing account details Updating account information Adding, deleting, and modifying benefits Performing card and PIN maintenance Exporting account and benefit information to an Excel spreadsheet 29

36 Normally, account numbers are created by the WIC Clinic Management System and added to WIC Direct using the interface between the two systems. However, WIC Direct also provides the ability to add new accounts directly via the WIC Direct UI. To access the menu, click. By default, all account types are listed, sorted by Household Number. WIC Direct supports five types of accounts: Normal: Accounts containing actual WIC participants Compliance: Accounts used by WIC program administrators to oversee the program Educational: Accounts created for training and educational purposes Emergency Disaster: Accounts created to be used during disaster situations Vendor: Accounts created for vendor use. Security groups control the ability to see information related to specific account types. The absence of the account type search filter and search results column implies that the user can only view, add, and edit normal accounts Adding an EBT Account To add a new EBT account, click the NEW button from the Accounts screen. The Add Account screen will be displayed: Enter the necessary information for the new account. The household number may be alphabetic or numeric, depending on the MIS Household Format setting described in Section 3.8.1, Accounts. The maximum size for a household number is 25 characters. 30

37 Click the SAVE & NEW button new account, SAVE & BACK Accounts screen, or cardholder. to save the new account information and add another to save the new account information and return to the to save the new account information and add a Notice the message at the top of the screen Adding a Cardholder to an Account Cardholders can be added to an account at any time. The number of cardholders that can be associated with an account is controlled by the Allowed Cards Per Household configuration parameter described in Section 3.8.1, Accounts. The instructions below assume that a PIN pad device is connected to the computer. If was selected when a new account was created, the Add Card/Cardholder screen will display. To add a cardholder after the account was created, click the household number displayed on the Accounts screen to open the Account Details screen. Click screen. on the Account Details screen to view the Add Card/Cardholder 31

38 If is not present on the Account Details screen, this indicates that the maximum number of cardholders per account has been reached. Section 3.8.2, Cards describes this setting. To add a new cardholder, click inside the Card Number field. A six-digit BIN number will appear. Select the next card from the clinic inventory. If your agency uses a card reader/wedge, swipe the card through the card reader. The card number will automatically appear in the Card Number field. If a card reader is not used, the card number can be manually typed in the Card Number field. This is true for all card number fields throughout the website. Select the Cardholder Type, if this field is displayed. Enter the cardholder s name, address (optionally), birth date, and (optionally) the cardholder s address. Click the Birth Date field to display a calendar with dropdown lists for the month and year. Select the birth date by clicking on the date. Note that the year drop-down list has a scroll bar due to its length. A PIN can be assigned to the card by clicking the link. Using the PIN pad device connected to the computer, have the participant enter a PIN and re-enter the PIN when prompted. Note there is a 30-second timeout period for entering the PIN. Once the PIN is entered and accepted, will change to. 32

39 If the two PINs entered do not match, the PIN pad device will display an error message. Wait until the 30-second timeout expires or click the countdown link to redisplay the link. Click to save the cardholder information and add another cardholder or to save the cardholder information and return to the Accounts screen. If a PIN has not been assigned, you will be prompted to confirm your intention to add a cardholder without assigning a PIN. If you want to assign a PIN before saving the cardholder, click No and follow the steps outlined above to enter a PIN. Otherwise, click Yes to save the new cardholder without assigning a PIN. The status of each card assigned to the account is displayed on the Account Details screen. The PIN Selected column indicates whether a PIN has been assigned to the card. NOTE: If WIC Direct has been configured to allow at most one card per account, the Cardholder Type field will not be displayed. Section 3.9.1, Accounts describes this setting Searching for an Existing EBT Account When the menu item is first clicked, the full, unfiltered list of accounts stored in WIC Direct is displayed in ascending order by household number. The top section of the Accounts screen is used to filter the account list. It is easier to search for a particular account by first filtering the list. 33

40 A search is initiated by entering information in any of the fields in the filter area and clicking. The list of accounts that match the search criteria will be displayed. To hide the search filter area, click. To expand the search filter area, click Viewing an Existing EBT Account From the Accounts screen, locate the desired account in the list. Click the Household Number link in the first column. In this example, account details for household number , cardholder Joshua N. Thomas, will be displayed on the Account Details screen. 34

41 The upper section of the Account Details screen displays account information stored in WIC Direct. The Current and Future Benefits panel lists the benefits assigned to an account. Different benefit periods can be viewed by changing the Benefit Period drop-down. Unique benefit identifiers, if present, identify a specific benefit issuance. These identifiers prevent duplicate issuances and allow clinic personnel to cancel a specific benefit issuance. Identifiers are unique to each system. The Current and Future Authorizations panel displays any current or future authorizations for the account. Different benefit authorizations can be viewed by entering different filter criteria. For more information on adding, viewing, and voiding product authorizations, see Section Warehouse Authorizations. A number of functions can be performed from the Account Details screen including: Card maintenance (via the Actions drop-down list) Updating account information Adding a new cardholder to an EBT account Viewing, adding, and changing benefits Viewing transaction history Exporting benefits to an Excel spreadsheet Printing a benefit shopping list to give to the WIC participant via the Print Benefit Balance link Adding new authorizations, viewing and voiding existing authorizations The Cardholder and Benefit panels are described in the following sections. 35

42 Some of the cardholder and card actions require that the Core Interop software be installed on your computer and a PIN pad device connected. Refer to Section 3.6, Understanding Core Interop for software installation instructions Actions on an EBT Card The Actions function is comparable to housekeeping functions for existing EBT card accounts. A number of actions can be performed on an EBT card or cardholder including: Changing a PIN Clearing PIN history Unlocking a PIN Deactivating a card Replacing a card Updating a cardholder The status of the card determines which actions are displayed in the Actions drop-down list. For example, if the card was previously deactivated because it was lost, the Actions drop-down list will not list Change PIN or Deactivate Card as options because the card is already deactivated and cannot be reactivated. In the example above, all of the actions are available because the card is active. The Card Status column on the Account Details screen will change to reflect the current state of the card. When a card becomes inactive (e.g., due to a PIN lock or manual deactivation), the date and time when the change occurred will be displayed. Below is an example of a card that was deactivated because it was lost. 36

43 When an inactive card transitions back to the active state, the Card Status column will be updated to reflect the date and time when the card became active. Normally, this occurs when a PIN lock is cleared Changing a PIN To change a participant PIN, be sure that a PIN select device is connected to the computer, then select Change PIN from the Actions drop-down list on the Account Details screen and click Change PIN screen will be displayed.. The Click the link. The message Enter PIN will appear in the window on the PIN pad device. Have the participant enter a new PIN and press ENTER. Have the participant re-enter the new PIN when prompted. Note the 30-second timeout for entering and re-entering a new PIN. Click to save the new PIN. If the two PINs entered do not match, the PIN pad device will display an error message. Wait until the 30-second timeout expires or click the countdown link to redisplay the link Clearing PIN History Clear PIN History is used to erase the PIN history associated with a card. If, for example, the participant had changed their PIN five times, all five PINs will be erased when this action is invoked. The Clear PIN History action will most likely be used to force a participant to reset their PIN via an interactive voice response (IVR) system. When no PIN is selected due to the history being cleared, the IVR will prompt the participant to select a new PIN. If the participant is in the clinic and a PIN pad device is available, there is no need to clear PIN history prior to executing the Change PIN action described in Section , Changing a PIN. 37

44 To clear the PIN history for a card, select Clear PIN History from the Actions drop-down list and click. A message will be displayed indicating that the PIN history has been cleared and PIN Selected will change from Yes to No. NOTE: The user is not prompted to confirm the action prior to the system executing the command Unlocking a PIN If waiting until the PIN Reset Time is not an option, unlocking a PIN can be performed immediately. If a Card Status is PIN Locked, the Action drop-down list includes the option Unlock PIN. Select Unlock PIN, and then click Go. The PIN is unlocked, and a message displays at the top of the screen to tell you the PIN was unlocked. The user s Card Status returns to Active Deactivating a Card To deactivate a card, select Deactivate Card from the Actions drop-down list and click. 38

45 The Deactivate Card screen will be displayed. Select the reason for card deactivation from the dropdown list and click. To cancel the deactivation after any selection is made, and return to the Account Details screen, click. The message will appear when deactivation is complete Cardholder Deactivate and Restrict To deactivate a cardholder and prevent that cardholder from receiving a replacement card using any replacement method available, select Deactivate Card from the Actions drop-down and click. The Deactivate Card screen will be displayed. Select the reason Restrict Access from the Card Deactivation Reason drop-down and click. 39

46 The message will appear when deactivation is complete. In addition to the card deactivation, the option to replace card will no longer appear under the actions for that cardholder, and the card status will indicate that access has been restricted Replacing a Card To replace an EBT card, select Replace Card from the Actions drop-down list and click. The Replace Card screen will be displayed. 40

47 Click inside the New Card Number field. A six-digit BIN number will be displayed. Select the next available card from the clinic s card inventory and swipe it in the card reader device. Select a reason for the card replacement and click the cardholder will carry forward to the new card.. Notice that the PIN previously selected by If the card was successfully replaced, the message top of the screen. will appear at the Mailed Card Replacement To mail a card replacement to a participant, click the link on the Replace Card screen. This link is an optional feature that is controlled by the Mailed Card Element Validation field in the Settings menu item. 41

48 When the Mail Card link is clicked, the New Card Number field will become disabled and the value of the text field will be replaced with zeros. If the Mail Card link has been selected by mistake, click Cancel. Select a Card Replacement Reason from the drop-down menu, then click. 42

49 The warning message will appear when the save button has been clicked. To continue with the mailed card replacement, click one of the Yes options. The message replacement has been submitted successfully. will be displayed when the mail card While the mailed card replacement is processing, the Account Details screen for the account will show that the previous card is inactive and has been deactivated, and a message will be displayed that there is a mailed card replacement pending. After the Card Orders job runs and successfully assigns a new card number for mailing, the message about a pending mailed card replacement will no longer appear and the new replacement card will be listed Updating a Cardholder To update cardholder information, select Update Cardholder from the Actions drop-down list and click. 43

50 The Update Cardholder screen will be displayed. Change the cardholder information as needed and click. To exit without saving your changes, click Updating an Account To update an existing EBT account, click the Update Account screen. on the Account Details screen. You will be taken to Update the necessary information and click when complete Viewing Participant Benefits Assigned benefits for each period are displayed on the Account Details screen in the Current and Future Benefits panel. By default, the current benefit period will be displayed. To view a future benefit period, select the benefit period using the drop-down and click. 44

51 Printing Benefit Balance To print participant benefits, click the Print Benefit Balance link at the bottom of the Account Details page. The Benefit Balance pop-up will appear. Click the Print Page link at the top of the pop-up page Adding Benefits to an Account Benefits can be added from the Account Details screen by clicking. 45

52 The Issue Benefits screen will be displayed. Note that while only the current benefit period is displayed, benefits for any time period can be adjusted from this screen. To add a new benefit to the account, enter the category, subcategory, and quantity of benefit. Assign the benefit period by selecting a timeframe. If the dates entered match an existing benefit period as displayed on the Account Details screen, the benefit will be added to that period. Otherwise, a new benefit period will be created. 46

53 Click to add the benefit to the account. The message will be displayed when the benefit is successfully added. More than one benefit can be added by repeating the steps above. When finished, click to return to the Account Details screen. The newly added benefits can be viewed by selecting the appropriate Benefit Period Adjusting Benefits for an Existing Time Period Benefits can be modified for a particular time period by selecting the appropriate Benefit Period and clicking. 47

54 The Issue Benefits screen for that time period will be displayed. Notice that the benefit period (begin date and end date) is grayed out. Currently assigned benefits are ordered numerically by category. Subcategory and quantity are also displayed. To adjust a benefit (add or reduce) for a subcategory, click in the row that lists the benefit you want to change. The Add/Reduce Benefits panel will populate with the selected benefit information. 48

55 To reduce the benefit, modify the Quantity field, entering the quantity to be removed. Click. For example, if the participant benefit is currently three dozen eggs and you want to reduce it to two dozen eggs, enter 1 in the quantity field and click. The message screen. will be displayed at the top of the To increase the benefit, enter the quantity to be increased and click. Using the same example, enter 1 in the quantity field to increase the participant benefit from three dozen to four dozen eggs and click. The message Benefits panel will reflect the change. will appear and the quantity displayed in the Exporting Account Information The list of accounts displayed on the Accounts screen can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet. In the example below, an account search has returned all households with the last name James. 49

56 To export the list to Excel, click. A spreadsheet similar to the one below will be created Exporting Benefits To export benefit information for a particular time period, go to the Account Details screen for the account. Select the Benefit Period and click to display the benefits. Click. You will be prompted to confirm whether you want to open or save the Excel file. A spreadsheet similar to the one below will be created. 50

57 Warehouse Authorizations The bottom portion of the Account Details screen contains a panel for displaying current and future authorizations for the household being viewed. The panel includes a filter area for narrowing down the authorizations displayed by benefit period, vendor, and/or product. The grid will display all of the details on the authorizations matching the filter criteria including benefit period, vendor, product, original quantity, and remaining quantity. 51

58 Clicking the UPC/PLU link for an authorization will return the Product Details screen for that item. Clicking the Vendor MIS Number link will return the Vendor Details screen for that vendor Adding Authorizations To add an authorization from the Account Details screen, click. The New Authorization screen will display. Complete all required fields and click to complete. When the authorization has been successfully saved, a message with the authorization code will be shown above the panel. NOTE: When a new authorization is added, the transaction will be logged on the Account History screen with Issue Benefit Authorization as the type Viewing an Authorization To view an authorization code, select View Code from the Actions drop-down for an authorization, then click Go. NOTE: When an existing authorization code is viewed, the transaction will be logged on the Account History screen with Get Warehouse Authorization Code as the type Voiding an Authorization To void an authorization code, select Void from the Action drop-down menu for an authorization, then click Go. 52

59 NOTE: When a new authorization is added, the transaction will be logged on the Account History screen with Void Benefit Authorization as the type Exporting Authorizations To export authorization information into an Excel spreadsheet, click Export. You will be prompted to confirm whether you want to open or save the Excel file Transactions and Account History To view account history and transactions, go to the Account Details screen for the account. Click located at the bottom of the screen. The Account History screen for the household will be displayed. 53

60 Use the search filters, if necessary, to locate the desired transaction. To view the details for a specific transaction, click the corresponding Host Generated Trace Number (HGTN) in the first column. Clicking on account-related transactions will take you to the Account History Details screen. Clicking on retailer-related transactions will take you to the Retail History Details screen. In the example below, HGTN 179 was selected. Section , Voiding a Transaction describes how to manually void a retail transaction. NOTE: Clicking the link at the bottom of the screen will display the account history for that specific household. This is different from clicking the menu item at the top of the screen, which will display transactions across all households. 54

61 4.2 Cards The Cards function in WIC Direct is used to: Search for EBT cards or groups of cards that have assigned benefits Search for cards assigned to an account or cardholder Check the status of an EBT card Order additional cards The list of cards stored in WIC Direct include cards that are active and in-use by WIC participants, new cards that have not yet been assigned, and cards that have been deactivated. To access the menu, click Searching for Cards By default, the Cards screen is displayed. This screen is used to search for cards by card number, search for cards assigned to a household account (Has EBA) or cardholder (Has Cardholder), or search for cards with associated benefits (Has Benefits). A card number can be entered manually in the Card Number field or it can be inputted using a PIN pad device by placing the cursor in the Card Number field and swiping it. Click to execute the search. The list of cards that match the search criteria will be displayed Checking Card Status To check the status of a particular card, search for the card following the steps outlined in Section 4.2.1, Searching for Cards. The Status column indicates whether the card is active or deactivated. A card that has been added to WIC Direct but is not yet assigned to a WIC participant will be in the active state. A card will become deactivated based on various card actions described in Section 4.1.5, Actions on an EBT Card. 55

62 4.2.3 Ordering Additional Cards and Tracking Status Ordering additional cards involves placing an order for physical cards and also placing an order to add more card numbers to the WIC Direct database. The instructions below assume that an order for physical cards is complete. To add the corresponding card numbers to WIC Direct, click page will be displayed.. The Card Orders Click to place the order. Enter the quantity of card numbers to be added. Click to the previous screen. to place the order and return The Card Orders page will be updated to show the new order. By default, card orders are processed once each day. When the order has been processed, the job status will change from Open to Processed. At that point, the newly added card numbers can be distributed to WIC participants. The new cards can be viewed from the the Number column. submenu by sorting 56

63 In this example, 10 card numbers were added to WIC Direct. Card orders can be searched using the drop-down list as shown below. The list can be filtered by changing the quantity size and date ranges. In the example below, a search was conducted for card orders that were processed between 12/1/2011 and 1/17/

64 4.3 Users The Users function in WIC Direct is used to: Add a new user to WIC Direct Update information for an existing user Assign a user to a specific security group Deactivate an existing user A user name and password is needed to access the WIC Direct UI. Security groups further refine access, controlling the screens and (in some cases) the icons and buttons that will be displayed while a user is logged in. To access the Users function, click. If you do not have permission to access the Users menu, you will receive an error message when is clicked. By default, the Users screen displays users in ascending order by user name. Security permissions control which users you are permitted to see. The top section of the Users screen is used to filter the users listed on the bottom section of the screen. It is sometimes easier to search for a particular user by first filtering the list. 58

65 4.3.1 Searching for a User To search for a user or group of users, enter information in one or more of the search fields at the top of the Users screen and click. When the user has been located, their information can be viewed, updated, or deactivated as described below. In the Users filter area, there is a drop-down list item for unassigned users. This is used to locate user accounts not assigned to a security group Adding a User To add a new user, click from the Users screen. The Add User screen will be displayed as shown below. 59

66 Complete the User Information section of the form. Assign the user to a security group. It is important to note that if a user is assigned to more than one group, access will be limited to the group that is the most restrictive. Finish filling in the remaining fields in the Access Information section. Click to save the information and add another user or screen. to save the information and return to the Users If you have successfully added a new user, the of the screen. message will appear at the top Updating User Information User information can be updated in one of two ways. The first way is to click the Username link for the user that you want to update. The User Details screen for that user will be displayed. From this screen, click. The Update User screen will be displayed. 60

67 You can also get to this screen directly from the Users screen by moving your pointer to the right of the user name to be edited. Edit and delete icons will appear. Clicking will take you to the Update User screen. To update a user from the Update User screen, there must be information in the First Name, Last Name, and Address fields as indicated by the red asterisks. Add or remove a user from a group by selecting the group and using or to move the group from the Available Groups list to the Assigned Groups list or vice versa. Click when complete Unlocking a user Click the Username link for the user that you want to unlock. 61

68 The User Details screen for that user will be displayed. From this screen, click. NOTE: only appears if the account is locked out. The user unlocked message displays, and disappears Deactivating a User Similar to updating user information, a user can be deactivated in one of two ways. The first way is to click the link for the user that you want to deactivate. The User Details screen will be displayed. 62

69 To deactivate the user, click. Note the warning message at the top of the screen. Click Yes to confirm the deactivation. A user can also be deactivated directly from the Users screen by moving the pointer to the right of the user name to be deactivated. Edit and deactivate icons will appear. Clicking will display the User Details screen and prompt you to confirm deactivation. Click Yes to proceed with deactivating the user. 63

70 4.3.6 Exporting User Information To export user information into an Excel spreadsheet, click. All of the user information listed on the Users screen will be exported into a spreadsheet similar to the one below. 4.4 Products In WIC Direct, products are WIC-eligible food items approved by the State Agency. Each product has a unique Price Look Up (PLU) or Universal Product Code (UPC). UPCs are assigned to products that have bar codes such as cereal, milk, or cheese. PLUs are assigned to products that are of variable measure such as meat, seafood, fruits, and grains. Products are managed by clicking. The Products function is divided into four areas: Products Categories Subcategories Units of Measure NTE Pricing Concepts NTE prices are viewable at the product (UPC) level or category/subcategory level for each peer group. Vendors that participate in the WIC program are assigned to a peer group based upon similar characteristics such as sales volume and type of store (major chain, discount grocery, independent). The NTE Price Level configuration parameter (Section 3.7.3, Pricing ) defines the level that will be used by WIC Direct. If the NTE Price Level is set to UPC, the NTE Prices panel will be visible on the Product Details screen. Note that when the NTE Price Level is set to UPC, subcategory level prices are still calculated and can 64

71 be used when no non-flagged UPC prices are available. These subcategory level prices will still be viewable using the Product Details screen when the NTE Price Level is set to UPC. If the NTE Price Level is set to Cat/Subcat, the NTE Prices panel will be visible on the Subcategory Details screen. NTE price information includes the effective and last calculated NTE prices, NTE level, variance, threshold, and price override information for each peer group. 65

72 Over Variance will be Yes when the new NTE price differs from the old NTE by more than a set percentage as established by the WIC Agency. Below Threshold will be Yes when there have not been enough redemptions for the NTE price to be considered statistically sound. Effective NTE Price and Last Calculated NTE Price may differ based on variance and threshold. Last Calculated NTE Price is simply the last calculated price without consideration for variance or threshold. Effective NTE Price is the actual value used by WIC Direct when determining the price for a product that was purchased. Price Overridden indicates prices that have been manually overridden by a WIC administrator. NTE price history and overrides are only available at the product level, i.e., when NTE Price Level is set to UPC Managing Products The Products screen is displayed by default when to filter products by: is clicked. Search criteria allow a user UPC/PLU Description Category Subcategory Searching for and Viewing a Product To search for a specific food product, enter information in the search filters at the top of the Products screen. Click to filter the list. 66

73 The bottom section of the Products screen will list all of the products that match the search criteria. Information displayed for each product includes: UPC/PLU: Product code assigned to a specific food item Description: Brief description of the food item Category: Numeric category and name of the food item as set by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Subcategory: Numeric subcategory and name of the food item as set by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Exchange Size: Indicates the number of units (e.g., gallons, ounces) that will be deducted from a participant s benefits when a purchase is made for the food item NTE Exception: Indicates whether or not there have been enough purchases to accurately calculate the NTE price NTE Overridden: Indicates if the product NTE price for a specific peer group has been overridden by a WIC program administrator Active Date: The date when the product was authorized for purchase Deactivate Date: The date when the product is no longer authorized for purchase (e.g., discontinued formula or other product) Status: Indicates whether the product is currently available as a benefit for issuance to a WIC participant 67

74 When the desired product is located in the product list, click the corresponding UPC/PLU code in the first column. The Product Details screen will be displayed. The top portion of the Product Details screen displays the general details about the selected product. 68

75 The Current and Future Authorizations panel displays any current or future authorizations for the product being viewed. For more information on adding, viewing, and voiding product authorizations, see Section Product Authorizations. The NTE Prices panel will be visible on the Product Details screen if the NTE Price Level configuration parameter is set to UPC (see Section 3.7.3, Pricing ) Product Authorizations Authorizations can be filtered by Benefit Period, Household Number, and/or Vendor MIS Number. The authorizations grid displays all of the details on the authorizations matching the filter criteria including the benefit period, account, product, original quantity, and remaining quantity Adding Authorizations To add an authorization from the Product Details screen, click. The New Authorization screen will display. Complete all required fields and click to complete Viewing an Authorization To view an existing authorization code from the Product Details screen, select View Code from the Actions drop-down corresponding to the authorization, then click Go Voiding an Authorization To void an existing authorization from the Product Details screen, select Void from the Actions dropdown corresponding to the authorization, then click Go Overriding an NTE Price WIC Direct users can manually override NTE prices for products that are in the Active state. To manually override an NTE price for a peer group, search for the product by following the steps outlined in Section , Searching for and Viewing a Product. From the Product Details screen, locate the peer group price to be overridden in the NTE Prices panel. Enter the new NTE price in the Effective NTE Price column and click the changed price. to the right of 69

76 The system will prompt you to confirm the override. Click Yes to proceed. When the price is successfully overridden, the top of the screen and the Price Overridden column will be set to Yes. message will appear at the 70

77 Viewing NTE Price History To view the NTE price history for a particular product, click on the Product Details screen. The NTE History screen will be displayed. Prices will be listed in reverse chronological order with the most recent prices displayed first. Users can filter the NTE history by price, date, variance, threshold, price override, and peer group. 71

78 The date range is dependent on the Maximum NTE History configuration parameter (described in Section 3.7.3, Pricing ). If a search is entered that is outside the maximum NTE history range, an error message will be displayed. To change the beginning or ending date, click inside the field to open a calendar view. To change the year, you must select the year, then month and day, in that order Updating the NTE default The NTE default value is the value used for new items added to the system before there is enough transactional data to determine the NTE. There are two different places from which the NTE default price can be updated: At the NTE Settings level (described in Section 3.7.3, Pricing ). At the Subcategory level (described in 4.4.4, Managing Subcategories ). The value specified in one subcategory will be applied to all subcategories within a category. The value specified at the subcategory level is per unit allotted, not per item. When determining the appropriate NTE value to use, the system first checks for a calculated NTE value for the product. If no calculated NTE exists, a default NTE value is used. To determine which default NTE value is used, the system checks for an NTE price specified at the Subcategory level. If no value is found, the value specified in the NTE settings is used Deactivating and Reactivating a Product Individual food items can be deactivated and reactivated from the Products screen. Items that are deactivated are no longer available as a benefit to WIC participants. The state of the product is listed on the Products screen in the Status column. 72

79 An active product can be deactivated from the Products screen by placing the cursor in between the UPC/PLU and Description columns until the icon appears. To deactivate the product, click the icon. The system will take you to the Product Details screen. If Show Warnings is enabled in the user profile, you will be prompted to confirm the deactivation request. Click Yes to proceed. 73

80 A message will appear when the product has been deactivated. Click to go back to the Products screen. Notice that the status has been changed to Inactive and the Deactivate Date has been updated to reflect today s date. To reactivate a product, place the cursor in between the UPC/PLU and Description columns of an Inactive product. The icon will appear. To reactivate the product, click the icon. The system will take you to the Product Details screen where you will be prompted to confirm the reactivation request. Click Yes to proceed. 74

81 A message will appear when the product has been reactivated and the status on the Products screen will change from Inactive to Active. Products can also be activated from the Products Detail screen. If the product is currently active, you will see a icon. If the product is currently inactive, you will see a icon. Click the button and answer Yes to confirm your request Exporting NTE Prices NTE price history and effective NTE prices can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the NTE History screen or on the NTE Prices panel of the Product Details screen. 75

82 You will be prompted to confirm whether you want to open or save the file Managing Categories There are 17 food categories in WIC Direct as established by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. Each category has an associated numeric code and is subdivided into more specific food items, each with its own numeric code. To manage food categories in WIC Direct, click Subcategories describes how to manage subcategories.. Section 4.4.4, Managing When is clicked, the Categories screen is displayed. From this screen, administrators can: 76

83 Add a new category View detailed information about a category Update a category Delete a category Export category information to an Excel spreadsheet Viewing Category Details To view the details for a specific category, click the corresponding category number in the Code column. The Category Details screen will be displayed. Users can also add, update, or delete a category from this screen. The steps to perform these actions are described in the following sections Adding a New Category A new category can be added from the Categories or Category Details screens by clicking. 77

84 The Add Category screen will be displayed. Required information to add a new category includes: Code- Unique numeric code for a category Description- Description of what the category contains Allowed Vendor Types- Types of vendors in which the category is authorized to be sold. By default, a category is allowed across all vendor types unless specifically restricted. Effective Date- Date that the new category is effective Click to save the information and add another new category or click to save the information and return to the previous screen. 78

85 Updating a Category Categories can be modified in one of two ways. The first way to edit a category is to click the corresponding category number in the Code column. The Category Details screen for that category will be displayed. Click. The Update Category screen for that item will be displayed. Note that the code is grayed out. To change the code, click to the right of the Code field. The code is no longer grayed out and can now be changed. Edit the remaining information as necessary. Click to save your changes or to exit without saving changes. 79

86 The second way to edit a category is by placing the pointer in between the Code and Short Description columns on the Categories screen. An edit icon will appear. Click it to display the Update Category screen and follow the procedures described above to edit the category Deleting a Category Categories can also be deleted in one of two ways. The first way to delete a category is to click on the Category Details screen. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion. Click Yes to proceed. The second way to delete a category is by placing the pointer in between the Code and Short Description columns on the Categories screen. 80

87 A delete category. icon will appear. Click it and follow the procedure outlined above to delete the Exporting Category Information To export category information to an Excel spreadsheet, click on the Categories screen. A spreadsheet similar to the one below will be created. 81

88 4.4.4 Managing Subcategories Subcategories are used to manage subcategories in the approved food items list. Click to view the Subcategories screen. From this screen, administrators can: Search for and view detailed information about a subcategory Add a new subcategory Update a subcategory Delete a subcategory 82

89 Export subcategory information to an Excel spreadsheet Export NTE prices Information displayed for each subcategory includes: Category Code Short Description Description Category Unit of Measure RX Required: Indicates if a prescription is required for this food item, e.g., specialized baby formula NTE Exempt: Indicates whether WIC Direct will automatically calculate the NTE price NTE Exception NTE Overridden NTE Default Effective Date Terminate Date Searching for a Subcategory To locate the subcategories associated with a product category, select the category desired in the drop-down list and click. The example below shows how to initiate a search for Category 12 Infant Fruits & Vegetables. 83

90 The resulting search lists four approved subcategories for Category 12 Infant Fruits & Vegetables Viewing Subcategory Details To view the details for a specific subcategory, click the corresponding number in the Code column. The Subcategory Details screen displays the details specific to that subcategory. The NTE Prices panel will be visible if the NTE Price Level configuration parameter is set to Cat/Subcat. Refer to Section 3.7.3, Pricing for more information. 84

91 Users can also add, update, or delete a subcategory from the Subcategory Details screen. The steps to perform these actions are described in the following sections Adding a New Subcategory A new subcategory can be added from the Subcategories or Subcategory Details screens by clicking. The Add Subcategory screen will be displayed. 85

92 Note the Category drop-down list includes all of the categories defined under (Section 4.4.3, Managing Categories ). The Unit of Measure drop-down list contains a list of measures defined under (Section 4.4.5, Managing Units of Measure ). Add the necessary information. Click to save the information and add another new subcategory or click to save the information and return to the previous screen. NOTE: If you add a subcategory that already exists, you will receive an error message Updating a Subcategory The process to update an existing subcategory is similar to the steps required to update a category. Subcategories can be updated from the Subcategory Details screen by clicking or from the Subcategories screen by placing the mouse in between the Code and Short Description columns until the edit icon appears. Click the icon. 86

93 The Update Subcategory screen will be displayed. To change the code, click and can now be changed. to the left of the Code field. The code will no longer be grayed out Edit the subcategory information as necessary. Click when complete. 87

94 Deleting a Subcategory The process to delete a subcategory is similar to the process to delete a category. Subcategories can be deleted from the Subcategory Details screen by clicking or from the Subcategories screen by placing the pointer in between the Code and Short Description columns until the delete icon appears. Click the icon. You will be prompted to confirm the delete. Click Yes to proceed with deleting the subcategory Exporting Subcategory Information To export subcategory information to an Excel spreadsheet, click screen. from the Subcategories 88

95 A spreadsheet similar to the one below will be created Exporting NTE Prices NTE prices for each peer group can be exported from the Subcategory Details screen. To export the prices to an Excel spreadsheet, click. The example below shows the exported NTE prices for Infant Fruits and Vegetables. 89

96 4.4.5 Managing Units of Measure Units of Measure is used to manage the measurements used for WIC-approved products. To view the Units of Measure screen, click. Information displayed on this screen includes: Number: The number that WIC Direct assigns to a unit of measure Short Description: This is an abbreviation for the measurement Description: This is a long description of the measurement From this screen, users can: View details about a particular unit of measure Add a new unit of measure Update unit of measure information Delete a unit of measure Export unit of measure information to an Excel spreadsheet Viewing Unit of Measure Details To view the details for a specific unit of measure, click the corresponding number in the Number column. 90

97 The Unit of Measure Details screen displays the details specific to that measure. Users can also add, update, or delete a measure from this screen. The steps to perform these actions are described in the following sections Adding a New Unit of Measure A new unit of measure can be added from the Units of Measure screen or Unit of Measure Details screen by clicking. The Add Unit of Measure screen will be displayed. Add the necessary information. Click to save the information and add another new unit of measure or to save the information and return to the Units of Measure screen. 91

98 Updating a Unit of Measure The process to update an existing measure is similar to the steps required to update categories and subcategories. Measures can be updated from the Unit of Measure Details screen by clicking or from the Units of Measure screen by placing the pointer in between the Number and Short Description columns until the edit icon appears. Click the icon. The Update Unit of Measure screen will be displayed. To change the code, click to the left of the Number field. The number will no longer be grayed out and can now be changed. Edit the information as necessary. Click to save your changes Deleting a Unit of Measure The process to delete a food measure is similar to the process to delete categories and subcategories. A unit of measure can be deleted from the Unit of Measure Details screen by clicking or from the Units of Measure screen by placing the pointer in between the Number and Short Description columns until the delete icon appears. Click the icon. 92

99 You will be prompted to confirm the delete. Click Yes to proceed with deleting the measure Exporting Units of Measure Information To export units of measure information to an Excel spreadsheet, click Measure screen. from the Units of 93

100 A spreadsheet similar to the one below is created. 4.5 Vendors State WIC Program administrators use the Vendors function to: Search for and view vendors and banks Add new vendors and banks Update vendor and bank information Deactivate and reactivate a vendor or bank Export vendor or bank information to an Excel spreadsheet Associate a bank with a vendor Vendors are categorized into peer groups defined by the state Searching for and Viewing Vendor Information The top section of the Vendors screen is used to filter the list of vendors displayed. 94

101 The Peer Group drop-down allows users to search for categories of vendors. To search for a vendor or group of vendors, enter information in any of the search filters and click. A list of vendors that meet the search criteria will be returned. In the example below, a search has been entered for WIC-approved vendors located in the zip code. 95

102 Vendor information displayed includes: Vendor Name: The name of the retail store Vendor Type: The type of retailer (Ex: chain, corporation, farmers market, formula warehouse, pharmacy, etc.) Vendor MIS Number: The vendor number assigned by the MIS Vendor X9 Number: The vendor identification number required for X9 messages Vendor Address: The address of the specific retail store Peer Group: The peer group to which the vendor has been assigned Above 50%: Indicates if WIC food sales constitute more than 50 percent of gross food sales for a vendor Individual APL: Indicates whether the APL is saved to a vendor s individual folder Direct Connect: Indicates whether or not the vendor connects directly to WIC Direct to exchange transaction or other information as opposed to connecting to WIC Direct through a third party provider or gateway DC Needs AR: Indicates whether a direct connect vendor needs an auto reconciliation file Dial-Up: Indicates whether a vendor uses a dial-up Internet connection Activate Date/Time: The date the vendor was activated in WIC Direct Deactivate Date/Time: The date the vendor was deactivated in WIC Direct Record Status: Indicates whether a vendor is active or inactive (although it is maintained in the system history) To view all of the information associated with a vendor, click the vendor name in the first column. 96

103 The Vendor Details screen will be displayed Vendor Details Note that two numbers identify a particular vendor in WIC Direct: the MIS number (state vendor identifier) and the X9 number (identifier used for messaging). The MIS number is input by the user and the X9 number is automatically set to match the State MIS number. If the MIS number is later changed by the WIC agency, then the X9 number will remain as the original value. This is so that point-of-sale devices can be loaded with the initial X9 number and then not have to change in the 97

104 field when the MIS number changes later. Activation and deactivation dates will be displayed, if appropriate. Recoupment History for the selected vendor is displayed in a panel on the bottom portion of the Vendor Details page. To search for recoupment history, select a processing date and click Formula Warehouse Authorizations Formula Warehouse vendor types will display an additional panel on the bottom portion of the Vendor Details page for Current and Future Authorizations. This panel contains search filters to search for authorizations by benefit period, account, and/or product. The Current and Future Authorizations panel allows users to request a new authorization, view an authorization code for an existing authorization, and void existing authorizations. The authorizations grid displays all of the details on the authorizations matching the filter criteria including benefit period, account, product, original quantity, and remaining quantity. Clicking the UPC/PLU link for an authorization will return the Product Details screen for that item. Clicking the Household Number link will return the Account Details screen for that account. 98

105 NOTE: Utilization of formula warehouse authorizations varies by WIC Agency. Not every WIC Agency uses the formula warehouse feature in WIC Direct. Some WIC Agencies issue formula warehouse benefits in the MIS and send those benefits to WIC Direct through the MIS to EBT interface. Other WIC Agencies issue formula warehouse benefits manually, directly in the WIC Direct user interface as shown in this section Adding Authorizations To add an authorization from the Vendor Details screen, click. The New Authorization screen will display. Complete all required fields and click to complete. When the authorization has been successfully saved, a message with the authorization code will be shown above the panel Viewing an Authorization To view an authorization code, select View Code from the Actions drop-down for an authorization, then click Go Voiding an Authorization To void an authorization code, select Void from the Action drop-down menu for an authorization, then click Go. 99

106 4.5.2 Adding a Vendor To add a vendor, click on the Vendors screen. The Add Vendor screen will be displayed. Name is the vendor s name. Number is the vendor number assigned by the state. Vendor Numbers can be up to 12 characters long. The Peer Group, State, Above 50%, Individual APL, and Direct Connect fields must be selected from the drop-down lists. 100

107 Contracting Agency is the county or district health department that contracts with a vendor. Food Sales represents annual gross food sales. Active Date can be entered by typing the date in the format shown or clicking in the date field and selecting from the calendar that is displayed. Individual APL determines whether the APL will be downloaded directly to the vendor or to a third party provider. Add the necessary information. Click to save the information and add another vendor, to save the vendor and return to the previous screen, or to establish a link between the vendor and their bank. Refer to Section 4.5.7, Banks for more information on associating a bank to a vendor Updating Vendor Information To update vendor information, the first step is to search for the vendor as described in Section 4.5.1, Searching for and Viewing Vendor Information. WIC Direct provides two ways to access the screen to update vendor information. The first way is to click on the Vendor Details screen. The Update Vendor screen will be displayed. 101

108 Change the information as needed and click to complete. The second way to access the Update Vendor screen is directly from the Vendors screen. Locate the vendor in the list and place the pointer in between the Name and Vendor Type columns. An edit icon will appear. Click it to display the Update Vendor screen and follow the procedure above to edit the vendor. The bank associated with a vendor can also be updated from the Update Vendor screen. Refer to Section 4.5.7, Banks for more information Deactivating and Reactivating a Vendor The process to deactivate a vendor is similar to the steps required to update a vendor. The first step is to search for the vendor as described in Section 4.5.1, Searching for and Viewing Vendor Information. 102

109 A vendor can be deactivated from either the Vendor Details screen by clicking or from the Vendors screen by placing the mouse in between the Name and Vendor Type columns until the delete icon appears. Click the icon. The Deactivate Vendor screen will be displayed. Enter a deactivate date (or leave it blank for immediate deactivation) and click. 103

110 You will be prompted to confirm deactivation. The deactivate date and record status for the vendor will be updated when the deactivation is complete. Similar to the deactivation process, there are two ways to reactivate a vendor. The first way is to click from the Vendor Details screen. You confirm reactivation. Click Yes to proceed. will be prompted to A vendor can also be reactivated directly from the Vendors screen. Place the mouse in between the Name and Vendor Type columns until the reactivate reactivation as described above. icon appears. Click the icon and confirm 104

111 4.5.5 Viewing Bank Details and Transaction History The Vendor Details screen also provides quick links to view banking and transaction information related to a vendor. Click to display the Bank Details screen for that particular vendor s bank. Click to display the Retail History screen for that particular vendor. Refer to Sections 4.5.7, Banks and 4.6, Transactions for more information. Note that viewing banking and transaction information requires proper permissions. 105

112 4.5.6 Exporting Vendor Information The list of vendors displayed on the Vendors screen can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet by clicking. Below is an example of a vendor file that was created Banks The linkage between vendor and bank in WIC Direct is needed in order for the vendor to receive payment for WIC purchases. The Banks submenu is used to: Search for and view bank information Add a new bank Update bank information Deactivate and reactivate a bank Export bank information Associate a bank with a vendor These functions are described in the following sections Searching for and View Bank Information WIC Direct users can search for a bank by name or routing number. 106

113 To view details about a particular bank, click the name of the bank in the Name column. The Bank Details screen will be displayed. The information and buttons displayed on this screen will depend on your permissions Adding a Bank New banks can be added in WIC Direct by clicking screen. from the Banks screen or Bank Details The Add Bank screen will be displayed. 107

114 Add the bank information and click either or to save the new bank Updating Bank Information It is easier to update an existing bank by first locating the bank following the steps outlined in Section , Searching for and View Bank Information. Click screen. from the Bank Details The Update Bank screen will be displayed. Change the information as needed and click to complete Deactivating a Bank A bank can only be deactivated when it is not associated with any vendor. To deactivate a bank, locate it following the steps outlined in Section , Searching for and View Bank Information. Click from the Bank Details screen. You will be prompted to confirm deactivation. If you try to deactivate a bank associated with one or more vendors, you will receive the following message: 108

115 Exporting Bank Information The list of banks displayed on the Banks screen can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet by clicking. Below is an example of a banking file that was created Associating a Bank with a Vendor The link between vendor and bank can be established when the vendor is added to WIC Direct or it can be added later as a separate step. To associate a bank at the time the vendor is added to WIC Direct, click on the Add Vendor screen described in Section 4.5.2, Adding a Vendor. The Associate Vendor Bank screen will be displayed. 109

116 To associate a bank with an existing vendor not yet linked to a bank, navigate to the Update Vendor screen by following the steps described in Section 4.5.3, Updating Vendor Information. Click from the Update Vendor screen. On the Associate Vendor Bank screen, locate the vendor s bank in the list. If the bank is not in WIC Direct, follow the steps outlined in Section , Adding a Bank before proceeding with the instructions below. If the bank is in the system, it can be associated with the vendor by entering the account number and account type and selecting the bank. Click to complete. 4.6 Transactions Regardless of where they originate, every transaction processed by WIC Direct is recorded and assigned a unique number. This record of transactions is useful to clinic, vendor management, and customer support staff who have administrative responsibilities. Users can trace and reconcile retail transactions, determining whether a specific benefit was debited and for how much or whether the retailer was reimbursed for an item and for what amount. 110

117 Security groups control the ability to see information related to specific account types. The absence of the account type search filter and search results column implies that the user can only view normal accounts. The Transactions function is divided into three areas: Account History: Used to review transactions as they relate to WIC participants Retail History: Used to review transactions as they relate to WIC Direct vendors Administrative History: Used to monitor other user activities and changes The Account History screen and Transactions submenu will be automatically displayed when is clicked. The capabilities provided by these submenu items are described in the following sections Account History The Account History screen is used to review transactions for a specific account. This is the screen you will see by default when clicking. is clicked. The screen can also be recalled by The top section is used to search for and filter the list of transactions displayed in the lower portion of the screen. Information must be entered in one or more search fields to populate the transaction list. The information related to an account transaction includes: Host Generated Trace Number (HGTN): The unique trace number assigned to a transaction by WIC Direct System Trace Audit Number (STAN): The number assigned by the sender to uniquely identify a transaction Date/Time Range: Used to search for transactions that occurred during a specific timeframe as assigned by WIC Direct or the local server Date/Time Begin, Date/Time End: The timeframe in which to search for a particular transaction(s) Household Number: The account number assigned to a household at a clinic. Card Number: The EBT card number assigned to a cardholder and associated with specific transactions 111

118 Account Type: Indicates whether an account is normal, educational, compliance, emergency disaster, or a vendor. This field will display based on the user s membership in a security group. Clinic Number: A unique number that identifies a specific clinic Vendor MIS Number: A unique number assigned to a vendor by the MIS when the vendor is approved and entered into the system Vendor X9 Number: The vendor identifier required for X9 messages Transaction Type: One of many electronic transaction types in WIC Direct, e.g., Change PIN or Purchase Void Action Code: A list of all possible actions on a transaction Account ID: The internal identification number for an electronic benefit account (EBA) By default, transactions are sorted by HGTN with the most recent transaction (highest number) displayed first. Use the scroll bars to view all items in the Transaction Type and Action Code fields. Multiple values can be selected by holding down the CTRL key or SHIFT key and clicking the left mouse button. Enter search information in any of the search filter fields and click a search was executed for approved Add Account transaction types.. In the example below, 112

119 To view the details for a particular transaction, click the corresponding HGTN number in the first column. In the example below, HGTN 51 was selected for review Exporting Account History and Transaction Information A list of transactions can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet by clicking History screen. A spreadsheet similar to the one below will be created. on the Account NOTE: The exported information may span beyond the page view of the spreadsheet. Scroll to view the rest of the export as shown below. 113

120 4.6.2 Retail History To search for retail transactions that have been processed by WIC Direct, click. The Retail History screen will be displayed. The top portion of the screen contains filters that are used to search for a particular retail transaction or group of transactions. Multiple transaction types and action codes can be selected by holding down the CTRL key or SHIFT key and clicking the left mouse button. Note that the Adjustment drop-down contains filters used to adjust payment based on NTE, recoupment, or both. 114

121 In the example below, a search was executed for purchase requests within a specific date range. To view the details for a purchase request, click the number in the HGTN column. To view the household associated with the retail transaction, click the number in the Household column. 115

122 The Retail History Details screen will be displayed when the HGTN number is clicked. The upper section of the screen displays information about when and where the transaction occurred. The Retrieval Reference Number is the number assigned by the message sender (i.e., vendor or third party) to uniquely track the message. Card Acceptor Code is a code that identifies the store that accepted the card. Card Acceptor Terminal is a number that uniquely identifies the point of sale (POS) device in the store. The bottom section of the Retail History Details screen displays information about the product purchased, including pricing and benefit information, transaction status, and settled price. Directly below the purchase details is a grid that displays the benefit balances remaining in the account after the transaction Voiding a Transaction The transaction currently displayed on the Retail History screen can be manually voided by entering the reason for the void in the Manual Void Comments field and clicking generated lists the initials of the person who initiated the void.. The void A user can navigate to the Retail History Details screen by way of the Retail History screen (described above) or the Account Details screen (described Section , Transactions and Account History ) Administrative History Administrative History is used to track other user activities and changes. Click to view the Administrative History screen. 116

123 The filters at the top of the screen are used to search for a specific transaction or group of transactions. Multiple transaction types and action codes can be selected by holding down the CTRL key or SHIFT key and clicking the left mouse button. In the example above, a search for Update User transaction types was executed. One transaction for the specified time period was returned. Note that the numbers in the HGTN column are not links to further information. Administrative History can be exported by clicking the Export button at the top of the page. 4.7 Reconciliation The Reconciliation function is used to validate the financial integrity of WIC Direct, detect problems, initiate problem resolution procedures, and view detailed financial data. WIC Direct generates automated alerts to notify appropriate staff when a problem is detected. The process of financial reconciliation ensures that external entities receive correct payments for approved transactions in WIC Direct. Reconciliation is divided into the following sections: Drawdown: Used to view the total amount of funds, broken down by gateway and ACH totals, expected to be drawn in order to pay vendors for a given settlement date. 117

124 Gateway History: Used to view a full reconciliation of retail activity for gateway institutions for a given settlement date, broken down by Institution Name, Activity Today, Activity Yesterday, Settlement Date, Settlement Amount, Variance, and Running Variance. Automated Clearing House (ACH) History: Used to view a full reconciliation of retail activity for direct connect and TPP entities as well as external payments. Financials: Used to search for financial activity data for a given processing date, and optionally, for a specific institution. Recoupment: Used to search for net details on recoupment activity by vendor for a given processing date and, optionally, for a specific vendor. Unmatched Auto-Reconciliation: Used to identify transaction discrepancies between a gateway and WIC Direct Unreconciled Auto-Reconciliation: Used to identify unreconciled gateway transactions that occurred prior to the last gateway cutoff time System Balancing: Used to view the balancing of total benefits in the system, or any exceptions found in benefit balances in the system. Case Month Billing: Used to view the number of billable households broken down by account type for a given benefit month and benefit year. The Drawdown page and Reconciliation submenu will be automatically displayed when is clicked. The capabilities provided by these submenu items are described in the following sections Drawdown The Drawdown page shows by default when is clicked. Drawdown shows the total amount of funds, broken down by gateway and ACH totals, expected to be drawn in order to pay vendors for a given settlement date. To initiate a search, select the Settlement Month and Settlement Year (required fields) and click. 118

125 NOTE: If there is no data to return for the settlement month and year entered, the report will simply display a message that reads No activity for selected period. If there is data to return for the settlement month and year entered, the results grid will include columns for the settlement date, the gateway total, the ACH totals (internal and external), and a grand total. The Gateway Total, ACH Internal Total, and ACH External Total columns have links corresponding to a settlement date. Gateway Total links will direct to the Gateway History page for a given settlement date. ACH Total links (internal and external) will direct to the ACH History page for a given settlement date. To export the Drawdown results to an Excel spreadsheet, click Gateway History The Gateway History page is accessed by clicking from the Reconciliation menu. This page shows a full reconciliation of retail activity for gateway institutions for a given settlement date, broken down by Institution Name, Activity Today, Activity Yesterday, Settlement Date, Settlement Amount, Variance, and Running Variance. To initiate a search, select the desired settlement begin and end dates, then click. 119

126 A list of the most recent retail activity for gateway institutions matching the search criteria will be displayed, including the Institution name, Activity Today (start/end dates and reconciled/unreconciled amounts), Activity Yesterday (start/end dates and reconciled/unreconciled amounts), Settlement Date, Settlement Amount, Variance, and Running Variance. To export the Gateway History activity into an Excel spreadsheet, click Gateway History Details To view the details for a specific institution and settlement date, click the Institution Name link corresponding to the desired settlement date. The Gateway History Details for the selected institution and settlement date will be displayed. 120

127 4.7.3 ACH History The ACH History page is accessed by clicking from the Reconciliation menu. Any and all financial activity is logged as a transaction in WIC Direct. The ACH History screen is used to search for and view ACH payments and requests, settlement dates, and amounts paid to specific vendors. 121

128 ACH history can be searched by institution name, institution number, settlement date, effective date, and ACH Type. To conduct a search, enter information into one or more search filters and click. The list of transactions that match the search criteria will be displayed. The ACH Type column displays the ACH Type, internal or external. The Settlement column shows the date a payment was processed by the state WIC Agency s bank. The Amount column displays the settlement amount. To export the ACH history transactions into an Excel spreadsheet, click. To add a new ACH payment request, click the displayed. button. The New ACH Payment Request page is Adding a New ACH Payment Request The New ACH Payment Request page is used for entering external ACH payment requests. To enter a new external payment request, complete all required fields: Vendor MIS Number, Payment Number, Bank Name, ABA Routing Number, Bank Account Number, Payment Amount, Payment Type (for vendor), Payment Reason, and Effective Date, then click one of the save options. The request displays on the ACH History page. NOTE: The ability to add, approve, or deny a request is based on a user s security group. Only some security groups have permissions to add external payment requests. 122

129 Approving/Denying ACH Payment Requests External payment requests display on the ACH History page under the External Payment Requests panel and can be approved or denied by hovering in the Institution Name field for a specific payment request and clicking the approve or deny buttons. Approve and deny buttons will display for requests with a status of Pending, as shown below. When the approve or deny button is clicked, a warning message displays at the top of the page: For requests with a status of Denied, only the option to approve displays when hovering in the Institution Name field, as shown below. For requests with a status of Processed, the approve/deny options will not display. NOTE: The ability to add, approve, or deny a request is based on a user s security group. Only some security groups have permissions to approve or deny external payment requests ACH History Details To review a specific retailer payment, click the corresponding link in the Institution Name column. The ACH History Details screen will be displayed. The original purchase and ACH payment amounts are listed, along with the ACH type, any reversal, void, or store-and-forward (S&F) amounts, if applicable. To view the retail transactions associated with this payment, click. You will be taken to the Retail History screen showing the individual retail transactions that comprised that ACH payment amount. The total amount paid to this retailer for a particular transaction will also be shown on the ACH History screen. 123

130 4.7.4 Financials The Financials page is accessed by clicking from the Reconciliation menu. This page displays financial activity data for a given processing date, and optionally, for a specific institution. To initiate a search, select the Processing Date and, if desired, the Institution from the search filters, then click. The list of financial activity matching the search criteria will be displayed, including the institution, institution type, purchase count, purchase amount, store & forward count, store & forward amount, reversal count, reversal amount, void count, void amount, net amount, and activity date and times. To export the financial activity into an Excel spreadsheet, click Recoupment The Recoupment page is accessed by clicking from the Reconciliation menu. This page shows net details on recoupment activity by vendor for a given processing date and, optionally, for a specific vendor. To initiate a search, select the Processing Date and, if desired, a specific Vendor Number from the search filters, then click. 124

131 The list of recoupment activity matching the search criteria will be displayed, including the Merchant Name, MIS Merchant Number, X9 Merchant Number, Total Assessed, Total Recovered, and Total Outstanding. To export the recoupment data into an Excel spreadsheet, click Unmatched Auto-Recon Retail transactions in an auto-reconciliation file that do not have a corresponding transaction in WIC Direct may be viewed by clicking from the Reconciliation menu. In this situation, a gateway has settled these transactions (otherwise they would not appear in the auto-reconciliation file), but there is no corresponding activity logged by WIC Direct. It is important that these unmatched transactions be researched and resolved to bring WIC Direct s transaction accounting into balance with the amount of funds debited from the WIC bank account. On the Unmatched Auto-Reconciliation Transactions screen, transactions can be searched using the search filters at the top of the screen. 125

132 Transaction searches can be narrowed by type and refined by status, as shown below. The Institution list will be expanded as additional retailers and their gateway providers are added to WIC Direct Unmatched Auto-Recon Transaction Details To view the details for a specific transaction, click the transaction ID in the first column. The Unmatched Auto-Recon Transaction Details screen will be displayed. This screen is used by authorized staff to view the details of an unmatched transaction and to force match that transaction 126

133 once it is thoroughly researched and appropriately resolved. The force match will clear the flag that indicates the transaction needs attention. To manually override automatic matching and force a transaction match, click following message will be displayed at the top of the screen.. The Unreconciled Auto-Recon Unreconciled gateway transactions that occurred prior to the last gateway cutoff time can be viewed by clicking from the Reconciliation menu. Transactions listed on this screen have not been matched against a transaction received in the gateway autoreconciliation file. 127

134 In this example, a search for unreconciled purchase requests from a forwarding institution returned a list of transactions, which may be viewed and force reconciled by clicking Force Reconcile in the Action column. To examine the transaction before forcing reconciliation, click the HGTN number. The transaction associated with the HGTN number will be displayed on the Retail History Details screen. 128

135 The transaction can be manually voided by clicking System Balancing The System Balancing page is accessed by clicking from the Reconciliation menu. This page has the capability to show the balancing of total benefits in the system, or any exceptions found in benefit balances in the system for a given processing date. To initiate a search, select the Breakdown (activity exceptions, out-of-balance accounts, system exceptions, or system activity balance) and Activity Date. 129

136 A list of results matching the breakdown type and activity date selected will be displayed, including the Period Begin Date, Period End Date, Gateway Exception Amount, and Direct Connect Exception Amount. To export the system balancing results details into an Excel spreadsheet, click Case Month Billing The Case Month Billing page is accessed by clicking menu. from the Reconciliation To initiate a search, select a Billing Month and Billing Year from the dropdown menus, then click. 130

137 The Summary panel contains a summary of the number of households and type for a given month and year. The Details panel displays the case month detailed breakdown of each household including: Household Number, Description (type), Begin Date, End Date, Benefit Month, and Benefit Year. To export the information from the summary or details panel into an Excel spreadsheet, click. 4.8 Reports Reports in WIC Direct used a control called the Microsoft Report Viewer. There were quite a few issues that had been discovered with this control over the years. Several code hacks had been required to keep the control functioning properly. In addition to this, the version of the control being used means that reports can only be added or modified using Microsoft Visual Studio As the WIC Direct development teams continues to move forward with new versions of Microsoft Visual Studio, this means they are required to keep around a version of software nearly a decade old in order to keep reports updated as needed. A conversion of these reports to a newer version of the control was attempted once but was abandoned when even more problems were discovered with the newer versions. 131

138 Because of all this, and because the WIC Direct data warehouse (Data Direct) is available with many powerful capabilities that the Microsoft Report Viewer control lacks, reports have been removed from WIC Direct. We understand that some data still needs to be viewed from WIC Direct. In those cases, screens have been added or modified to continue to make data available from WIC Direct itself. In other cases, reports will be added to the warehouse that either use warehouse data or query WIC Direct directly. For reports that move to Data Direct, many new features will be gained. For example, users will be able to create report subscriptions so that they are delivered on a schedule Benefit Balance The data from this report is now obtained from the Account Details page (Viewing an Existing EBT Account) by clicking the Print Benefit Balance link Activity Exceptions The data from this report is now obtained from the System Balancing page within the Reconciliation tab Card Activity The data from this report is now obtained from the Exporting Account History and Transaction Information feature Financial Activity (By Institution) The data from this report is now obtained from the new Financials sub-tab and page within Reconciliation Financial Activity (By Transaction Type) The data from this report is now obtained from the new Financials sub-tab and page within Reconciliation Financial Activity (Comparison) The data from this report is now obtained from the new Financials sub-tab and page within Reconciliation Formula Rebates The data from this report is now obtained from Data Direct Gateway Transaction Volume The data from this report is now obtained from Data Direct or via the Exporting Account History and Transaction Information feature. 132

139 4.8.9 Recoupment Activity The data from this report is now obtained from the new Recoupment sub-tab and page within Reconciliation. In addition, a panel has been added to individual Vendor Details pages Redemptions (By Issue Month) The data from this report is now obtained from Data Direct Retail Activity The data from this report is now obtained from Data Direct Retail Sales The data from this report is now obtained from Data Direct Benefit Reconciliation The data from this report is now obtained from Data Direct Case Month Billing The data from this report is now obtained from the new Case Month Billing sub-tab of Reconciliation Daily Drawdown The data from this report is now obtained from the new Drawdown page within the Reconciliation tab Direct Connect Reconciliation (Daily) This report has been removed Direct Connect Reconciliation (Disbursement) This report has been removed Gateway Reconciliation (Daily) The data for is now obtained from the new Gateway History page within the Reconciliation tab Gateway Auto-Reconciliation The data for is now obtained from the new Gateway History page within the Reconciliation tab Out of Balance Accounts The data from this report is now obtained from the System Balancing page within the Reconciliation tab. 133

140 Third Party Processor Reconciliation (Daily) This report has been removed User/Group Listing The data from this report is now obtained from the Exporting User Information feature System Activity Balance The data from this report is now obtained from the System Balancing page within the Reconciliation tab System Balance Exceptions The data from this report is now obtained from the System Balancing page within the Reconciliation tab. 4.9 Jobs There are many scheduled jobs, i.e., one or more related processes that run on a schedule, in WIC Direct. Some jobs generate files (e.g., Approved Product Lists). Other jobs perform functions (e.g., benefit expungement, retail settlement) that are crucial to WIC Direct operations. The Jobs screen is used to manage and monitor all WIC Direct jobs. The Jobs screen displays a list of all WIC Direct jobs and their status. Information displayed for each job includes: Name: Name of the job Processes: Number of processes that run as part of the job 134

141 Original: Date of the last job Next: When the next job is scheduled Status: Status of the job. In general, a job will progress through three states: [Hold]: There is an issue with the job, impeding its processing [Waiting]: Job is in the process of starting [Running]: Job is currently running Runs: Run frequency Auto Restart: Indicates whether the job will automatically restart if the system experiences temporary downtime Catch Up: Signifies jobs that must run during each allotted time period. If this flag is True and one or more prior runs did not complete, WIC Direct will run the job for each missed time period. If this flag is False, the job will only run once for the newest day. Last 5 Elapsed Job Times: Shows as a graph. Average, minimum, and maximum run times are displayed below the graph. Information from the Jobs screen may be exported to an Excel spreadsheet by clicking Viewing Job Details To view the details for a particular job, click the name of the job in the first column. Job details displayed include job name, run times, process details, and history. From this screen, a user can export job process and history information. Depending on the current job state, a user can also start, stop, or update job configuration. The diagram below shows a job that is currently stopped. 135

142 For instructions on how to update the configuration settings for a particular job, refer to Section 4.9.2, Updating Job Configuration Updating Job Configuration Job settings that can be modified from the Job Details screen include the job name and run time information. Before a job can be changed, it must be in the stopped state. If the job is currently running, follow the instructions in Section 4.9.4, Manually Stopping a Job before proceeding. Once the job is stopped, the Job Details screen will display options to start and update the job. Click to display the Update Job screen where settings can be changed. After making the desired changes, the final step in the process is to restart the job. Refer to Section 4.9.3, Manually Starting a Job for instructions Scheduling When a Job Runs Schedule Type controls whether the job is run based on time or day of the week. If it is set to Time Increment, the job can be configured to run on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or variable basis. Time Increment further refines job run time, allowing you to configure a job to run every three hours, for example. 136

143 If Schedule Type is set to Run Day, the job can be configured to run on any day of the week or only on business days or weekend days. Run Day Occurrence further refines the frequency, allowing you to schedule a job to run on the first day of every month, for example. If Next Date is not modified, WIC Direct will automatically calculate the next run time based on the Run Day or Time Increment fields. For example, if today is May 15 th and you want the job to run on the first of every month, set Schedule Type to Run Day, Run Day to Monday, and Run Day Occurrence to First. When you click, WIC Direct will determine what day the first Monday in June falls on and set Next Date accordingly Handling Missed Jobs Jobs can also be configured to make up or ignore prior runs that did not complete. To change a job so that it will not try to make up missed job(s) during one or more time period(s), change the Catch Up flag to No and click to complete. Answer Yes when prompted. A message indicates that the job settings have been changed Combining Run times and Job Catch Up The ability to make up missed jobs can be used in combination with scheduled times to have WIC Direct run jobs for dates that have occurred in the past. This can be accomplished by setting Catch Up to Yes and Next Date to some date in the past. If for example the job is scheduled to run every Monday and Next Date is set to a date four weeks ago, the job will run for each Monday within Next Date and the next Monday that will occur. 137

144 4.9.3 Manually Starting a Job There may be situations where a job needs to be manually started. This can be accomplished from the Jobs screen or from the Job Details screen. To manually start a job from the Jobs screen, move the pointer to the area immediately right of the desired job name. The start icon will appear. Click the icon to start the job. To manually start a job from the Job Details screen, click. In either case, the user will be asked to confirm that they want to start the job. In the example below, the Approved Product List Files job is being started. Click Yes to start the job or No to cancel. If Yes is selected, the message Job Started will be displayed and the job status will change from Stopped to Manual Start. 138

145 Wait a few seconds and click to refresh the screen. The job status will change from Manual Start to Waiting. It may take a few seconds for the job to progress from the Manual Start to Waiting status. Waiting is the normal state when a job is waiting for the next scheduled run time Manually Stopping a Job A job can be stopped from the Jobs screen or from the Job Details screen. To manually stop a job from the Jobs screen, move the pointer to the area immediately right of the desired job name. The stop icon will appear. Click the icon to stop the job and answer Yes when prompted. To stop a job from the Job Details screen, click and answer Yes when prompted. A message will be displayed at the top of the screen indicating that WIC Direct has stopped the job Manually Starting and Stopping All Jobs There may be times when all jobs need to be started or stopped at once and not individually. The Start and Stop buttons on the Jobs screen set the status for all jobs simultaneously. 139

146 To set the status of every job that is stopped, failed, or on hold to manual start, click. To set the status of every failed or on hold job to manual start, click. To set the status of all jobs which are not actively running to manual stop, click Generating Approved Product List Files on Demand There may be times when the Approved Product List files need to be updated before the next scheduled run time. To generate new Approved Product List files on demand, verify the Approved Product List Files job is currently running. If necessary, manually start the job by following the steps outlined in Section 4.9.3, Manually Starting a Job. Click the submenu item located under Files. Click. The system will display a message indicating the job is starting. The user can verify that the job is running by viewing the Approved Product List Files status on the Jobs screen. Running indicates that new files are currently being generated. It may take up to five minutes for the job to start. After the job completes, the job status will return to Waiting and the file modification dates on the APL History panel will reflect the current date and time. 140

147 Only APL files stored in the Outbox_Archive folder are displayed on the Files screen. Therefore, you will only see the newly created files if the Archive FTP Files configuration parameter is set to Yes. Refer to Section , APL History for more information Files The function contains submenu items related to APL and ACH prenotification files ACH Prenotification The ACH Prenotification screen does not update or validate any of the information in the WIC Direct database. The function is used by bank managers to verify vendor account and bank information without actually transferring money. This verification is part of the vendor bank approval process. The verification process confirms routing and account numbers by converting an existing ACH file to a pre-note file and sending it to a vendor s bank. 141

148 To convert an existing ACH file to a pre-note file, enter the file name or use navigate to the desired file. When the file name appears in the ACH File field, click to. The Generate New File panel that is used to enter new vendor and bank information can also be used to generate a pre-note file APL History The function is used to view APL files for specific dates. Staff can verify whether a product was in the APL file on that date when they are attempting to resolve vendor disputes. The list of files can be filtered based on file modification date or file size (in bytes). 142

149 Three versions of APL files are created: 04, 04a, and 04b. The 04 version is used with integrated retail systems. The 04a version is used for stand-beside systems. The 04b version contains the same content as 04, with the addition of WIC UPC/PLU abbreviated detail record (D6). Note the D6 record specifies every combination of category and subcategory present in the APL file. Information displayed on this screen can be saved to a file by clicking. Section 4.9.5, Generating Approved Product List Files on Demand describes how to use the button. Only APL files stored in the Outbox_Archive folder (described in WIC Direct FTP Directory Structure ) are displayed on this screen WIC Direct FTP Directory Structure Following is the general directory structure for files transferred between WIC Direct and external systems. 143

150 APL: Central location where files created by the Approved Product List Files job are placed. Vendors will retrieve the APL file from this location if the Individual APL parameter in the vendor record is set to No. Refer to Section 4.5, Vendors for more information. CDP: Temporary holding location for WIC Direct files to be sent to external systems. i#: Directories prefixed with the letter i represent institutions. Institutions are numbered sequentially starting with the number two. m#: Directories prefixed with the letter m represent merchants (i.e., vendors). These directories are used to transfer files between WIC Direct and a specific vendor. The directory name corresponds to the selected file transfer protocol account displayed on the Vendor Details screen. w#: General directory for files transferred between WIC Direct and integrating systems. Notice that most directories contain four subdirectories, which relate to the configuration parameters described in Section 3.8.9, File Settings. Inbox: Location for incoming files sent to WIC Direct from external systems Outbox: Location for outgoing files sent to external systems from WIC Direct Inbox_Archive: Location for archived copies of files placed in the Inbox 144

151 Outbox_Archive: Location for archived copies of files placed in the Outbox The CDP directory is the one exception to this rule. CDP\Preoutbox is a temporary holding area for files waiting to be moved by the Deliver Pending Files process. The screenshot below shows the Deliver Pending Files process associated with the APL job, as viewed from the Job Details screen Devices The function is used by support staff to check the firmware version and model number of a particular device, and the customer (e.g., clinic, vendor) to whom it is assigned. Staff can also use to load a base derivation key (BDK) on a PIN pad device. To verify the customer, model number, and firmware version for a device, connect the device to a USB port of the computer where the WIC Direct UI is running. Click under the submenu. The screen will update with the customer, model, and firmware information. To load a base derivation key onto a POS device, click. 145

152 Enter a key serial number (KSN), BDK, base key loading key (BKLK). Click to complete Messages The function is used for troubleshooting and reconciliation purposes. Users can search for messages that were sent between WIC Direct and external systems; capture, parse, and the content of a specific message; and construct and send X9.93 retail messages for test purposes. The bits that comprise a raw message can be viewed by selecting specific icons to parse the incoming or outgoing transaction Searching for and Viewing a Message The Messages screen is used to search for messages that were generated at the WIC Direct host or at the generator, the origination point of the transaction. Examples include a purchase request originating at Sam s Market or a pre-purchase benefit balance inquiry at Joe s Pharmacy. The search must be refined by timeframe. Multiple transaction types and action codes can be selected by holding down the CTRL key or SHIFT key and clicking the left mouse button. In the example below, a search for approved purchase requests that occurred within a specific timeframe was executed. The search results returned in the bottom panel include HGTN number

153 The Retail History Details for this transaction can be viewed by clicking the HGTN number in the first column Parsing Messages Icons on the Messages screen will appear when the pointer is placed in between the HGTN and STAN columns. The blue, incoming icon parses an incoming message. The red, outgoing icon parses an outgoing message. The template icon creates a message template. In the example below, the blue, incoming icon was selected for a purchase request. The Message Reader panel displays the raw purchase request message. The Message panel parses the message into bits based on the X9.93 standard. 147

154 148

155 The bottom row of the parsed message displays the prescription items (UPC, price, and quantity). The Statistics panel displays the size of the message and time it took to parse it. Clicking the red, outgoing icon will display the actual message that was sent in response. The bottom panel of the parsed outgoing message displays the earliest expiration date, prescription items purchased, and the remaining balance. 149

156 The Statistics panel summarizes the message size and parse time Creating a Message Template Clicking the template icon will save the message as a template for future reference. It can be opened, modified, and sent to WIC Direct for testing or debugging at a later date. When the template has been successfully created, the message will be displayed Message Builder The submenu item is used to build X9.93 retail messages for testing purposes. It can also be used in production to correct a failed void or reversal due to a POS error or 150

157 to resubmit a purchase for a transaction that failed because the UPC did not exist in the WIC Direct database. The Message Type field is a drop-down with six possible message selections as shown below. The Options panel is used to configure Allow Errors, Show All Bits, and Show Subelements. Click to build the message with the chosen settings. In the example below, Balance Inquiry was selected and Show Subelements was enabled. The Builder panel displays the balance inquiry message. Mandatory and conditional bits, name, format, representation, size, and value are denoted. Enter information in the fields of the message as needed and click. 151

158 Message Reader The submenu item is used to parse a raw message. Enter the raw message into the Message field and click. The Message Type will be updated to reflect the category of message. The parsed bits of the message will be displayed in the Message panel Message Sender The submenu item is used to send an X9.93 message to a specific WIC Direct installation. The message may be copied and pasted from the Message Builder or from other locations. 152

159 The Built-In Installation field is a drop-down list with various installation choices as shown below Logs The function is used to monitor and diagnose potential WIC Direct issues. System-level logging indicates how WIC Direct is operating. System logs can be filtered by severity level, message, or exception (a technical message produced by the system). 153

160 The messages are classified by severity: Debug: Used for testing environments Info: Identifies known errors Warn: Potentially serious errors (triggers notifications to be sent when unexpected errors occur) Error: Indicates errors (also includes user errors) Fatal: System is experiencing major difficulties In the following example, the system log has been filtered for warnings. 154

161 To view the details for a particular message, click the ID number in the first column. To send an message containing the log details to the address specified in the user s profile, click. Note the Details Sent message at the top of the Log Details screen. Below is a copy of the message that was sent. 155

162 To view additional details for a particular message, enter the message number in the ID Begin field and click. The Where Clause screen for that message will be displayed. 156

163 To export the list of messages to Excel, click at the top of the screen. A spreadsheet similar to the one below will be created. 157

164 158