External Host Interface (EHI) Integration Guide

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7. What Your System Responds

Your system must return the required EHI response for the message type received. The response should align with the EHI response expected for the applicable transaction type.

General response rules
Common response fields

Your system should return the response fields required for the applicable EHI message type. Common response fields may include:

  • Acknowledgement – Indicates whether your system successfully received and processed the message. Return `1` when the message was successfully received and processed.

  • Responsestatus – Indicates the authorization or processing response status, when required.

  • Cut_OffResult – Indicates whether cut-off processing succeeded or failed when CutOffId is present.

7.1 Authorization response behavior

For authorization messages, your system must return an approval, decline, or partial approval response when applicable. Click here for an example of an Authorization Response.

Common authorization response statuses include:

  • Approve – Return Responsestatus = 00 when the transaction is approved.

  • Decline – Return Responsestatus = 05 when the transaction is declined.

  • Partial approval – Return Responsestatus = 10 when partial approval is applicable.

The response returned by your system must follow the expected EHI response structure for the authorization message being processed.

7.2 Reversal response behavior

For reversal messages, your system should acknowledge successful processing or request retry only when the failure is temporary. Click here for an example of an Authorization Reversal Response.

  • Reversal processed successfully – Return an acknowledgement with a successful response status.

  • Temporary failure – Return a retry-related response status when applicable.

  • Duplicate reversal – Return the same logical response as the original processing.

Your system should also ensure that duplicate or retried reversal messages do not create duplicate balance, block/reserve, or ledger impact.

7.3 Financial/advice response behavior

For financial, advice, or other non-decisional messages, your system generally acknowledges receipt and process the event for transaction history, posting, or reconciliation. Click here for an example of a Financial response.

7.4 Cut-off response behavior

For cut-off messages, your system should return Cut_OffResult. Click here for an example of a Cut-off response.

  • Cut-off processed successfully – Return Cut_OffResult = 1.

  • Cut-off processing failed – Return Cut_OffResult = 0.

Your system should return the cut-off result only when CutOffId is present in the EHI message.

The responses are HTTP responses whose body contains either the GetTransaction response or Cut_Off response, and real-time authorization or financial requests must be answered within the configured time limit or the transaction may be declined.