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Checklist · Level 3 Processing

Level 3 Data Field Checklist

Published September 30, 2026 · Last reviewed · B2B Pay Hub editorial team · Reviewed by a B2B Pay Hub payments specialist

Every field Visa and Mastercard require for Level 2 and Level 3 qualification, grouped by where the data lives on your side, so you can check whether your systems can actually send it.

What this checklist is for

Level 2 and Level 3 interchange qualification requires specific data fields to accompany a commercial card transaction. Missing any single required field drops the transaction to the next level down, which is why qualification fails silently rather than producing an error. This checklist lists every field so you can confirm your system can supply it before assuming you qualify.

Level 2 — order header

Required for Level 2. All of these also form part of the Level 3 requirement.

  • Sales tax amount (must be present and valid, or the transaction explicitly flagged tax-exempt)
  • Customer code or purchase order number supplied by the cardholder
  • Merchant postal code
  • Tax identification where applicable
  • Transaction amount and currency

Level 3 — per line item

Required in addition to everything above. Each line on the invoice needs its own complete record.

  • Item description
  • Product code or commodity code
  • Quantity
  • Unit of measure
  • Unit price
  • Line item total
  • Discount amount applied to the line, where any

Level 3 — order totals

  • Freight or shipping amount
  • Duty amount, where applicable
  • Order-level discount, where any
  • Destination postal code and country code

Conditions outside the data itself

Perfect data still fails if these are wrong.

  • Transaction settled within the required window, typically next business day
  • Address verification performed where the card brand requires it
  • Card is a commercial, corporate, purchasing or government card — consumer cards have no Level 3 category
  • Processor supports Level 3 pass-through and is configured to transmit it

Educational reference material, not legal, tax or compliance advice. Rules, banking availability and provider policies change; check the linked primary source and the last-reviewed date before relying on anything here.

Cite this resource

Resource
Level 3 Data Field Checklist
Publisher
B2B Pay Hub · B2B Pay Hub editorial team
Published / updated
September 30, 2026 /
Canonical URL
https://b2bpayhub.com/resources/level-3-data-field-checklist

B2B Pay Hub. "Level 3 Data Field Checklist." Published September 30, 2026; updated September 30, 2026. https://b2bpayhub.com/resources/level-3-data-field-checklist

Attribution style: B2B Pay Hub (2026). Quote any passage with a link to the canonical URL above.

Related pages in this cluster

Part of the Level 3 Processing cluster. The line-item data standard that qualifies a commercial card transaction for the lowest available interchange.

Guidelevel 3 processing guideLevel 3 is not a product anyone sells you. It is a data standard your transactions either meet or fail, silently, on every commercial card payment you take.Open QuestionWhy doesn't our virtual terminal qualifyGenerally no. A standalone virtual terminal has no connection to your invoice lines, so it cannot transmit the product codes, quantities, unit prices and freight amounts Level 3 requires. Some gateways offer an enhanced-data entry screen where a user types line items manually, which does qualify, but it doubles data entry and degrades the moment somebody is busy. The durable answer is a connector that reads the invoice directly from your ERP.Open QuestionWhat is Level 3 processingLevel 3 processing is the transmission of detailed line-item data alongside a commercial card transaction so it qualifies for the lowest interchange rate the card networks offer. It requires product codes, item descriptions, quantities, unit prices, freight and duty on top of the Level 2 requirements of sales tax and a purchase order reference. It applies only to commercial, corporate, purchasing and government cards, because consumer cards have no Level 3 category.Open QuestionDoes NetSuite support Level 3Every major ERP holds the data Level 3 requires, because it is already on the invoice. The question is whether a payment connector exists that reads it and transmits it. Connectors are available for NetSuite, Sage, QuickBooks, Acumatica, Epicor and SAP Business One, though capability varies by product and version. Where no connector exists, the options are a gateway with manual enhanced-data entry or a custom API integration.Open GuideCard acceptanceYour customer's AP department pays by purchasing card because it suits their process. Whether that suits yours depends almost entirely on what data you can send with it.Open GuidePillar guideB2B payments are not retail payments with bigger numbers. The card types are different, the interchange rules are different, the invoices are larger, and the buyer is an AP department rather than a shopper. Most of what this costs you comes from treating the two as the same thing.Open Resourceour comparison tableWhich ERP and accounting systems can transmit full Level 3 data to the card networks, what each one needs to do it, and the questions to ask before assuming yours can.Open

Read next

  1. 1level 3 processing guideLevel 3 is not a product anyone sells you. It is a data standard your transactions either meet or fail, silently, on every commercial card payment you take.
  2. 2Why doesn't our virtual terminal qualifyGenerally no. A standalone virtual terminal has no connection to your invoice lines, so it cannot transmit the product codes, quantities, unit prices and freight amounts Level 3 requires. Some gateways offer an enhanced-data entry screen where a user types line items manually, which does qualify, but it doubles data entry and degrades the moment somebody is busy. The durable answer is a connector that reads the invoice directly from your ERP.
  3. 3What is Level 3 processingLevel 3 processing is the transmission of detailed line-item data alongside a commercial card transaction so it qualifies for the lowest interchange rate the card networks offer. It requires product codes, item descriptions, quantities, unit prices, freight and duty on top of the Level 2 requirements of sales tax and a purchase order reference. It applies only to commercial, corporate, purchasing and government cards, because consumer cards have no Level 3 category.

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Educational reference material, not legal, tax or compliance advice. Rules, banking availability and provider policies change; check the linked primary source and the last-reviewed date before relying on anything here.