How Level 3 data works
The merchant's system sends the extra fields with the payment to its gateway or acquirer, which passes them through the card scheme to the issuer. The issuer then shows them to the company whose card was used, in statements and expense tools.
Visa's rules call this enhanced data. The Visa Core Rules of 18 April 2026 give accounting codes, sales tax or value-added tax, and the description, cost per unit and number of units of the items purchased as examples of enhanced transaction-level data. In Visa's US Region, Level II enhanced data includes the sales tax amount and a customer code such as a cost centre or an order number.
Why Level 3 data matters
A company that gives its staff purchasing cards wants each payment to post to the right cost centre without anyone retyping an invoice. In Visa's Europe Region, the rules describe level 2 or 3 data as basic transaction data plus VAT invoice data, in summary or line-item detail, on purchasing cards in countries where Visa has VAT accreditation agreements (4.14.2.7).
Buyers of that kind may ask for the data as a condition of paying by card. A gateway that serves merchants selling to businesses and public bodies therefore supports the extra fields and checks them before submission.
Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3?
- Level 1
- The basic record every card payment carries: the merchant, the amount and the date.
- Level 2
- Adds summary fields for the whole purchase, such as the tax amount and the buyer's reference.
- Level 3
- Adds a line for each item: what was bought, how many and at what unit cost.
Where Level 3 data shows up in a platform
Modules that do the work
- Card acquiringCard acceptance on the phone, in store and online, through the acquirer you choose.
- CheckoutA hosted checkout for cards, wallets, bank payments and crypto, routed to the best provider.
- Analytics & monitoringProduct analytics, attribution, engagement and crash reports, on a tracking plan you control.
Platforms that need it
Where it is written
The laws and standards this page's facts come from.
General information, not legal advice: what applies to you depends on your services and your market.