EBT Standards and Integration Reference

Prerequisites

Before you start the Forage process, confirm the following:

Either:
- You're already processing EBT SNAP transactions at brick-and-mortar locations.
- You don't have a physical store, but your inventory or sales meets the staple foods requirement for EBT SNAP merchant eligibility.
You're able to update your website or app to meet key technical requirements for online EBT.
You're able to track item eligibility in your own database. At this time, Forage does not automate identifying which items in your inventory are EBT SNAP eligible.

Once you've confirmed these prerequisites, sign up for Forage, register an app, and authenticate with Forage to get your API credentials.

Item eligibility tagging

To work with Forage, you must be able to implement item eligibility tagging in your own database. At this time, Forage does not automate identifying what items in your inventory are SNAP or EBT Cash eligible.

All SNAP eligible items are also EBT Cash eligible. Items must be tagged as follows:

EBT SNAP eligible items as EBT SNAP
EBT Cash eligible (and not SNAP eligible) items as EBT Cash
Non-eligible items as non-eligible

At the checkout level, when you pass information about a customer's cart to Forage, keep snap_total to SNAP eligible items only, and ebt_cash_total to EBT Cash eligible items only.

Nomenclature

The table below details Forage's recommended way to refer to common EBT SNAP concepts, based on how the related terms appear in FNS documentation. The last column provides a counterexample that would contradict FNS.

While there are no strict compliance rules around EBT SNAP language, keeping vocabulary consistent provides a better user experience for both SNAP customers and FNS regulators. If you have any questions about any of the recommendations, then reach out to your Forage Account Manager.

Concept	Recommended customer-facing language	Counterexample
Customer's benefit card	✅ EBT Card	❌ SNAP Card ❌ EBT
Text to prompt customer to add a payment method	✅ Add EBT Card	❌ Add SNAP Card
How to display truncated card numbers	✅ EBT ****1487	❌ SNAP ****1487
How to note a product's benefit eligibility on a product or landing page	✅ SNAP eligible	❌ EBT ❌ EBT Eligible
How to note eligible items within a checkout flow	✅ SNAP	❌ EBT Eligible
Text to prompt customer PIN entry	✅ Please enter your EBT PIN to authorize a balance check	❌ Please enter your SNAP PIN to authorize a balance check
SNAP balance within Order receipts	✅ SNAP balance	❌ EBT SNAP Balance ❌ EBT SNAP Card Balance ❌ EBT Balances ❌ EBT Card

Forage SDK version compatibility

	Latest Forage version	Minimum required dependencies
forage-android	4.2.2	Android API Level 23
forage-ios	4.5.1	Xcode v14.1 iOS v13 Swift v5.5
forage-js	1.3.1	node.js v16.16.0 UUID v1.1.0

Android

iOS

Forage JS

Compare integration features

	Fully Hosted Checkout	Custom Checkout	SDKs
Engineering lift	Small	Medium	Medium
In-line EBT checkout experience	❌ Redirect	❌ Redirect	✅ Native in-line
Credit/debit card processing	✅	DIY	DIY
Split tender processing, including error handling and charge reversals	✅	DIY	DIY
EBT payment error UX messaging	✅	✅	DIY
Field for a customer to set SNAP and EBT Cash amounts	✅	DIY	DIY
Sales tax calculation	✅	DIY	DIY
Built-in order lifecycle management on top of Forage Order objects	✅	✅	DIY

The POS Terminal SDK is not included in this comparison. It is the in-person integration option and is not an alternative to the above. See Integration Options for details.