Thanks for the quick reply.
For the time being I have it set up to use the "credit card - offline processing" module. The store owner though will eventually be using a payment gateway like paypal website payments pro or authorize.net.
Anyway, that said, I punched in the test number and other info as you suggested and the whole thing worked fine. I'd like to be able to give the boss a clear answer as to why using a valid card for the test didn't work.
Any suggestions in that area because frankly I still don't understand.
Thanks again.