Knowledgebase

What does my Online Payment Method's "Authorize Only" checkbox do?

 

On some of our integrated Online Payment Methods, you may notice a checkbox labeled as "Authorize Only."

When enabled on your specific payment method, this checkbox will authorize the credit card for the total order amount at the time of purchase and reserve the funds for the order. However it will NOT yet collect the funds until you are ready to collect them.

This can be useful for situations where you'd like to merely authorize the card to ensure funds are available while waiting to process the shipment. Perhaps you'd prefer to avoid shipping the product before funds are validated, or maybe your products are of a customized nature and you'd prefer to only collect funds when the product is ready to ship. Either way, the "Authorize Only" checkbox will allow you to do this.

To collect payment for "Authorize Only" orders, you will simply need to open the order in your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager, and scroll down to the order's "Transactions" section. You should see a transaction labeled as "Authorize" under the "Type" heading. Click the "Details" link located to the far right of this transaction and you should then see the "Capture" button to fully process the payment.


Please note
Authorize Only may cause your customers some confusion when it comes to their billing. Credit Card statements don't always make it easy for customers to understand if the card was authorized or if payment was captured. Some customers may see two items - the initial authorization and the eventual capture - listed on their statement when the transaction is captured.

Therefore, be aware that while the customer is only charged once for the actual capture; they may see two line items in their statement and assume they were charged twice.


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