Capturing Credit Card Funds after Pre-Authorization

Capturing Credit Card Funds after Pre-Authorization

Volusion catalogs which accept credit card payments are usually configured in one of the follow ways:
  1. When the customer submits their order, their credit card only gets a pre-authorization (reserve) to reduce their available credit limit; OR
  2. When the customer submits their order, their credit card gets both a pre-authorization and a capture performed.

Definitions

  1. A pre-authorization does NOT move the funds from the customer's credit card to the merchant.
  2. A capture DOES move the funds from the customer's credit card to the merchant.

Issue

If your Volusion catalog is configured to only do a pre-authorization when orders are submitted, then you must manually perform a Capture on the credit card to obtain payment for each order. This article explains how to do such a Capture.

Is a Capture Needed?

Log into the Volusion Admin area and look up the order in the "ORDERS / Process Orders" area.

On the order details page, scroll down and click the "Payments" heading to view the payment details section (if not already shown).

Check the following:
  1. In the "Payments" section, does it says "Credit Card: _____"? (e.g. "Credit Card: Visa")
  2. In the "PAYMENT LOG" area, is their an entry that says "AUTHORIZE" in the "Payment Type" column?
If both of the above requirements are true, then make sure that no one else has already done the capture on this order by ensuring that there isn't also a "CAPTURE" in the "Payment Type" column within the "PAYMENT LOG" area.

Doing a Capture

Perform the following steps:
  1. Find the drop-down list which is located under the "PAYMENT LOG" area.
  2. Select the "CAPTURE" option from this drop-down list.
  3. Ensure that the dollar amount displayed above the "CAPTURE" option is the correct total amount for this order.
  4. Click the "Apply" link to execute the capture activity.

Deadline

Authorizations will expire after a certain number of days. You will not be able to do a Capture once the Authorization expires. The number of days that the Authorization is available is set by the financial institution which issued each customer's credit card. It is often between 7 - 14 days, so consider doing the Capture no more than 6 calendar days after the date that the order was submitted by the customer.