Capture an authorization

A capture takes place after receiving an approved authorization, and initiates the flow of funds from the cardholder’s issuing bank account to your merchant account.

When to Use

You’re ready to collect payment for a previously authorized transaction.
You’ve shipped goods or provided services that were previously authorized.
You need to capture a full or partial amount from an existing authorization.

ScenarioAfter Maple Street Coffee’s online store restocked its merchandise, Clearpath Payments is ready to capture the $300 authorization previously run on Ben’s card ending in 4242.

Steps

Retrieve the unique paymentId from the authorization you are going to capture. This is how we link the capture to its original authorization.

Call the captureAuthorization mutation with these inputs:

Required input	Description
`paymentId`	Required. The unique “payment ID” returned on the original, approved authorization, which we’ll use to tie to this capture.
`acceptorID`	Required. The unique, 36 character identifier assigned to the entity providing the goods or services to the cardholder. Other processors may refer to this as the Merchant ID (MID), Outlet ID, or Customer number.
`transactionReference`	Required. The unique transaction identifier created by YOU to distinguish this transaction from another.
`transactionAmountDetails`	Optional. The transaction currency and amount to be captured. If are capturing a portion of the authorization amount, specify only that portioned amount.
`totalCaptureCount`	Applicable only if there will be multiple partial captures submitted on a single authorization. Example, if an order will be split up and shipped on two different dates, you’ll submit a capture as each shipment is sent, and therefore set `totalCaptureCount:2`. If you’re submitting a single capture for the authorization, you don’t need to include this field.

Full vs. partial captures

Under the hood, full and partial captures are the same thing, with the only difference being that a full capture’s amount is a single capture equal to final authorization amount, and a partial capture is for a value less than the full authorization amount. There can be multiple partial capture requests on an authorization, with each one specifying the partial amount to be captured within the transactionAmountDetails input. If you don’t specify an amount, Tesouro captures any remaining uncaptured amount on the authorization.

ScenarioBen buys three items at $20 each from Maple Street Coffee, one of Clearpath Payment’s acceptors. The items are in stock, but one isn’t ready to ship. Clearpath Payments authorizes Ben’s card for the full $60, then submits a partial capture for $40 when the first two items ship.

In this example, Clearpath Payments captures only what’s available to ship, so they specify the partial amount ($40) using the paymentId from the original authorization. Later, when the remaining item is ready to ship, Clearpath Payments submits another capture for the remaining $20 using the same paymentId.

If any remaining authorization amount isn’t captured or reversed within 10 days, you’ll be assessed a Misuse of Authorization fee.

mutation captureAuthorization($input: CaptureAuthorizationInput!) {
  captureAuthorization(captureAuthorizationInput: $input) {
    captureAuthorizationResponse {
      status: __typename
      ... on CaptureAuthorizationApproval {
        captureAmountDetails {
          approvedAmount
          requestedAmount
          currency
        }
      }
      ... on CaptureAuthorizationDecline {
        message
        declineType
      }
      activityDate
      transactionId
      paymentId
      activityDate
    }
    errors {
      errorType: __typename
    }
  }
}

{
  "input": {
    "paymentId": "64495c8b-4c0f-11ee-bf97-0e7d489d8cb0",
    "transactionReference": "43f1ec71-874b-4e53-8c76-2ff0ee6c89a5",
    "acceptorId": "05a39b14-f29f-443b-a107-da3e3e8969fb",
    "transactionAmountDetails": {
      "totalAmount": 10,
      "currency": "USD"
    }
  }
}

{
  "data": {
    "captureAuthorization": {
      "transactionInformation": {
        "paymentId": "64495c8b-4c0f-11ee-bf97-0e7d489d8cb0"
      }
    }
  }
}

Card transactions

Bank transfers

Managing fees

Capture an authorization

Steps

Full vs. partial captures

​Steps

​Full vs. partial captures

Steps

Full vs. partial captures