How to: Manage pre-authorisations for PowerBoard

Welcome to the PowerBoard Dashboard tutorials. Today we’ll show you how to manage a pre-authorisation transaction. This process involves firstly, adding a new pre-authorisation request within the PowerBoard portal and then either capturing the payment to complete the transaction, or cancelling the transaction if the funds are to be returned to the payee. Payment Authorisation is a process which guarantees evidence the customer’s account is valid and has sufficient funds to cover the transaction. Card authorisation specifically involves contacting the card issuing bank requesting to hold the required funds against the credit card. Card authorisation is also a security measure providing card issuers and businesses with a systematic way to screen for potential fraud and validate the customer’s card before it becomes a transaction.

To access the PowerBoard portal, you’ll need to log in using your credentials. To add a new Authorisation, head to the Charges tab on the left side of the screen … and select the Add New tab. From the Select Payment Type dropdown select the Pre-Auth option. Start by entering in the customer’s information including their first and last name and optional details. You can add unique custom fields to the transaction record in the Custom Fields section by adding Name and Value … or select a previously created Custom Field from the Name drop-down. Custom fields transfer any metadata to the payment gateway or store it in the account.

In the Payment details section, enter the amount including a decimal point for the cents. In this example, we’ll use a $100 holding fee for customer ‘John Test’. You’ll have an option to include a payment reference and provide a description of the transaction. Next, head to the mandatory Payment Information section and under Service Name, you’ll see a dropdown list of services your business is linked to. If a service hasn’t been linked previously, it can’t be used to add new pre-authorisations. In this example, we’ll use the credit card option…Mastercard. Once you’ve selected the payment services an optional customer reference field will appear, which can be used to help identify the transaction. Enter the card holder’s name as it appears on the card, the card number, the expiration month and year … and if required the CVV. Then complete the transaction by clicking on Pre-Auth. You’ll be taken back to the Charges screen and if the pre-authorisation has been completed successfully the status field will be updated to Authorised.

Following the pre-authorisation you have two options, to either capture the payment or cancel the payment. Payment capture is the process of finalising a transaction by settling the funds after a successful authorisation - in other words, a pending payment becomes completed. During authorisation, the money doesn’t settle, it happens during capture. The payment gateway submits the capture request to the issuing bank. To capture the funds from the customer’s account, select Actions on the transaction line … then from the drop-down select the Capture option for the specific authorisation. The Capture Request window will appear. The original pre-authorisation amount will appear as the default dollar amount. You can either capture the default amount by clicking on Capture or update the amount by typing in a new amount in the Amount field, before hitting capture.

The Status field in the transaction line will then be updated to Complete. The payment authorisation cancellation process will release the hold over the customer’s account funds if your customer is not proceeding with the purchase. You can cancel the pre-authorisation on a payment that has not yet been captured. To cancel the pre-authorisation transaction, select Actions on the transaction line, and from the drop-down click Cancel. The Cancel window will appear asking for confirmation to cancel the transaction. Click on Confirm to cancel the transaction. The status field in the transaction line will then be updated to Cancelled. You can view a detailed confirmation of the pre-authorization, capture and cancel steps via the Transactions View Mode. In this example there’s a record of the sale that’s been cancelled and the original captured transaction. There’s also the relevant creation time and date confirming the transaction has been cancelled. It's important to observe if the preauthorised status remains unactioned - which means it remains pre-authorised with no capture or cancel taking place - that the funds will be automatically released back to the customer’s account. This process will take 7-21 days from when the pre-authorised transaction was created. The duration of the return date is dependent on the customer's card issuing bank. Discover more new features on the PowerBoard Developer Hub.