Pre-authorizing Credit Card Amounts or Percentages

When credit card authorization is performed, by default the amount authorized is assumed to be one currency unit (for example, one dollar or one Euro). However, some companies need to validate funds upon authorization, as well as the credit card number. This can be done using the Default Authorization field on the Credit Card Interface Parameters form:

  • To specify a fixed default amount to be authorized with every credit card authorization, set the Default Authorization field to Amount and then specify the value of currency that should be authorized. When the user clicks the Pay with Credit Card button during an order entry, the Total Amount field is populated with the fixed value default from the Credit Card Interface Parameters form. By default, this value is set to zero in compliance with industry standards. (The Point of Sale feature does not obey this default; instead it performs authorizations for the full payment amount, which could be different than the total sales amount.)
  • To specify a fixed default percentage to be authorized with every credit card authorization, set the Default Authorization field to Percent and then specify the percent of the order value that should be authorized. When the user clicks the Pay with Credit Card button during an order entry, the Total Amount field is populated with the default authorization percentage from the Credit Card Interface Parameters form, multiplied by the order total.

If you also specify a Ship Method on the Credit Card Payments form, the Total Amount is recalculated with the estimated freight added in.

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