Study Guide

Transactions
Authorization & Capture APIs
8
88 March 2008 PayPal Certified Developer Program Study Guide
Honor Period and Authorization Period
When the customer approves an authorization, the customer’s balance can be placed on hold
for a 29-day period to ensure the availability of the authorization amount for capture.
The merchant can reauthorize a transaction only once, up to 115% of the originally authorized
amount (not to exceed an increase of $75 USD). After a successful reauthorization, PayPal
honors 100% of the authorized funds for the first 3 days of the 29-day period. A day is defined
as the start of the calendar day on which the authorization or reauthorization was made (from
12 AM PST to 11:59 PM PST).
A merchant can settle without a reauthorization from day 4 to day 29 of the authorization
period, but PayPal cannot ensure that 100% of the funds will be available after the 3-day honor
period. PayPal will not allow the merchant to capture funds if the customer’s account is
restricted or locked, a fraudulent case occurs, or the merchant’s account has a high restriction
level. PayPal makes its best effort to capture funds outside the honor period; however, there is
a possibility that funds will not be available at that time.
Buyer and seller accounts cannot be closed if there is a pending unsettled authorization.
Authorization & Capture API Reference Information
There are three APIs related to Authorization & Capture:
z DoCapture
z DoVoid
z DoReauthorization
The following sections display reference information about the parameters and fields used in
the various requests and responses involved in Authorization & Capture.
DoCapture Request
Use a DoCapture request to capture a complete or partial authorized amount.
TABLE 8.1 DoCapture Request Parameters
Parameter Description Required?
METHOD Name of API: DoCapture Yes
AUTHORIZATIONID The authorization identification number of the payment to capture. This is
the transaction ID returned from DoExpressCheckoutPayment or
DoDirectPayment.
Character length and limits: 19 single-byte characters maximum.
Yes
AMT Amount to capture.
Limitations: Must not exceed $10,000 USD in any currency. No currency
symbol. Must have two decimal places, decimal separator must be a
period (.), and the optional thousands separator must be a comma (,).
Yes