Developer's Guide

Website Payments Pro Developer’s Guide 31
Performing Direct Payment Credit Card Transactions
Submitting Authorisation/Delayed Capture Transactions
4
Submitting Authorisation/Delayed Capture Transactions
An Authorisation (TRXTYPE=A) transaction places a hold on the cardholder’s open-to-buy
limit, lowering the cardholder’s limit by the amount of the transaction. It does not transfer
funds.
One or more Delayed Capture (TRXTYPE=D) transactions are performed after an
Authorisation to capture the original Authorisation amount. You can perform up to ten partial
captures for a single authorisation provided the buyer is in good standing. A partial capture
keeps the funds in a Pending status. A Delayed Capture is scheduled for settlement during the
next settlement period.
Because Visa and MasterCard regulations prohibit capturing credit card transaction funds until
a product or service has been sent to the buyer, most processing networks implement an
Authorisation transaction followed by one or more Delayed Capture transactions.
When to Use Authorisation/Delayed Capture Transactions
If your business does not provide immediate fulfilment of products or services, you should use
this two-stage transaction model, also known as Delayed Capture processing, because it
enables you to capture credit card transaction funds when your are ready to collect them.
If your business provides immediate fulfilment, you can use a simple Sale transaction instead.
For details, see “Submitting Sale Transactions” on page 29. If you need to recharge a credit
card and you are not storing the credit card information in your local database, you can
perform a new reference transaction based on a Sale. For details, see “Recharging to the Same
Credit Card (Reference Transactions)” on page 37.
Required Authorisation Transaction Parameters
To perform an Authorisation transaction, you are required to pass the following parameters:
ACCT
AMT
EXPDATE
Typical Authorisation Transaction Parameter String
A typical parameter string passed in an Authorisation transaction is the same as a Sale
transaction string. The only difference is that the TRXTYPE value is A in an Authorisation.
EXAMPLE 4.3 Typical Authorisation parameter string
"TRXTYPE=A&TENDER=C&USER=SuperMerchant&PWD=SuperUserPassword&PARTNER=PayPal
UK&ACCT=5105105105105100&EXPDATE=1209&AMT=99.06&COMMENT1=Reservation&FIRSTN
AME=John&LASTNAME=Jones&STREET=123 Main St.&CITY=San
Jose&STATE=CA&ZIP=123451234&COUNTRY=US&CVV2=123&CLIENTIP=0.0.0.0"