Capture

Complete an authorised payment.

Capture is the process of securing payments after a successful authorisation. To complete a payment, you go through a two-step process:

Authorisation
You verify the payment details with the issuer, effectively reserving the necessary funds.
Capture
After successful authorisation, you initiate the capture, transferring the reserved funds from the customer to your account.

To capture a payment successfully, you must have the unique_id from the initial authorisation.

You can perform partial captures, allowing you to settle a portion of the initially authorised amount. This can be useful, for example, when granting customers discounts. You cannot capture an amount exceeding the initially authorised amount.

Additonally, you can do multiple captures when you need to deliver goods in multiple stages or packages.

If you need to undo the transaction, you must perform a refund.

Transaction workflow

Here’s a breakdown of the transaction workflow for payment capture:

Capture request
Following the authorisation of the transaction, you must submit a capture request to the payment processor. Specify the unique_id from the initial authorisation transaction as the reference_id in the capture request.
Funds transfer
The payment processor processes the capture request, transferring the authorised funds from the customer’s account to your account.
Transaction completion
With the funds successfully captured, the transaction is complete. You can proceed with the order fulfillment or service delivery.

Example of a request:

 <payment_transaction>
    <transaction_type>capture</transaction_type>
    <transaction_id>43672</transaction_id>
    <usage>40208 concert tickets</usage>
    <remote_ip>245.253.2.12</remote_ip>
    <reference_id>119643250547501c79d8295</reference_id>
    <amount>100</amount>
    <currency>USD</currency>
  </payment_transaction>

Example of a response:

<payment_response>
    <transaction_type>capture</transaction_type>
    <status>approved</status>
    <mode>live</mode>
    <transaction_id>43672</transaction_id>
    <unique_id>44177a21403427eb96664a6d7e5d5d48</unique_id>
    <authorization_code>345678</authorization_code>
    <response_code>00</response_code>
    <technical_message>Transaction successful!</technical_message>
    <message>Transaction successful!</message>
    <timestamp>2023-07-12T12:53:41Z</timestamp>
    <descriptor>Descriptor one</descriptor>
    <amount>100</amount>
    <currency>USD</currency>
    <sent_to_acquirer>true</sent_to_acquirer>
  </payment_response>

See the emerchantpay API for the complete list of capture transaction parameters and code samples.

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