Overview

Required plan

This feature or setting is available to all customers on any Recurly subscription plan.

Prerequisites

• Integration with Recurly's API or select client libraries.
• Recurly's Authorization and Capture feature is compatible with several credit card gateways, including Braintree, Stripe, Adyen, PayPal Complete, Cybersource, Authorize.net, and CardConnect. Additional gateways will be integrated based on merchant demand.

Limitations

• No support for "partial captures" or "multiple captures."
• Cannot capture more than the authorized amount.
• Recurly does not automatically authorize cards before recurring subscription renewals.
• Delayed capture is not customizable.
• Some features, like Auth and Capture, are not fully supported with 3rd party integrations such as Xero or Quickbooks Online.

Definition

Recurly's "Authorization and Capture" feature allows merchants to initially authorize a subscriber's credit card to ensure its validity and fund availability. Subsequently, merchants can capture the funds at a later, more suitable time.

Key benefits

• Enhanced payment security: Authorize credit cards to ensure legitimacy and fund sufficiency before capturing.
• Flexible transaction management: Capture funds when it's most convenient, optimizing cash flow and customer relations.
• Efficient error handling: Quickly identify and rectify payment issues, reducing transaction failures.

Benefits of authorizing first

By authorizing before capturing, merchants can:

• Ensure product availability before capturing funds for physical goods.
• Conduct manual fraud reviews prior to fund capture and order fulfillment.
• Authorize at the start of a free trial and capture funds at the subscription's start.

Key details

Authorization and capture

Recurly’s "Authorization and Capture" functionality enables merchants to first validate a subscriber's credit card for legitimacy and fund availability. Once verified, merchants can capture the due amount at their convenience.

Definitions

• Authorize: A preliminary check with the subscriber's bank to validate the credit card's legitimacy and ensure sufficient funds. This places a hold on the funds but doesn't transfer them.

• Capture: Post-authorization, this step collects the funds from the subscriber's account, completing the transaction.

• Cancel: If funds aren't captured, this step releases the hold on the subscriber's account.

Auth and Capture Flow

Part 1: Initiating authorization

• Step 1: Access Recurly's API or select client libraries.
• Step 2: Submit a POST request to v2/purchases/authorize OR v3/purchases/authorize (based on your current API version).
• Step 3: Ensure the transaction details are correctly entered.

Part 2: Capturing the authorized amount

• Step 1: To capture an authorized transaction, use the /capture endpoint.
• Step 2: Include the transaction UUID from the original authorization: v2/purchases/transaction-uuid-<AUTHORIZED-TXN-UUID-HERE>/captureor v3/purchase/{transaction_id}/captureflow depending on your version.

Part 3: Canceling the authorization

• Step 1: If you decide not to capture the funds, use the /cancel endpoint.
• Step 2: Include the transaction UUID from the original authorization: v2/purchases/transaction-uuid-<AUTHORIZED-TXN-UUID-HERE>/cancelor v3/purchase/{transaction_id}/cancel, again depending on your version in use.

For V2 Implementations: You can find all documentation for V2 Authorize, V2 Capture and V2 Cancel documentation in Recurly's developer hub.

For V3 Implementations: You can find V3 Authorize, V3 Capture and V3 Cancel as well in the latest V3 documentation.