pre-authorization of credit cards

Running a 'pre-auth' on a card, for a defined Amount, guarantees you have access to those funds

This feature can be used to guard against theft or breakages by having a 'hold' on a certain Amount of funds in the event of such eventualities.

Please note that currently, pre-authorization is not compatible with cards that necessitate 3D Secure authentication.

This feature is currently in BETA - meaning we're still testing and improving it.

This requires that you are using Stripe and have enabled the 'pre-auth' Feature

image above shows how 'pre-auths' appear in the list of transactions.  Pre-auths can be captured or released.

In order to enable this feature, first go to Features and Customization and enable 'Stripe Pre-Authorization'.

(clearly you will already need to have Stripe setup for your store).

image above ⬆ shows the feature to enable in Features and Customization

Using the feature

To capture a pre-auth for a Reservation you will need to do the following:

1. Open your reservation.
2. press on Add Transaction.
3. Ensure you have a credit card saved (for this customer)
4. Type in the Amount you want to pre-auth
   
5. Choose Stripe as the payment method
6. Select 'pre-auth' as the payment type

⬆here you can see the user has chosen the amount, the method and the type.

When you add a pre-auth 'transaction' 2 things will happen

• the payments slider shows that there is a pre-auth
• a 'pending' transaction is added to your list of transactions.

The pre-auth only lasts for a defined period of time before it is automatically released ( 7 days)

What happens next?

You have 3 options from this point.

1. Do nothing and the pre-auth will be auto-released after 7 days
2. If you 'capture funds' then the pre-auth will be converted into a real payment and the funds will be moved to your Stripe account.
3. If you 'release' then the pre-auth will be lifted and you will no longer have access to the funds

Frequently Asked Questions?

• Can you change the automatic duration after which the pre-Auth is released? Not yet.
• Can you auto-populate the Amount to be pre-Authed? Not yet. (see below)
• Can you capture multiple pre-Auths for the same reservation?  Yes.
• Can you use pre-Auth for online bookings? Not yet.

Coming soon for this feature

• You will be able to set 'pre-auth' amounts for your inventory (via Price Groups) which will automatically populate the amount of pre-Auth to be captured.
• We will be making some usability changes based on the feedback from this Beta.
• We will enable it for online bookings.

See Also 

Setting up Stripe as your payment processor 

Features and Customization section