How to close a preauth

Purpose: Capture an open card hold as a real payment so the check can close, and do it without re-opening the authorization.

When to use this: Finishing a tab, or any check that has an open Authorization line on it.

Steps

1. Recall the check.
2. Service Total so the amount is locked and nothing else is being added.
3. Key in the total amount to close by first, the full amount you are putting on the card, including any tip.
4. Press CC Final (or Authorization & Pay). When Simphony asks Select Existing Auth or New Card?, choose the existing authorization for that card.
5. If the total you keyed is more than the check's amount due, Simphony asks whether the extra is a tip (Is this $… tip?). Confirm to record that difference as the tip on the card. This is how the tip goes on: by overtendering, not by adding it as a separate step.
6. The Authorization line becomes a Payment and Amount Due drops.
7. If the check is fully paid, it closes. If a balance remains and you still have other tenders to add, finalize this way for every card first, then follow Close every auth before adding another tender.

Always key the amount first, especially with more than one auth

If you press CC Final without keying an amount, Simphony defaults it to the whole check total. On a check that has more than one authorization, that closes the entire check against a single auth and reverses every other auth on it. The other cardholders are released and that one card is charged for everything. Key the amount you mean to put on each card before you finalize it. To settle a check with several card holds correctly, see Close every auth before adding another tender.

Finalize against the existing auth, not a new card

Choosing New Card at the prompt reverses the original hold and starts a brand-new authorization. That reverse-and-reauthorize step is the increment that declines (it is what throws 662 / 783 / 702 and parsing gateway errors on tapped wallets). Always pick the existing Authorization line.

"Reference transaction not found"

If finalizing reports the original sale is missing, run the finalize on the same station that took the authorization. Stations share sales through CAPS, and a hold taken on another station can look missing here. See Workstation · Reference transaction not found.

Verify

• The check closes with Amount Due 0.00.
• Cloud Transactions shows the authorization captured as a payment for the final amount.

See also

• How to take a preauth and increment/decrement
• Preauth vs Final sale
• Close every auth before adding another tender
• Error codes · Declines when incrementing a virtual wallet