Close every auth before adding another tender
Purpose: Settle a check that already carries one or more open card authorizations the right way, so the card holds are captured as real payments before you apply a gift card, house account, room charge, or any other tender. This order is what prevents the declines and gateway errors covered in Error codes.
When to use this: Any time a check has an open card authorization on it (a bar tab, a preauth, a card you authorized and then kept adding to) and the guest wants to finish on something other than that same card, or split the balance across more than one tender.
The one rule
Finalize (close) every card authorization already on the check first. Only then apply gift cards, house accounts, room charge, cash, or any other tender to the balance that is left. Never re-open, re-swipe, or increment an authorization to make room for another tender.
Why the order matters
An authorization is a hold, not a payment. When you authorize a card, Simphony puts an Authorization line on the check, but the check's Amount Due does not go down. The money is promised, not taken. It becomes a real payment, and only then reduces Amount Due, when you finalize it (capture it).
So a check can look like this with nothing actually paid yet:
Check 30001 Amount Due 142.00
Authorization Visa ...4042 100.00 (hold, not yet captured)
If you ignore the open hold and drop a different tender on top, two things go wrong:
- The hold can fall off uncaptured. If the check closes on the other tender while the card auth was never finalized, the bank releases the hold after a few days and you were never paid for that portion.
- Simphony tries to reconcile the card at close and the gateway refuses. Re-touching the card to finalize at that point can turn into a reversal plus a fresh authorization (see below), which is exactly the increment that declines.
The right way
- Stop adding items. Service Total the check so the amount is locked.
- Look at the check detail for every Authorization line. Each one is an open hold that still needs to be captured.
- For each open card auth, key the amount that card should pay first, then finalize it against the existing authorization: press CC Final (or Authorization & Pay if it auths and captures together) and pick the existing Authorization line for that card when prompted. The hold becomes a Payment and Amount Due drops by that amount.
- Repeat until there are no open authorization lines left and Amount Due shows the true remaining balance.
- Now apply the other tenders to that balance: Gift Card Redeem, the house account (Accounts Receivable) tender, Charge to room, cash, or another card. Apply them one at a time; each reduces Amount Due.
- Close the check when Amount Due reads 0.00.
The wrong way (and the errors it throws)
- Stacking a gift card or house account on top of an open card hold. The hold is still uncaptured: either you never get paid for it, or the close forces a card finalize that conflicts.
- Re-tapping or re-swiping the same card to "add" the other tender or top up the tab. Simphony asks Select Existing Auth or New Card?. Choosing New Card reverses the original authorization and starts a new one. On EMV through the payment interface, and especially with a tapped mobile wallet (Apple Pay or Google Pay) on Mastercard, Discover, or Amex, that reverse-and-reauthorize step is what returns:
- PSP: TRANS DENIED 662 (Mastercard)
- PSP: AUTH DECLINED 783 (Discover)
- PSP: DECLINED 702 (Amex)
- or a parsing gateway error, even though the card is good.
- Pressing CC Final without keying an amount when several auths are on the check. Simphony defaults the amount to the whole check total, so it closes everything against one auth and reverses all the other auths. The other cards are released and that single card is charged for the entire check. Always key each card's amount before finalizing it.
- Splitting the balance across the card and a gift card without finalizing the card first, so the totals never reconcile and the check will not close.
[INSERT SCREENSHOT: a check showing an open Authorization line above the Payments tab, before finalizing]
If a card will change after the first authorization
Use an inserted physical card, not a tapped wallet, for anything you will increment, decrement, top up, or finalize with a tip later. A tap (virtual wallet) is reliable only for a final sale where the amount will not change. This is the same guidance as Preauth vs Final sale and Error codes.
Verify
- Before you add any non-card tender, there are no open Authorization lines left: every card hold shows as a Payment.
- The check closes with Amount Due 0.00, and every tender appears in cloud Transactions.
