Authorisations

authorisations represent saved payment methods that can be used for future transactions they are essentially records of customer payment information (or supplier bank details for outbound payments) stored securely and used to authorise payments without re entering details key concepts secure payment storage sensitive payment data is never stored directly in salesforce payment service providers tokenize the data, and only secure tokens are stored flexible processing options authorisations can be initiated in two ways agent assisted (internal) your sales or support team collect payment information from customers and enter it into salesforce using a secure payment page customer self service (external) customers receive a secure link and submit details themselves automated recurring billing once authorised, a payment method can be used to automate subscriptions, instalments, or other recurring charges inbound and outbound payments authorisations can support inbound payments collecting money from customers outbound payments storing supplier bank details for payouts how it works create an authorisation record this record will initially contain information about the customer (or supplier, for outbound authorisations) and the intended payment method (e g , card, direct debit) at this stage, no payment details are entered authorisations can be created for any payment route aside from paypal collect payment details payment information is collected and processed for validation for outbound payments, bank details may first be verified authorisation becomes active once an authorisation is successfully processed (reaching the in force status), it's ready for use for inbound, the in force status is used to receive payments from customers, often automatically and repeatedly for outbound, it's used to send payments to suppliers, usually as individual transactions payment confirmation or failure the payment gateway returns a confirmation or failure message this information is updated in the payment record flow flowchart td classdef startend fill #002d4c,stroke\ none,color #fff,font weight 600,font family\ helvetica,rx 5px,ry 5px; classdef process fill #42a4dd,stroke\ none,color #fff,font weight 500,font family\ helvetica,rx 5px,ry 5px; classdef decision fill #f4f7fa,stroke\ none,color #002d4c,font weight 600,font family\ helvetica,rx 5px,ry 5px; a\[create authorisation record in salesforce] >b{process authorisation?} b internally (agent) >c\[click 'process authorisation' button] c >d\[paypage appears —internal—] d >e\[customer/agent enters payment details] e >f\[authorisation details updated in salesforce] b externally (customer) >g\[retrieve 'ecommerce url'] g >h\[send url to customer] h >i\[customer clicks url] i >j\[paypage appears —external—] j >k\[customer enters payment details] k >f f >l{authorisation successful?} l yes >m\[authorisation status in force] l no >n\[authorisation status failed] m >o\[use authorisation for payment] n >p\[investigate and resolve issue] class a,m,o,n,p startend class c,e,f,g,h,i,j,k process class b,l decision key fields field description authorisation url this is the link you provide to your customers to enable them to provide authority to save a payment method status tells you if the authorisation is ready to use or not authorisations have to be ‘in force’ before they can be used to collect payments status description a descriptive text showing the reason related to the current status might contain the reason for cancellation or failure for example payment route options (required) allows you to choose which authorisation routes are available to your customer to use e g card, direct debit or ach payment route selected tells you which type of payment method has been granted by the customer statuses in order for an authorisation to be used to collect payments, it must be marked as status of in force the following statuses are available on the unaric payments authorisation object status description awaiting submission the authorisation has not yet been processed by the psp pending this status is used for direct debits, and indicates the authorisation has been processed but is not yet in force direct debit authorisations have a lead time of a few days before they become active—see https //gocardless com/direct debit/timings/ for details this status isn’t relevant for card authorisations, as they become active (or fail) instantly in force the authorisation has been confirmed, is valid, and can be used to authorise a payment submitted for cancellation this status is used for direct debit payments created using gocardless connection it shows that the mandate/authorisation has been submitted for cancellation at the request of the payor, or at your request the status is automatically updated to cancelled when the mandate is cancelled at gocardless cancelled the authorisation was cancelled at the request of the payor, or at your request failed the authorisation is not valid / no longer valid and cannot be used to take payments expired the authorisation has expired, and can no longer be used to take payments