Does Elliott Support Credit Card Pre-Authorization Transactions?

Does Elliott Support Credit Card Pre-Authorization Transactions?

Release Date: 07/17/2020
Version: 8.0 & Up

Q - We are doing more and more credit card charges lately, which is also increasing the amount of adjustments that need to be made to order totals. Do you have a way to "pre-charge" a card for a number of days but do the actual charge later for a totaled order amount?

For example, we have an order for $100 that gets charged on Monday for a shipment on Wednesday. As we load the shipment on Wednesday, we have to short ship the order by $20 due to inadequate inventory. We go into Elliott and modify the order total to be $80. Does an easy way exist to update the credit card to only charge the $80?

A - The short answer is “YES.”

In Elliott Credit Card Processing, we support the following transaction types:
  • Sales
  • Refund
  • Void
  • PreAuth
  • Complete
  • Force
You have been using “S=Sales” transaction in the past.  The "Pre-Charge"  transaction you refer to is called “Pre-Auth.” To perform Pre-Authorization, in whatever credit card processing screen where it prompts you for “Trx Type,” you will choose “P=PreAuth.” See sample screen below:


This is like charging a credit card, but it just allocates the amount of that credit card. You will get an approval number back. The transaction does not create any accounting record in Elliott Business Software. But it will create a record in Credit Card Log History for future reference.

When you are about to charge the final amount to this credit card, where the system prompts you for the credit card number, you can use the “F8” key. See sample screen below:


The credit card log history will then be displayed:


Select the corresponding Pre-Authorized transaction, and the transaction type will default to “C=Complete.”  Accept it.  Then you can change the credit card amount if it turns out to be  different.  Please see also see the following KB article for more details:


    • Related Articles

    • Credit Card Processing Frequently Asked Questions

      Q - If a customer wants to give us new CC information for their next order or a new Expiration date and Sec # for a CC that has been used recently, is there a way to enter that information at that time if we do not have an order to process? A - You ...

    • Credit Card Transaction Time Out

      Q - When I process a credit card transaction in Elliott, I receive a message window with the title "Finished Transaction Status" and the detail message like followings: E:System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: A connection ...

    • Credit Card Payments in Elliott but Not in Payment Gateway

      Q - Yesterday, we processed two credit card payments through A/R Credit Transaction Handle. They were declined. Today, when we reconciled the A/R Credit Card Log from yesterday with the Payment Gateway (Solupay), they didn't match. The difference is ...

    • How to Charge a Credit Card If Pre-Authorized for the Wrong Customer

      Q - We tried to complete a credit card charge with a pre-authorization for the wrong customer. Since we don't keep the credit card number when we do the pre-authorization, how do we go about completing the credit card charge for the correct customer? ...

    • Credit Card Processing Error: Chk Viawarp For Dupl

      Q - In A/R -> Processing -> Credit Card Trx Handle, at field "21. Approval No," I press F4 to interface with the credit card payment gateway server, then I receive the message "Credit: AP Error: Chk Viawarp For Dupl." See examples below: When I go to ...