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Managing Split Capture Transactions

Learn about managing transaction states in your payment gateway.

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Overview

Transactions represent Affirm loans issued to the end-user. You can interact with transactions via the Transaction API in order to change the state of that transaction, update metadata, or retrieve details.

Authorization

Authorization occurs after a user has successfully completed the Affirm checkout flow and returns back to the merchant site. Authorizing the transaction generates a transaction_id (A1B2-C3D4), that you'll use to reference this loan moving forward.

The Authorize resource endpoint creates a loan and reserves the funds. When you authorize, Affirm will generate a transaction_id that you’ll use to reference the transaction moving forward. You must authorize a transaction to fully create it.

❗️

If you don't authorize a charge, it won't be considered active. This means the user won't see the loan, and you won't be able to capture the funds. For this reason, you should authorize the loan as soon as you receive a checkout token.

curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions \
     -X POST \
     -u "<public_api_key>:<private_api_key>" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"transaction_id": "<checkout_token>","order_id": "JKLM4321"}'

You should receive a response that looks like this with the transaction_id.

{
   "amount": 6100,
   "amount_refunded": 0,
   "authorization_expiration": "2019-01-01T00:00:00Z",
   "checkout_id": "A1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8",
   "created": "2019-01-01T00:00:00Z",
   "currency": "USD",
   "id": "A1B2-C3D4",
   "order_id": "JKLM4321",
   "provider_id": 1,
   "status": "authorized"
}

After successfully authorizing a transaction and receiving the authorized amount, the user will be redirected to the user_confirmation_url page on your site, which will do the following:

  • Validate that authorized amount equals the order total
  • Redirect the customer to the order confirmation page or display an order confirmation message
  • Store the transaction_id
  • Mark the order payment as pending

If the authorization fails, the user will be redirected to the user_cancel_url page, on your site, which will do the following:

  • Redirect the customer to your order error page or display that the order was incomplete.
  • Potentially store this checkout attempt, which isn’t required on our end.

📘

You should only authorize a given Affirm loan once, for the entire amount of the
transaction being purchased.

Managing transactions

You can integrate the Transaction endpoints into your back-end order management system, where you normally fulfill orders and process payments.

Transaction API allows you to manage the transaction through various states such as authorized, captured, and voided.

If you want to read or update loan information, you can use the read and update states.

Capture a transaction

After fulfilling an order, you must send a Capture Transaction API request to Affirm in order to capture or settle the funds. You'll want to perform this activity from your secure back-end systems. To capture a previous authorization, you'll need the charge_id provided in the Authorization API response. There aren't any required fields that need to be stored from the Capture response.

Capturing funds is similar to capturing a credit card transaction. After capturing the loan, we do the following:

  • Notify the customer that the loan has been captured and that their first payment will be due in the future.
  • Pay the merchant within 2-3 business days.

For Split Captures, you may Capture the loan in your desired increments by specifying the amount parameter for each unique capture request within the authorization window.

❗️

Amount

If you don't pass an amount in the capture in the Capture request, the entire amount will be captured.

Authorization window

All captures must occur within the set authorization window. Upon the auth window expiring, uncaptured amounts will be refunded to the customer's loan, and will no longer be capturable. Work with your technical counterpart to ensure that the auth window is set appropriately per your shipping timeframes. The default auth window is otherwise set to 30 days. 

curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/capture \
     -X POST \
     -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"amount":"50000", "order_id": "{order_id}", "shipping_carrier": "USPS", "shipping_confirmation": "1Z23223"}'

You will then receive back a response with the confirmation.

{
  "fee": 600,
  "created": "2016-03-18T00:03:44Z",
  "order_id": "JKLM4321",
  "currency": "USD",
  "amount": 50000,
  "type": "capture",
  "id": "O5DZHKL942503649",
  "transaction_id": "6dH0LrrgUaMD7Llc"
}

Multiple captures, refunds, and voids

To capture funds in increments, send a Capture Transaction API request for the specified amount within the authorization window. For example, if your authorization window is 30 days, you can make a unique Capture request for each item in the order within that 30-day period. You can also use the Void endpoint to void uncollected funds, and the Refund endpoint to process refunds for partially captured funds.

Examples

Below we'll cover some examples of common Split Capture use cases and walk you through submitting multiple Capture requests. These examples follow a fictional business, Prometheus Furniture, that sells home furnishings and appliances. Due to the high demand of their furniture, they typically ship items for multiple orders at different times.

Example 1: Capture all funds

Prometheus Furniture just fulfilled an order for a sofa priced at $400 and a computer desk priced at $600 for a total of $1000. In the example below, the sofa is ready to ship immediately while the computer desk will take longer.

First, they'll authorize the loan for the full amount of $1000. 

curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions \
     -X POST \
     -u "<public_api_key>:<private_api_key>" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"transaction_id": "<checkout_token>","order_id": "JKLM4321"}'

Next, Prometheus Furniture sends a Capture request specifying the amount for $400 on Day 1 of the loan. 

#First capture for $400
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/capture \
     -X POST \
     -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"amount":40000, "order_id": "JKLM4321", "shipping_carrier": "USPS", "shipping_confirmation": "1Z23223"}'

26 days later when the computer desk is ready to ship, Prometheus Furniture submits another capture request specifying the remaining amount of $600. 

#Second capture for $600
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/capture \
     -X POST \
     -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"amount":60000, "order_id": "JKLM4321", "shipping_carrier": "USPS", "shipping_confirmation": "1Z23223"}'

Example 2: Capture less than full amount with a partial void

Sometimes, customers request a loan greater than the amount they end up spending due to a cancelled item or tax adjustment. In the example below, a customer takes out a $1000 loan, but orders two bar stools for $300, and a patio furniture for $500, and a chair for $200. After authorizing the full loan amount, Prometheus captures the funds for the bar stools specifying the amount of $300.

#First capture for $300
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/capture \
     -X POST \
     -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"amount":30000, "order_id": "JKLM4421", "shipping_carrier": "USPS", "shipping_confirmation": "1Z23223"}'

When the patio furniture is ready to ship on day 13, they'll capture the second amount for the patio furniture.

#Second capture for $500
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/capture \
     -X POST \
     -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"amount":50000, "order_id": "JKLM4421", "shipping_carrier": "USPS", "shipping_confirmation": "1Z23223"}'

The chair that was initially ordered was cancelled before being shipped. As a result, Prometheus Furniture wouldn't capture the $200, but rather they submit a Void request within the authorization window for the remaining amount. 

#Void $200
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/void \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
    -d '{"amount":20000}'

Example 3: Captures all funds with a refund

In this example, the customer decided to purchase a new rug for $200 and a new refrigerator for $800. After the initial authorization, Prometheus Furniture sends that first capture request for $200.

#First capture for $200
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/capture \
     -X POST \
     -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"amount":20000, "order_id": "JKLM5431", "shipping_carrier": "USPS", "shipping_confirmation": "1Z23223"}'

Prometheus can get the fridge to the customer a little earlier than normal and captures the second amount for $800 on day 4.

#Second capture for $800
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/capture \
     -X POST \
     -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"amount":80000, "order_id": "JKLM5431", "shipping_carrier": "USPS", "shipping_confirmation": "1Z23223"}'

The customer was pretty excited to get their items quickly, but didn't quite like how the rug clashed with the colours in their living room. Luckily, Prometheus Furniture has a great refund policy and initiated a refund for the customer when they found out. This time, they'll use the Refund API to credit the $200 back to the customer. 

curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/refund \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
    -d '{"amount": 20000}'

Although Prometheus Furniture ended up capturing the full loan, they were able to refund the requested amount back to the customer which will be applied at the end of the loan.

Example 4: Partially captured loan needs to be voided and refunded

For this example, a customer ordered a dining table for $1000 and 6 dining chairs for $1200. Prometheus furniture then captures the first amount of $1000 for the dining table.

#First capture for $1000
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/capture \
     -X POST \
     -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"amount":100000, "order_id": "JKLM5555", "shipping_carrier":   "USPS", "shipping_confirmation": "1Z23223"}'

Once the dining table arrives at the customer’s residence, they realize that it’s far too large for their dining area and decide to return the table. Now that the table is returned, there is no need for the dining chairs and the customer requests to cancel the unfulfilled order. To cancel the order, the first step is to void the additional authorized but uncaptured amount of $1200.

#Voiding the authorized but uncaptured loan amount of $1200
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/void \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
    -d '{"amount":120000}

After voiding the authorized but uncaptured transaction amount of $1200, the next step is to refund the captured loan amount of $1000 for the dining table.

#Refunding the captured loan amount of $1000
curl https://sandbox.affirm.com/api/v1/transactions/{transaction_id}/refund \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -u "{public_api_key}:{private_api_key}" \
    -d '{"amount": 100000}'

Because the loan had been partially captured, but the customer decided to return the table and cancel the order of the chairs, it was necessary to void the authorized but uncaptured transaction amount of $1200 first. Followed by a refund for the partially captured loan amount of $1000.

Updated about 1 year ago