This page describes the states an in-person payment moves through after the shopper pays on the terminal. The online states map closely to these, so also see Payment Lifecycle States.
Authorization
When the shopper presents their card, the terminal gets the payment authorized. Authorization reserves the funds on the shopper's account.
You receive the result in the Terminal API response, where
Response.ResultisSuccess,Failure, orPartial.An
AUTHORISATIONwebhook then confirms the authoritative outcome. Update your records based on the webhook, not on the synchronous response alone.
Save the transaction identifier from the response (format tenderReference.pspReference). You need it for capture, refunds, and lookups.
Capture
Capture transfers the reserved funds to your account. The behavior depends on your configuration:
Automatic capture (default): the payment is captured immediately after authorization. An automatically captured payment does not trigger a separate
CAPTUREwebhook.Delayed automatic capture: capture happens automatically after a delay you set. The delay lets you cancel the authorization if a mistake was made, instead of issuing a refund. For point-of-sale, a delay is usually recommended.
Manual capture: you send a capture request after authorization, against the
pspReferenceof the authorization. This is useful when you settle on fulfillment, such as closing a bar tab.
To receive capture confirmations for delayed or manual capture, enable the CAPTURE and CAPTURE_FAILED webhook events. Note that some wallet payment methods do not support separate capture, and some, such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, are always captured immediately.
Refunds
To return funds after a payment is approved, refund it. A referenced refund is connected to the original payment using its transaction identifier, which lets Adyen validate the refund against the original and prevent double refunding.
Full refund: returns the total purchase value.
Partial refund: returns part of the value, for example when a shopper returns one item. You can make multiple partial refunds over time.
Subscribe to the CANCEL_OR_REFUND webhook to receive the outcome of a refund.
Reversals
If the authorization has not yet been captured, you can cancel (reverse) it instead of refunding, which releases the reserved funds. This is the advantage of using a capture delay: a mistake caught before capture can be reversed rather than refunded. Once funds have been captured, return them with a refund.
See also
Payment Lifecycle States for the online state model these map to.
Authorization and Capture for capture configuration details.