Understanding The Billing Statuses Authorized and Paid
Question:
When an order billing status is marked "authorized," does that mean the order is paid?
Response:
Authorizing funds from a credit card is different than capturing funds from a credit card.
Assuming you are using a payment gateway to process credit cards in real-time; You can choose to authorize a credit card upon order submission by the customer.
Authorizing a credit card checks the validity of the credit card, ensures sufficient available credit and then places the amount on hold for you to capture at a later time (when the order ships or is ready to ship).
Capturing funds removes the funds from the customers credit card to deposit into your bank account. To capture funds from a credit card that has already been authorized, please see question #2479. Once funds have been captured, there order billing status will automatically be changed to Paid and there is no additional action required on your behalf.
To capture funds at the time the order is placed is a violation of your Visa & MasterCard merchant agreement.
