What is payment authorisation?¶

Payment authorisation is the provider's decision to approve or reject a proposed payment. Approval allows processing to continue; it does not establish settlement or the human approver.

The provider evaluates a request¶

Depending on the payment type, checks can include funds, account or card status, limits, fraud indicators and required authentication. A card issuer may return an approval, decline or challenge and reserve funds. A bank transfer may require approval through an application, browser or security token.

An authorised event may later fail, reverse, cancel or be refunded. The authorisation time can therefore differ from posting and settlement.

Preserve the decision and its route¶

Retain transaction and authorisation references, response codes, timestamps, amount, device and session data, authentication events and later status. Ask which system made the decision and what happened afterward.

Authentication records the security step, while authorisation records the provider decision. Neither alone proves who acted or whether a deceived user understood the payment.