SpectrumPayment Solutions
All terms
Payments & Settlement

Authorization

The step where a customer's bank confirms a card is valid and has funds available, placing a hold on the amount. Authorization approves the sale but does not yet move money — that happens at capture and settlement.

Separating authorization from capture gives merchants flexibility: you can authorize at checkout and capture when you ship, which matters for pre-orders, backorders, and services delivered later.

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Related terms

Payments & Settlement

Capture

The step that converts an approved authorization into an actual charge, flagging the transaction to be settled and funded. Capturing only when you can fulfill the order helps avoid disputes over charges that ship late or not at all.

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Payments & Settlement

Authorization Hold

The temporary reduction in a cardholder's available balance created by an authorization, before the charge is captured. Holds expire if not captured, which is why the timing between authorization and fulfillment matters.

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Payments & Settlement

Settlement

The process of moving funds from captured transactions through the networks to the merchant's account, usually in daily batches. Settlement is when a sale actually becomes money you can spend, minus fees and any reserve.

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Payments & Settlement

Decline

A transaction the customer's bank refuses to authorize. Declines can be soft (temporary, worth retrying) or hard (permanent, do not retry). Managing them well recovers revenue that would otherwise be lost at checkout.

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