Capturing payments

Credit card payments and some additional payment methods are captured automatically by default. If your store is set up to capture payments manually, then you need to complete an extra step to ensure that you get paid.

If you're unsure whether your store is set up to capture payments automatically or manually, then check your Payments settings. For information about payment capture choices and setup, refer to Payment authorization and capture.

When manual payment capture is activated, orders that are ready for payment capture have the Authorized status. Capture payment on each order that has the Authorized status. For orders that are paid by credit card, capture payment within the authorization period.

Capturing payment changes the payment status of an order from Authorized to Paid.

Capture payments manually

If your store is configured to capture funds manually, then make sure that you get paid by capturing every payment that has the Authorized status as soon as possible.

The credit card authorization period for capturing payment varies depending on your payment provider. For example, Shopify Payments provides an authorization period of 7 days for credit card payments. Capture payment within the authorization period, as after the authorization period ends, you might be unable to collect any money for the order.

It isn't possible to collect more money than the value that was initially authorized by the customer. If the customer wants to add more items to their cart, then you can edit the order and send an invoice for the difference, or they can place a new order on their own.

Capture a partial payment

When you capture a single order manually, you can choose to capture the full payment or a partial payment. You might want to capture a partial payment if:

  • some of the order has run out of stock and the customer doesn't want to wait for the product to be restocked.
  • the customer has changed their mind or made an error, and they only want part of what they ordered.
  • line items in an order will be fulfilled separately.

Capture multiple partial payments

If your payment provider supports multiple payment captures, then you can capture multiple payments up to the authorized amount within the Shopify admin. The transaction fees apply to each capture.

Not all payment providers support multiple payment captures. If your payment provider doesn't support multiple payment captures, then you can send the customer an invoice, then mark the order as paid.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the number of the order that you want to capture payment for.

  3. In the Authorized section, click Capture payment.

  4. Optional: Change the amount to capture a partial payment.

  5. Click Capture to complete the payment capture.

The order's timeline displays a record of the successful captures.

Capture payment early

If you have automatic capture at fulfillment activated and want to collect payment early, then you can capture the payment manually instead.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the number of the order that you want to capture payment for.

  3. From the order information page, click Capture payment early.

  4. Optional: Change the amount to capture a partial payment.

  5. When the amount is correct, click Accept to complete the payment capture.

Make manual payment captures in bulk

To capture funds for multiple orders paid by credit card, you can do a bulk action on your orders to capture payment.

Capturing payments in bulk will capture the total payment amount for all selected orders. If you want to capture only a partial payment, then you must capture payment manually for the individual order.

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