An authorization transaction involves two phases:
- Authorization - the card is verified in real time for authenticity and funds are reserved for future settlement.
- Settlement - When batches are sent out and the funds that were reserved during authorization are withdrawn from the cardholder's account and transferred to the merchant's account.
Generally, there are two types of transaction capture procedures, host capture and terminal batch. They refer to whom handle the settlement (batch) file.
The batches sent for settlement contain all authorized transactions that are unsettled and committed.
Host Capture
When a merchant account is setup for host capture the batch files are stored at the processors (acquirers) host computer. The transactions that occur throughout the day are selected at random periods of time. Therefore NMI does not have the visibility of the transactions once they have left from the terminal to the processor (acquirer) for settlement (marked as committed). These transactions usually state unsettled on WebMIS, although they have left for settlement.
Terminal Capture
When a merchant account is setup for terminal batch, the transactions are stored at NMI's servers and sent for settlement (1 file per processor) around midnight of the merchants local time. The files are usually in a queue, so it could be marked as settled a few hours after midnight. If your account is setup as terminal batch and you wish to change the time the batch is sent to the acquirer, please submit a ticket to support@nmi.com