Creating or Modifying AutoBills with Pre-Authorization

Subscribe provides the ability to separately pre-authorize a payment method, using Transaction.auth(), and then later pass the authorized transaction to AutoBill.update() or AutoBill.modify() for capture. This is useful if you have a workflow fulfillment process that you need to complete before the subscription is finalized, but you do not want to start fulfillment unless you can validate the customer’s ability to pay for the subscription. This feature enables you to verify and reserve full funds in advance, then create or modify a subscription at some arbitrary later date without having to cancel the prior authorized or submit a new one. You simple perform a Transaction.auth() for an amount sufficient to cover the subscription, then, when you are ready to create or update the subscription, input the transaction ID of the auth. Subscribe ensures that the authorized amount is equal to or greater than the immediate charge. If it is, that authorization is provided with the transaction capture request for the first AutoBill transaction, and no new auth is performed. For AutoBill.update(), the flow is as follows, authorizing

30.00 for an AutoBill charge of

25.00:

 #--update
 $tx = Transaction->new()→auth( 30.00 )
 $ab = AutoBill→new( 25.00 );
 $ab→update( $tx ); #use the pre existing auth’d Tx to charge

For AutoBill.modify(), the flow is as follows, again authorizing

30.00 for an AutoBill charge of

25.00:

 #--modify
 $tx = Transaction->new()→auth( 30.00 )
 $ab = AutoBill→new( 25.00 )->update();
 $ab→modify( 30.00, $tx ); 
 #use the pre existing auth’d Tx to charge, modify left with $5, 
 authed_tx has $25 and can be used to charge.

Parent topic:Creating AutoBills

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