Introduction

Each of the gateways provided by PayPal for WooCommerce give you the option to process payment for orders immediately or to authorize and capture the order for greater flexibility and control over how payments are processed.  This doc provides details about how to manage WooCommerce PayPal authorize and capture procedures directly from within the WooCommerce order screen.

Get PayPal for WooCommerce

This guide is for those using our PayPal for WooCommerce plugin, which upgrades the PayPal experience on your WooCommerce website for free.  This includes full support for the Authorization and Capture feature outlined in this article.

Set Payment Action to Authorization

  • From your WordPress admin panel, navigate to Settings -> PayPal for WooCommerce.
  • Choose the payment gateway you wish to set for Authorize and Capture.
  • Find the Payment Action setting, and set it to Authorization.
  • Save your settings, and now all future orders will be processed as an Authorization.

WooCommerce PayPal Authorize and Capture Settings

WooCommerce PayPal Authorize and Capture Settings

  • NOTE:  The order status in WooCommerce will be set to On Hold when an authorization order is processed.

Capture Funds for Authorized Orders

  • Find the authorized order that you would like to capture from within WooCommerce -> Orders.
  • You will now see PayPal Transaction history at the top of the order screen where you can manage your authorizations and captures.
  • Select Capture Authorization from the drop down.
  • Set the amount you would like to capture.
    • The default capture amount will be the total of the original authorization.
    • You may set this to a lower amount if you wish to process a partial capture.
  • Click the Submit button to capture the amount set.

WooCommerce PayPal Authorize and Capture

Capture a partial or full payment from the authorized order.

WooCommerce PayPal Authorize and Capture Log

  • The WooCommerce order screen will keep a log of the original authorization and any captures that have been placed against it.
  • If you process a partial capture you may repeat the steps above for future partial captures up to the full authorization amount.

WooCommerce PayPal Authorize and Capture Log

WooCommerce PayPal Authorize and Capture Log

Void an Authorization

  • Navigate to the WooCommerce order with an authorization you would like to void.
  • Choose Void Authorization from the drop down.
  • Select the Authorization Transaction ID that you would like to void from the next drop down.
  • Click Submit to officially void the authorization and release the funds back to the buyer’s payment source.

WooCommerce PayPal Authorize and Capture Void

Void and PayPal authorization from the WooCommerce order screen.

Looking for Live Help?

Schedule a live meeting with Drew Angell, PayPal Certified Developer, and get all of your questions or concerns answered.