Reviewing uncaptured payments
If your Stripe integration uses auth and capture, read on to make sure reviews work well for you.
By default, with Stripe you create payments in one step, and with no further action on your part the funds will be sent to your bank account.
However, Stripe also supports two-step payments, often called auth and capture. If your integration uses this technique, it’s important to understand that approving a review and capturing a payment are separate actions.
Reviewing uncaptured payments in the Dashboard
When an uncaptured payment is placed in review, the Dashboard will display both a capture button and a set of buttons to close the review by approving or refunding. (For uncaptured payments, refunding is often called “releasing”.)
Important: approving the review will not automatically capture the charge. You will still need to click the capture button.
Using the API to automatically capture approved payments
Through the API, you can set up your integration to:
- Immediately capture payments not placed in review
- Leave payments placed in review uncaptured
- Once the review is approved, capture the payment
Immediately capture payments not placed in review
To create an uncaptured payment, set the capture behavior accordingly in the API request. On success, check the charge object’s Review attribute to see if the payment was placed in review; if the payment is a payment intent, check the payment intent’s Review attribute. If the attribute is empty, capture the charge.
# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production # See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys Stripe.api_key = 'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc' # Get the credit card details submitted by the form token = params[:stripeToken] begin # Create an uncaptured charge by passing capture=false charge = Stripe::Charge.create({ amount: 1000, # Amount in cents currency: 'usd', source: token, description: 'Example charge', capture: false, }) # Check if the payment is in review. If not, capture it. if !charge.review charge.capture end rescue Stripe::CardError => e # The card has been declined end
# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production # See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys Stripe.api_key = 'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc' # Get the credit card details submitted by the form # Create a PaymentIntent with manual capture intent = Stripe::PaymentIntent.create({ amount: 1000, # Amount in cents currency: 'usd', source: {SOURCE_ID}, description: 'Example charge', confirm: true, capture_method: 'manual', }) # Check if the payment is in review. If not, capture it. if !intent.review intent.capture end
Capturing a payment after a review is approved
By design, the prior step left payments in review uncaptured. In this step you’ll use webhooks to automate the process of capturing these payments upon approval.
Start by configuring your webhooks to listen for the review.closed
event. The event data includes the Review object, and the object’s reason
attribute will indicate whether the review was approved, or if it was closed for some other reason (e.g., the payment was refunded).
// Review object included in review.closed event webhook. { "id": "prv_08voh1589O8KAxCGPcIQpmkz", "object": "review", "charge": "ch_9E2sSCkzY5Ah08", "created": 1474379631, "livemode": false, "open": false, "reason": "approved" }
If reason
is 'approved'
, you’ll want to capture the charge.
# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production # See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys Stripe.api_key = 'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc' post "/my/webhook/url" do event_json = JSON.parse(request.body.read) event = Stripe::Event.retrieve(event_json["id"]) if event.type == 'review.closed' review = event.object if review.reason == 'approved' ch = Stripe::Charge.retrieve(review.charge) ch.capture end end status 200 end
To capture approved payments, the review process must be completed within seven days. Otherwise, as with any other uncaptured payment, the authorization will automatically expire and the payment can no longer be captured.