Authorization

During the process of authorization, the clearing house performs various checks on payment cards and either grants or denies authorization for a payment.

In the standard system, the system triggers authorization automatically when a payment card transaction is saved.

Note Note

If you are using SAP CRM for billing, billing plan items with a billing date within the authorization horizon are automatically authorized.

End of the note.

Prerequisites

You have set up authorization in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management under Basic Functions Payment Cards Settings for Authorization .
The delivery date of the sales transaction or the billing date of the service transaction are within the authorization horizon (see Authorization Validity).
If required, you have implemented a Business Add-In (BAdI) to modify the standard authorization logic.
You can find the relevant BAdIs in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management under Basic Functions Payment Cards Business Add-Ins :
- BAdI: Header and Item Data of Authorization
- BAdI: Requirement for Authorization (Transaction-Dependent)
- BAdI: Merging/Split of Values to be Authorized
- BAdI: Payment Card Processing (relevant only if you are using SAP CRM for billing)

Process

When you create and save a business transaction with Payment Card as the payment method, authorization is automatically triggered.
A remote function call (RFC) creates a connection to the corresponding authorization module in the clearing house.
The clearing house checks the following:
- Whether the card is valid on the basis of the card number, valid-to date, and card verification value (CVV)
- Whether the card owner's name and address are valid
- Whether the transaction amount exceeds the limit set for this card
The clearing house sends a response, granting or denying authorization.
Authorization information appears in the Payment Method assignment block in the transaction, as a separate line. A line is created for each attempted authorization.

Result

The authorization process leads to the following possible results, depending on whether you perform billing in SAP CRM or SAP ERP:

The clearing house grants authorization.
If you perform billing in SAP ERP, the transaction is automatically copied to SAP ERP unless it contains errors.
The clearing house denies authorization.
You can save the transaction and attempt reauthorization later (see Reauthorization Report). If you perform billing in SAP ERP, the rejected authorization counts as an error, so the system does not copy the transaction to SAP ERP.
The connection to the clearing house is disrupted, for example, due to technical problems.
If you perform billing in SAP ERP, the transaction is automatically copied to SAP ERP unless it contains errors.

You can save the transaction and attempt reauthorization later (see Reauthorization Report).

If the connection to the clearing house is disrupted, employees can contact the clearing house using another channel, for example, telephone, and enter the authorized amount and authorization number themselves. To do this, the authorization object COM_PAYP_A must be assigned to the employee's user.

Each authorization has a validity period (see Authorization Validity).

The results of authorization are taken into account during billing. If you perform billing in SAP CRM, this can result in reauthorization if the authorized amounts are insufficient to cover the gross value of the payment. For more information, see Billing for Payment Card Transactions.