Void
Cancelling an authorized transaction before it's captured or settled.
A void cancels a transaction that has been authorized but not yet captured or settled, releasing the hold on the customer's funds. Because no money has moved, a void is cleaner and faster than a refund, which reverses a completed charge.
How it works
The deadline is not capture. It is your batch cutoff. A void pulls a transaction before the batch closes. A sale that is only authorized has its hold released, and a captured sale can usually still be cancelled too, as long as the batch has not gone to the networks. Once it has, refunding is the only route left. A staff habit of checking the open batch before it closes turns paid refunds into free voids.
Voiding is almost always free. Refunding the same sale usually costs you the original processing fee, sometimes a refund fee too, and it feeds a refund count that some processors watch as a risk signal alongside chargebacks. The catch is the customer's statement. A void does not always clear the pending line at once. Some processors send a full authorization reversal and the issuer releases it quickly, while others stop the transaction on their side and let the hold expire. Ask which yours does, because it decides whether a customer waits an hour or several days.
Worked example
A customer cancels at 4pm and your batch does not close until 10pm, so you void the $500 order. The hold drops off and it costs you nothing. The same cancellation at 9am the next morning lands after the batch has gone, which makes it a refund instead. At 2.9% + $0.30 the processor keeps $14.80 on a sale you no longer have. Twenty of those in a year is $296.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I void a payment after it has settled?
- No. Once a transaction has settled, refunding is the only option left. The practical cutoff is your daily batch. Anything still sitting in the open batch can normally be voided, and anything already submitted to the card networks cannot. If your dashboard lists a payment as uncaptured or pending batch, void it. Once it reads settled or paid out, refund it.
- Does a voided transaction show on the customer's bank statement?
- No charge lands on the final statement, though a pending authorization may sit there for a few days until the bank drops it. Nothing is debited and nothing settles. When a customer is worried, tell them the amount is showing as pending rather than charged, and that the timing of the release belongs to their bank rather than to you.
- Is there a fee for voiding a transaction?
- Most processors charge nothing, which is the whole argument for voiding rather than refunding. Some gateways still bill a small per-transaction or per-authorization fee whatever the outcome, so read the fee schedule if you void a high share of orders. Even then, compare it against a refund, where the original percentage fee is usually gone for good.