Payhawk exports only settled transactions in the reports you can generate in the system as well as when the system pushes data to integrated ERP systems, such as Oracle NetSuite, Xero, DUO (DATEV), and QuickBooks Online.
Authorized card transactions
Sometimes, you might see a card expense in your account labeled as Authorized and its payment status as Pending settlement. This means the transaction has been approved by your bank or card issuer but hasn’t been fully processed by the merchant yet.
When you use your credit or debit card to make a purchase, the merchant asks your bank to confirm if there are enough funds or credit available. At this point, the transaction is marked as Authorized.
Although the money hasn’t been transferred to the merchant yet, a temporary hold is placed on the amount. This reduces your available balance until the transaction is finalized. The merchant then submits the transaction for settlement to receive the funds. Some merchants may take longer to complete this process, keeping the payment in a Pending settlement state until it’s settled. For more information, see the Why is my card transaction pending? article.
Specifics of authorized card transactions
Card networks use a “just-in-time” system to share transaction details with the merchant within a specific timeframe. If the merchant doesn’t process the information in time, the authorization will remain visible to you but may not appear to the merchant.
In such cases, the hold on your funds will automatically expire within a maximum of 7 days (depending on the card network’s policy), and the funds will return to your account. This process is managed by the card network and cannot be sped up or influenced by Payhawk.
Settled card transactions
Settled card transactions are the final stage of the payment process, where the money for a purchase has been successfully transferred from the cardholder's account to the merchant's account. This means the transaction is no longer pending, and the payment is complete.
Accounting implications for uncleared transactions
Sometimes, an authorization might not be cleared, which means the transaction wasn’t settled and no money was deducted.
As a result, the payment can’t be reconciled right away. If it was already reconciled by mistake, some manual adjustments may be needed. To save you time and simplify the process, Payhawk only includes settled card transactions in reports and ERP exports.
Viewing settled transactions in Payhawk
To verify the stage of a card transaction:
In the Payhawk web portal, go to Expenses.
Select the expense you want to verify. Next to the amount, you will see the Paid status for settled card transactions.
Also, you can view the status of the expense in its Payment details section.
For settled card payments, the system uses the Settled label in the Payment section of the expense.
For settled bill payments, the system uses the Success label in the Payment section of the expense.