Transaction Flow Strategy

The TransactionFlowStrategyEnum defines how Saleor requests the initial payment action:

• AUTHORIZATION: hold funds first; capture later.
• CHARGE: capture funds immediately.

Event Flows by Strategy

• Authorization flow

• Charge flow

Business Advantages

Choosing the right transaction flow strategy is a crucial business decision. The best choice depends on your product, business model, and fulfillment process.

When to use AUTHORIZATION

• Inventory or stock-sensitive products: Ensure items are available before capturing funds.
• Fraud or risk checks: Hold the payment while verifying order details.
• Partial fulfillment: Capture only the portion shipped if the full order can’t be fulfilled.
• Customer-friendly preorders/backorders: Customers aren’t fully charged until the product is delivered.

When to use CHARGE

• Instant delivery products: Digital goods, subscriptions, or services delivered on purchase.
• Fast-moving, low-risk retail: Simplifies operations by charging right away.
• High-volume sales: Reduces operational overhead from tracking pending authorizations.
• Cash flow needs: Immediate settlement improves liquidity.

Configuration

You can set the strategy per channel as the default or override it per payment during transaction initialization.

Channel Default

• Dashboard: Go to Configuration → Channels → <your_channel> → Payment settings, then change Authorize transactions instead of charging.

• API: Use the channelUpdate mutation and set the paymentSettings.defaultTransactionFlowStrategy field.

App Override

• When initializing a transaction, pass the action argument to transactionInitialize.
• If action is not provided, Saleor falls back to the channel’s paymentSettings.defaultTransactionFlowStrategy.

Actions on Transactions

All actions on a transaction can be performed via the Saleor Dashboard or API.

Performing Actions

• Dashboard:
  Go to Order details → Transactions, then choose Charge, Cancel, or Refund, whichever is available and appropriate.

• API:
  Use transactionRequestAction with the corresponding action parameter (CHARGE, CANCEL, REFUND).

Action Behavior

• Charged transactions → Can be refunded directly.
• Authorized transactions → Can be:
  • Cancelled → Funds are released without charging.
  • Captured (charged) first → Then optionally refunded.

Authorization Expirations

• Authorizations are temporary and typically expire according to payment provider and card network rules (often 7–30 days).
• Expiration happens on the provider side; when an authorization expires, funds are automatically released.
• To continue processing, you must re-authorize the transaction.
• Track events in your payment app and report them to Saleor using transactionEventReport as needed.