Understanding Partial Authorizations
Partial Authorization is a feature that allows a transaction to be approved for a portion of the total sale amount if the cardholder does not have enough funds to cover the entire cost.
Instead of a hard "Decline" when a card limit is reached, the system approves whatever funds are available, allowing the guest to pay the remaining balance with another payment method (Cash, another Card, etc.).
How It Works 💳
Without Partial Authorization, if a guest tries to pay a $50.00 bill with a card that only has $20.00 on it, the transaction would simply be Declined.
With Partial Authorization enabled, the flow looks like this:
The Swipe: The guest presents their card to pay the $50.00 bill.
The Response: The bank sees the limit is reached but approves the available $20.00.
The Prompt: NX POS automatically subtracts the approved amount ($20.00) from the total and prompts the user for the remaining balance ($30.00).
The Split: The guest pays the remaining $30.00 with cash or a different card to complete the sale.
Benefits for Your Business 🚀
Enabling this feature helps prevent awkward interactions and saves sales that might otherwise be lost.
Complete More Sales: Capture the funds that are available instead of turning the customer away.
Reduce Declines: Lowers the number of "Declined" messages your staff has to handle.
Keep Lines Moving: Avoids the time-consuming process of the guest calling their bank or guessing which card has money.
Customer Satisfaction: Prevents embarrassment for the guest by allowing them to seamlessly use their available balance.
Configuration ⚙️
By default, Partial Authorizations are ENABLED in NX POS to ensure you capture as much revenue as possible.
However, if your business rules require you to disable this feature (e.g., specific bar workflows where split tenders are discouraged), you can turn it off in the Portal.
Navigate to NX Portal > Configuration > Orders > Tenders.
Locate the setting Prevent Partial Auth.
Toggle this setting to ON (to disable partial auths) or OFF (to allow them).
Click Save.