Capture and refund Clover payments

You manage Clover payments from the WooCommerce order screen, without logging in to Clover: capture payments you authorized at checkout, and refund all or part of a payment. Each action adds an order note with the Clover transaction ID.

When you’d use this

• Hold a payment at checkout and take it when you ship.
• Capture a different amount than you authorized, for example after removing an out of stock item.
• Refund a whole order or part of it.
• Cancel an order whose payment you never captured.

Charge or authorize at checkout

Transaction Type on Clover settings decides what happens when a customer pays:

• Charge: Clover takes the payment straight away, and the order moves to Processing (or Completed for orders that need no processing).
• Authorization: Clover holds the amount on the card. The order goes to On hold with the note "Clover Credit Card Transaction Held for Review (Authorization only transaction)", and the customer sees "Your order has been received and is being reviewed. Thank you for your business." You then capture the payment.

With Authorization, Charge Virtual-Only Orders can still charge orders that only hold virtual products.

Capture an authorized payment

1. Open the order

Go to WooCommerce » Orders and open the on hold order.

2. Capture it

Click Capture Charge next to the order items. The order note reads "Clover Credit Card Capture of [amount] Approved", and once the captured amount reaches the order total, the order moves on as a paid order.

To capture several orders at once, select them in WooCommerce » Orders and choose Capture Charge from the bulk actions.

Capture a different amount

With Enable Partial Capture on, Capture Charge opens a panel showing the Authorization total, the Amount already captured and the Remaining order total. Enter the Capture amount, add an optional comment, and click Capture [amount].

To take less than you authorized, capture the lower amount rather than refunding part of an uncaptured authorization.

Capture automatically

With Capture Paid Orders on, changing an authorized order to Processing or Completed captures it.

When capture isn’t available

The Capture Charge button is grayed out with a tip explaining why:

• "This charge has been fully captured."
• "This charge can no longer be captured." The order screen stops offering capture 30 days after the authorization. Card issuers can release a hold sooner, so capture when you fulfill the order.
• "This charge cannot be captured." The authorization can’t be captured from WooCommerce. Check the order notes and the payment in your Clover dashboard.

The button doesn’t show at all on cancelled, refunded or failed orders.

If Clover rejects a capture, the order note reads "Clover Credit Card Capture Failed:" followed by Clover’s reason.

Refund a payment

1. Open the order and click Refund.
2. Enter the amount, either per line item or in Refund amount, and an optional reason.
3. Click the refund button that names your Clover payment method (for example, Refund $25.00 via Credit Card).

You can refund all of a payment or part of it, and refund one order more than once up to its total. Each refund adds the note "Clover Credit Card Refund in the amount of [amount] approved." When the whole order total has been refunded, the order moves to Refunded with the note "Clover Credit Card Order completely refunded."

Clover receives the refund amount only, not which items you refunded, because orders reach Clover without line items. The Manual refund button records a refund in WooCommerce without sending anything to Clover.

If Clover rejects the refund, WooCommerce shows the error and the order note reads "Clover Credit Card Refund Failed:" followed by Clover’s code and message.

Cancel an authorization

There’s no separate void button. To cancel a payment you authorized but never captured, refund the full order total from the order screen, as above. Clover for WooCommerce sends it to Clover as a refund of the authorization, and the order moves to Refunded.

Refund the full amount to release an authorization. To keep part of it, capture the lower amount instead.

Find a WooCommerce order in Clover

Each Clover payment carries a reference to the order: the WooCommerce order number, cut to 12 characters and then stripped of anything that isn’t a letter or digit. For customers with an account, it also carries their WooCommerce customer ID. Search for the order number in your Clover dashboard’s transactions to find the payment.

The order notes in WooCommerce show the Clover transaction ID for every charge, capture and refund.

Common issues

The Capture Charge button is grayed out or missing

On an order paid with Transaction Type set to Charge, the button is grayed out with "This charge has been fully captured.", because Clover took the payment at checkout. The button doesn’t show at all on cancelled, refunded or failed orders, or on orders that weren’t paid with Clover.

A refund says it failed

Read the "Clover Credit Card Refund Failed" order note for Clover’s reason. Check that the order was paid in the environment you’re in now (a sandbox payment can’t be refunded once you switch to Production), and that the payment hasn’t already been fully refunded in the Clover dashboard.

Keep learning

• Clover settings (Transaction Type and the capture settings)
• Get started with Clover
• Troubleshoot Clover