Charge Lifecycle

A charge is a card transaction, including its complete lifecycle. A new charge request triggers a sequence of processes, indicated in the diagram below.

The authentication process determines whether the cardholder initiates the transaction. For card-present transactions, several authentication methods exist, which are covered in more detail in the Authentication section.

A card payment authorization is the process of a merchant sending an authorization request to the card network to check with the cardholder’s bank if the transaction (charge) is permitted and if there are sufficient funds in the account. When the cardholder's bank approves the authorization request, the amount will be reserved on the cardholder’s account.

Clearing is the process of submitting the required transaction data to the card networks so that reserved funds can be transferred from the cardholder’s account to the merchant’s account. This clearing process determines the net financial positions of the acquirers and issuers before the settlement occurs.

The Settlement process involves transferring funds between the acquirers and issuers through the card networks to settle their net financial positions. Once the settlement is completed, the acquirer receives the funds and can pay the merchant. Silverflow is not part of the settlement process but supports its clients with data to support the reconciliation of settlement funds and payouts to merchants.

Reconciliation is the process where the settlement funds received are matched with the individual charges sent for clearing. It also provides insights into other mutations that have impacted the settlement amount, such as scheme fees or chargebacks.

Silverflow supports a wide range of identifiers to identify, retrieve, and reconcile actions performed on the platform.

For any action performed or unique information, a key will be generated by Silverflow. For example, chargeKey is the Silverflow-generated identifier for a transaction, and this identifier will then be contained in the authorization response and referenced in several follow-up actions such as refunds or manual clearing. The chargeKey will also be present in reconciliation details to identify the settlement information for that particular transaction.

For any action an Agent performs, the platform allows attaching a client-side generated reference. This will enable customers to use their identifier when interacting with the Silverflow platform and aid their reconciliation processes. For example, when creating a 3DS authentication or creating a charge, an Agent has the option to pass a transactionReference, which will then be returned in the response and also be present in the reconciliationDetails. The transaction reference can also be used to link together all actions related to the lifecycle of a transaction. For example, 3DS authentication, authorization, and reconciliation.

Where a customer acts on a charge, for example, manual clearing, they can pass an action reference, which will then be present in reconciliationDetails. This can be helpful if multiple manual clearing actions are performed for a single authorized amount.

In the authorization process, the Charge response provides several card network identifiers, such as the systemTraceAuditNumber (DE11), the retrievalReferenceNumber (DE37), the banknetReference and traceId for Mastercard transactions, and the transactionIdentifier for Visa transactions.

When a transaction enters the clearing stage, the most common identifier is the ARN/RRN—Acquirer Reference Number / Retrieval Reference Number, which Silverflow creates on behalf of the Acquirer and provides a unique field for each clearing action sent to the card network.