Each payment on the Balance Platform goes through a series of events. Most of the events are triggered by the processing merchant, the business that processed the card payment. These events then result in funds being deducted from or added to the balance account. We inform you of these events through:
- Webhooks
- The Transfers page in your Balance Platform Customer Area.
The following diagram shows an overview of the payment flow and the payment stages.
This page provides information about payment stages and how these affect funds in the balance account. When you are already familiar with payment stages, you can refer to Payment-related events for specific webhook types and examples.
Payment request received
When a cardholder pays with an Adyen-issued card, the processing merchant sends a payment request to the card issuer (Adyen). When Adyen receives the payment request, we send the balancePlatform.transfer.created webhook that contains information about the received payment request, such as the amount and which merchant initiated the payment.
Payment authorised
When the processing merchant sends a payment authorisation request to the card issuer, Adyen approves or declines the payment based on your relayed authorisation decision, the outcome of transaction rules, and other validations. Adyen sends a balancePlatform.transfer.updated webhook to inform your server of the payment authorisation request and of the result.
When the payment is authorised, the payment amount is reserved but not yet deducted from the balance account. When you check the balance account details, the payment amount is reflected as a reserved amount.
The processing merchant can then proceed to capture the payment, cancel the payment, or let the authorisation expire.
Authorisation adjusted
The processing merchant may adjust the previously authorised amount, for example, to add a tip when the cardholder pays at a restaurant. In this case, Adyen triggers a balancePlatform.transfer.updated webhook to inform your server of this event.
Authorisation expired
A payment authorisation expires when the processing merchant fails to capture the payment after the set expiry period. In the balance account, the previously reserved amount is added back to the available amount.
Adyen triggers a balancePlatform.transfer.updated webhook to inform your server of this event.
Authorisation canceled
The processing merchant can cancel a payment authorisation up until the moment the funds are captured. In the balance account, the previously reserved amount is added back to the available amount.
Adyen triggers a balancePlatform.transfer.updated webhook to inform your server of this event.
Payment captured
The processing merchant can capture the authorised amount in full or in parts (partial captures). Capture is when the authorised amount is deducted from the balance account. In case of partial captures, the authorised but not yet captured amount can still expire or be canceled.
In the balance account, the payment amount previously reflected as a reserved amount is now deducted from the balance.
Adyen triggers a balancePlatform.transfer.updated webhook to inform your server of this event. In case of multiple partial captures, Adyen also sends multiple webhooks—one for each capture request.
Payment refunded
The cardholder may ask to get their funds back. When the processing merchant initiates a refund, Adyen triggers a balancePlatform.transfer.updated webhook to inform your server of the refund request.
