Tipping on the receipt

Tipping on the receipt is a payment flow where the customer first presents their card and provides a PIN or signature, and then writes a tip amount on the receipt and signs for it. Because the tip is added after the initial authorization, the original amount is authorized, but the tip is not. To get the full amount including the tip, you can either adjust the authorization or overcapture the payment.

Requirements

Before you begin, take into account the following requirements, limitations, and preparations.

Authorization adjustment or overcapture

There are two ways to implement tipping on the receipt:

• Adjust an authorization: After the initial transaction, you make a request to increase the authorized amount with the tip amount written on the receipt. Then you manually capture the payment. Note that an authorization adjustment can still fail or lead to a chargeback. Card schemes charge slightly higher fees for authorization adjustments than for overcapture.

• Overcapture: After the initial transaction, you manually capture the full amount, including the tip. The scheme fees are a bit lower than for authorization adjustment, but there is a risk that the overcapture is not accepted due to scheme rules.

The following table compares the two implementation methods for tipping on the receipt:

How it works

To implement tipping on the receipt:

• Make a payment request with authorisationType set to PreAuth, in case you want to adjust the authorized amount after learning the tip amount.
• Decide on your next step:
  • If the tip is a significant increase of the original amount, make a request to adjust the authorization with the tip amount.
  • If the tip amount is a relatively small increase, go straight to capturing the payment.
• Manually capture payment of the final amount.

Limitations for tipping on the receipt

In some countries/regions (the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong) a common practice is that the customer signs the tip amount on the receipt after presenting their card and completing the original payment.

To follow this practice, take into account the following:

• Availability: support for authorization adjustment is limited to specific credit card schemes, and also depends on your Merchant Category Code (MCC).
• If the tip is more than a certain percentage of the original authorized amount, the card schemes require an authorization adjustment. If the issuer declines this additional capture, you can get a chargeback for the portion of the final amount that is above the original amount plus this percentage. The percentage differs per scheme and ranges from 0-20%.
• If you want to overcapture the total amount, including the tip without authorization adjustment, contact our Support Team. If the tip is too high, this increase can be rejected or lead to a higher chargeback amount.
• You need to manually capture the payment, ideally before the pre-authorization expires. Refer to Expiration of authorizations.
• The flow is not supported for wallets and debit cards.

Pre-authorize the payment

Initiate payment:

1. Make a payment request, specifying a PaymentRequest object with:

   • SaleData.SaleToAcquirerData: authorisationType=PreAuth to indicate this is a pre-authorisation request.

   For more request and response details, see Pre-authorization.

2. When you receive the pre-authorization response:

   • Store the pspReference from the AdditionalResponse for later use when adjusting the authorization or capturing the payment.

   • If you are using synchronous authorization adjustment, also URL decode the adjustAuthorisationData blob and store it.

3. Check whether the customer added a tip.

   • If the customer didn't add a tip, proceed to Capture the payment.

4. If the customer did add a tip, calculate the tip percentage using the following values from the AdditionalResponse: posadditionalamounts.originalAmountValue and posAmountGratuityValue. These are the original amount and the tip amount in minor units.

   • If the tip is a slight increase of the original amount, proceed to Capture the payment.

   • If the tip is a significant increase of the original amount, proceed to Adjust the authorization.
     Though the card schemes have different standards on when to adjust the authorization, a rule of thumb is to adjust it when the tip amount is higher than 20%.

(Optional) Adjust the pre-authorization

To obtain a new authorization for the original amount plus the tip amount:

Capture the payment

To ensure the original amount plus the tip amount is settled to your account, you need to manually capture the payment:

1. Make a POST request to the  /payments/{paymentPspReference}/captures  endpoint, where paymentPspReference is the pspReference of the original pre-authorization. Specify:

   • amount: The currency of the final amount and its value in minor units. This is the sum of the original authorized amount and the tip.
   • merchantAccount: The name of your merchant account that is used to process the payment.

   For more request and response details, see Pre-authorization.

2. Make sure that you receive the asynchronous standard webhook. This informs you whether the final amount has been captured.

Add tip amounts to reporting

The Settlement details report is an overview of payments details that have been settled and paid out to you by Adyen, and the cost of each transaction. When you generate a Settlement details report, you can include an overview of tips by adding the gratuity amount column to your report in your Customer Area.

For more information on how to add the gratuity amount column to your report, see Configure report columns.

See also