This module can be found under Reports -> On-line Processing -> Incremental Authorizations.  

Filters can be found along the top:

• Excluded House Accounts -> checked by default, this removes any House Accounts from appearing in the In House list below
• Exclude Unauthorizable Reservations -> checked by default, this removes any reservations whose authorization cannot be increased via this module for one of the below reasons.  If necessary, they will instead need to be reviewed & increased via Transactions -> Guest Folio Credit Limit.  When unchecked, these reservations will appear in light gray:
  1. the reservation does not have an authorization under Transactions -> Authorized Transactions
  2. the reservation is setup as a Guest Share and one of the Shares has "Use Folio" setup for split billing
  3. the reservation is setup with Routing either to another Folio or another Reservation
• Available funds -> drop down menu includes an option to view "Exceeded Funds Only".  This option will only display reservations whose "Available Funds" is at 0 or lower.
• Status -> after authorizations have been processed, this filter allows you to view All transactions, Success Only or Failures Only

All the columns are sortable, however, the report default opens to sort alphabetically by Guest Name.  Most columns are self explanatory, those that warrant an explanation are:

• Nts Remain - this is the nights remaining on the guest reservation.  0 means they will be checking out today and a negative number means the reservation is an Overstayed Reservation.
• Card Code - will display "N/A" if there is no authorization found under Transactions -> Authorized Transactions.
  • it is important to note that the guest may have a Credit Card on their Reservation but if no authorization has been taken this field will show N/A as it represents the Authorized Card and not the card on file
  • if a reservation has a different card on file then what is authorized, the card reflected in this module will be the Authorized Card and NOT the card on file.  If increased, it will be the Authorized Card that is increased.
• Auth On CC = the current authorization on the Credit Card found under Transactions -> Authorized Transactions
• Payment = all Payments posted to the Guest Folio (ie:  Cash, Credit Card, Gift Certificates, etc..) excluding payments on Folio 8.
• Total Funds = Auth on CC + Payment
• Stay Charges = Room Charges + Incidentals Charges that have posted or are scheduled to post on the Guest Folio, excludes those posted to Folio 8
• Available Funds = Stay Charges - Total Funds
  • If this number is 0 it means that you have just enough funds to cover all the Stay Charges on the Guest Folio.  No additional funds have been secured for future incidental charges.
  • If this number is a negative it means that you need to increase the authorization on the Guest Credit Card in order to secure funds to cover the Stay Charges on the Guest Folio.
  • If this number is a positive it means you have enough money to cover the Stay Charges on the Guest Folio and some extra for Incidentals.  
• Additional Auth = the amount entered here is how much you wish to increase the "Auth on CC" in order to cover the Stay Charges.  So, for example, a hotel has a policy to secure enough funds to cover Room + Tax as well as an extra $100 per stay to cover incidental charges.  If the "Available Funds" shows $30.00, this means an additional auth of $70.00 is required in order to have the $100 to cover incidental charges.  Therefore $70.00 would be entered into this field.
• Status - this column will display if the Authorization is a success (Green box) or a failure (Red box) after processing is complete.  
• Logs -  clicking on this icon will display a list of all attempted authorizations done on this reservation via this module.  This icon is color coded to represent the Status of the last authorization taken (Green = Success, Red = Error).  If no icon appears then no authorization has been attempted on the Credit Card via this module.

To increase an authorization, enter the amount you wish to increase into the "Additional Auth" column.  As amounts are entered into "Additional Auth" if the down arrow is selected to move to the next folio, the "Selected" box will automatically check.  

Once and amount has been entered and the Selected box has been checked, the entire line will then highlight in red to show it has been selected.  Once all amounts have been entered, select the "Process" button at the bottom of the screen to begin processing.

As the authorizations are processing a few things will happen:

1. a "Processing Bar" will appear at the bottom of the screen indicating how many authorizations are being attempted and a count as each one has completed.
2. the "Status" column will update with the result of the increase request (Success = Green, Error = Red).  
3. lines will highlight in light blue once processing is complete

Once all authorizations have been processed a message stating "Incremental Authorizations Complete", along with a tally of Success vs. Failure Messages, will appear on the screen.  

Select "OK" and a report will appear with a list of the authorizations that were just completed.  Client can choose to print or save this report if they would like.

Select "Exit" to exit the report and the Incremental Authorizations list will update it's filter to only display the authorizations that failed.

The Incremental Authorizations Report can be printed for a specific date by going to Reports -> On-line Processing -> Incremental Authorizations and selecting the "Print Processing Results" button located at the bottom of the screen.  This report will include ALL authorizations that occurred during the selected date.  They are sorted by Res ID and then by processing time (Time).

Log Files within the Incremental Authorizations Module will display incremental authorizations attempted via the module itself ONLY.  It will NOT record attempted authorizations via Transactions -> Guest Folio Credit Limit.  Those authorizations will be tracked in the Activity Log of the Reservation.

Below are some examples of Successful & Failed Incremental Authorizations - the error message recorded is the same that would appear on the Fullsteam Interface screen if the Clerks was authorizing by going to Transactions -> Guest Folio Credit Limit.

Example 1:  SUCCESS - in the below example all our attempts at increasing the authorization for this reservation were successful.  The "Original Auth" taken at Check-In was $442.10, it was then increased by $20.00 which made the "New Auth" $462.10.  The authorization is then increased several more times with the final "New Auth" being $702.10.

The final "New Auth" should match the authorization found under Transactions -> Authorized Transactions.

And the "Credit Limit" on the Summary should match the Authorized Transaction Amount.

Example 2:  ERROR - in the example below we can see the Original Authorization taken was for $1602.70 - an increase was attempted several times, each time failing with the reason "Transaction declined - call issuer (01:  Refer to Card Issuer)" - in this instance, the Clerk would contact the Card Issuer to determine why the card is being declined.

Example 3:  ERROR - in the example below we can see the Original Authorization taken was for $1602.70 - an increase was attempted, however, the transaction was declined with the reason "Processor invalid data response - Incremental Authorization not supported for card type (00:  Transaction Approved)".  This was an increase attempted on an AMEX and currently WorldPay does does not allow for Incremental Authorizations on AMEX cards.

The Activity Log area has been enhanced to track Incremental Authorizations as well as Voids.  Below is an example of the Activity Log after a reservation is checked in & the Credit Card is authorized.  A new action called "Authorized Card" will display the Credit Card that was authorized, the Amount of the authorization as well as the Authorization # & Transaction ID.

If that same card then has it's authorization increased we will now see an Action for "Incremental Auth".  Expanded we will see the amount the authorization was increased by (Incremental Auth Amount) and the new authorized amount (New Auth Amount)

If an authorization is voided we will see the new Action "Voided Authorization" - this will display the Amount of the authorization that was voided

If a new Card is then placed on file and authorized, it will appear as an "Incremental Auth".  In this situation, the "Incremental Auth Amount" and the "New Auth Amount" will reflect the same amounts as the amount entered to be authorized IS the new authorized amount.

If an authorization is Settled via "Transactions -> Authorized Transactions -> Settle", it will now appear in the Activity Log as a "Post Payment"

And finally, if an authorization were to fail, this would appear in the Activity Log as well.  The full "Failure" message can be viewed by hovering your mouse over the Failure message text.  The Incremental Auth Amount reflects the attempted increase amount.

There may be instances where one Clerk is increasing an authorization using the Incremental Authorization Module while another is using Transactions -> Guest Folio Credit Limit to do the increase.  Should this occur, the results will be as follows.  

NOTE:  In these examples, the Incremental Authorizations Module was opened & increased amounts entered.  Processing started and before processing for each reservation was completed, the Guest Folio Credit Limit was used to increase authorizations as well.  So the increases done via Guest Folio Credit Limit were processed & approved before the ones entered into the Incremental Authorization Module had completed.

1.  Incremental Auth Module amount was LOWER then the amount entered & approved in the Guest Folio Credit Limit area:

• RESULT -> ERROR:  Original authorization cannot be decreased
• Because the authorization via the Guest Folio Credit Limit was already approved and it was HIGHER then the amount entered into the Incremental Auth Module, the lower amount entered in the Incremental Auth Module would be attempting to LOWER the current authorization and that is not allowed.
• EXAMPLE:  Original Authorization is $600 -> Guest Folio Credit Limit increases to $800 (a $200 increase) while the Incremental Auth Module then tries to increase by $100 (which would be $700).  The auth approved for $800 so lowering down to $700 is not possible and therefore the transaction fails.

2.  Incremental Auth Module amount is HIGHER then the amount entered & approved in the Guest Folio Credit Limit area:

• RESULT -> SUCCESS
• Because the amount entered into the Incremental Auth Module was higher, it will then increase the Authorization by the difference that was entered into the Guest Folio Credit Limit area.  Increasing an authorization is allowed.
• EXAMPLE:  Original Authorization was $600 -> Guest Folio Credit Limit increases to $650 (a $50 increase) while the Incremental Auth Module then tries to increase by $100.  The Incremental Auth will then know to increase by $50 ONLY (because $50 was already completed by the Guest Folio Credit Limit Module) resulting in the Authorization being increase by $100 total, the amount originally entered into the Incremental Auth Module.

3.  Incremental Auth Module amount is the SAME amount that was entered & approved in the Guest Folio Credit Limit area:

• RESULT -> ERROR:  Credit Card is not authorized:  The total amount for the increment operations must be greater than the current total amount of the transactionId
• Because the amount entered into the Incremental Auth Module was the exact same amount that was entered & approved via the Guest Folio Credit Limit, there is actually no increase occurring, it has already been increase by that exact amount.  Therefore, the transaction fails within the Incremental Auth Module
• EXAMPLE:  Original Authorization was $600 -> Guest Folio Credit Limit increases to $700 (a $100 increase) while the Incremental Auth Module then tries to increase by $100 as well.  The Incremental Auth will attempt to increase $600 to $700 but this has already been completed and therefore Fullsteam sees our request to increase as $0.00 - $0.00 increases are not permitted.