At the time of RA Open, a rental can be secured by getting a pre-authorization on a credit card for the estimated charges. This pre-authorization places a hold on that amount, "reserving it" until the rental is closed. But an authorization is not good forever; it has a "life". The life span of an authorization is defined in days in the Edit Card Definitions file (Field name is "Auth Expire Days".) Once this period of time has been expended, the unused authorization expires and can NOT be used when the rental returns.

The Auth Expiration Report provides a way to track the "life" of pre-authorizations. Whether using that report as a worksheet or determining in another way that the authorization is about to be come stale, a pre-authorization that is about to expire should be converted to a deposit before it is lost. Then a new authorization can be obtained for the additional charges beyond the original authorization if required.

NOTE: See below "For clients using our payment services when getting incremental authorizations."

Use this program, Convert RA Auths to Deposits, for a convenient way to convert the pre-authorizations to deposits without having to unmask the credit card on the RA.

To access the Convert RA Auths to Deposits program, type AUTHDEP (RET) at any menu "OPTION:" field or the appropriate line number on the Daily Procedures Menu. The screen will then display:


OPTION: __ CONVERT RA AUTHS TO DEPOSITS

1 RA #
Cust Name
Date/Time Out
Date/Time In
FOP
FOP#
Auth#
Auth Amt






1BEGIN 2 3ERASE 4 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8


Enter data as follows:

1. RA#

Enter the RA #.


EXAMPLE: Type: TUS12345 (RET)

Details from the rental agreement will display below so that you can verify that this is the correct RA.

If there is no valid authorization that can be converted, the following message will display, and the RA number will be cleared from this field.
NO AUTH PRESENT TO CONVERT


Example of screen with the RA details displayed:

OPTION: __ CONVERT RA AUTHS TO DEPOSITS

1 RA # TUS00092
 Cust Name LINDA SMITH
 Date/Time Out 07-04-17/1200
 Date/Time In 07-17-17/0800
 FOP VISA
 FOP# 4XXXXXXXX0111
 Auth# 4444
 Auth Amt 891






1BEGIN 2 3ERASE 4 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8


Upon pressing F1, the authorization will be converted to a deposit.





EXTENDING A RA

In RA Open when extending a RA beyond the current authorization's expire days, the following message will display:
AUTH DUE TO EXPIRE, CONVERT TO DEPOSIT?

Entering Y will cause this program, Convert RA Auths to Deposits, to be called automatically.
Proceed as usual by pressing F1.
Upon exiting this program, you will be returned to the RA Open program where you can continue with any changes to the RA and save it.

NOTE: For clients using our payment services when getting incremental authorizations. This feature takes the original authorization and converts all incremental authorizations, and charges the total using the first, initial, original authorization number.
Example: The first initial authorization taken at RAOPEN is considered THE original authorization, and any other incremental authorizations are only considered extensions or in addition to that authorization.
Prior to this original authorization expiring, you will need to use this feature to convert these authorizations to deposits before you should get a new authorization.
Cars+ will take all authorizations and amounts and convert them to deposits by using the first initial, original auth# 12345. And make one single charge for $500.00. (The total of the original authorization and all incremental authorizations)
ALSO note that all incremental authorizations do NOT extend the life of this original authorization. In the above example all incremental authorizations will expire using the same original January 1 authorization.