Expired Payment Authorizations Got You Down? A Shopify Flow Fix!

Handling Expired Payment Authorizations in Shopify: A Community Solution

Hey everyone, it's [Your Name], your friendly neighborhood Shopify migration expert! I was just digging through the Shopify Community forums and found a really interesting discussion that I thought would be helpful for many of you, especially those dealing with pre-orders or longer fulfillment times. The original question came from JohnBoye, who was looking for a way to automatically handle expired payment authorizations, especially on pre-order products. Let's dive in!

The Problem: Expired Authorizations and Pre-orders

JohnBoye asked a great question: "Is it possible in Shopify Flow to detect when a payment authorization expires and automatically place the related fulfillment orders on hold?"

As Jo_EarlyBird (from the Early Bird pre-order app) pointed out, this is a common issue with pre-orders. Customers might place an order weeks or months before the product is actually ready to ship. The initial payment authorization, which typically lasts for a limited time (often 7 days), can expire before you're ready to capture the payment and fulfill the order.

Canceling orders every time an authorization expires is a recipe for disaster! You'd lose track of pre-orders and force customers to re-purchase, leading to a pretty frustrating experience. The ideal solution is to hold the fulfillment until you can re-authorize the payment.

The Proposed Solutions (and a Simple Workaround!)

Maximus3 suggested using Shopify Flow to tackle this. They proposed a couple of potential workflows:

1. Order Created trigger, followed by actions to check authorization status and potentially put the order on hold.
2. Scheduled Time trigger to periodically check for expired authorizations.

Here are the screenshots Maximus3 provided:

However, davieyaren clarified that Shopify Flow doesn't have a built-in trigger specifically for expired payment authorizations. Bummer!

The Winner: A Simple 'Wait' Action

The best part? JohnBoye actually found a simpler workaround! He used a 'wait x days' action in Shopify Flow. This is a great example of not overthinking things. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. Here's how you can implement this:

1. Trigger: Order Created
2. Action: Wait X Days (set X to a value slightly less than your payment authorization window – e.g., 5 or 6 days if your authorization window is 7 days)
3. Action: Add Order Tag (e.g., "Check Auth")

Then, you can create a separate flow that triggers on the "Order Tag Added" event. This flow could then check the payment authorization status and take action accordingly (e.g., send an email to the customer to update their payment information, or place the order on hold).

This approach gives you a window to check the authorization status *before* it expires and proactively address any issues.

Key Takeaways

So, what did we learn from this community discussion? First, expired payment authorizations are a common problem, especially with pre-orders. Second, while Shopify Flow doesn't have a dedicated trigger for this, there are still effective workarounds. And finally, sometimes the simplest solution – like a 'wait' action – is the most practical!

It's always great to see the Shopify community coming together to solve problems and share their knowledge. Keep those questions coming, and let's keep learning from each other!