Overview

When a payment has been authorised or has succeeded, you can still act on it:

• Capture - take the funds that a preauthorisation is holding. Money moves and you receive settlement.
• Void (cancel) - release the hold on a preauthorisation without taking any money. Nothing settles and the customer sees the hold disappear.
• Refund - return captured funds to the customer. Only money that has actually moved can be refunded.

Every operation is available in two places:

• The Peach Dashboard - a manual, per-transaction action from the Transactions section. Best for support teams and one-off corrections.
• The Orchestration API - a server-side request. Best for building refunds and captures into your own admin tooling or order workflows.

This page covers both, side by side.

Capture a preauthorisation

A payment created with capture_method: "manual" stops at the requires_capture state after the customer authorises: the funds are held on their card but have not moved. Capturing completes the payment - it is what makes the money move and what gets you settled.

You can capture the full authorised amount or less. Capturing less than you authorised releases the difference back to the customer. Capturing more than you authorised requires overcapture, a separate PSP capability that must be requested on the original payment.

Capture via the API

Send a capture request using the capture endpoint, or follow the guided walkthroughs: Pre-authorisation, Manual capture, and Partial capture.

Capture using the Dashboard

1. Log in to your Peach Dashboard.
2. In the Transactions section, use the search bar or filters to find the preauthorisation (PA) transaction that you want to capture, and select it.
3. In the details panel that appears, click Capture.
4. In the Capture transaction window, choose a full or partial capture. For a partial capture, enter the amount, and use the Reverse balance amount? toggle if you want to release the remaining hold immediately.
5. Select a reason for the capture (choose Other to provide your own).
6. Click Confirm capture, then confirm again in the window that appears.

The capture is submitted for processing and appears in the transaction listing shortly afterwards.

Void a preauthorisation

Voiding cancels a preauthorisation and releases the hold immediately, which is what the customer's bank shows them. Because the funds never moved, there is no settlement and nothing appears on the customer's statement.

Void via the API

Send a cancel request using the cancel endpoint.

Reverse using the Dashboard

The Dashboard calls a void a reversal:

1. Log in to your Peach Dashboard.
2. In the Transactions section, find the preauthorisation (PA) transaction that you want to reverse, and select it.
3. In the details panel that appears, click Reverse.
4. In the Reverse Pre-Authorisation window, choose a full or partial reversal (enter the amount for a partial reversal), select a reason, and click Confirm reversal, then confirm again.

Refund a payment

A refund returns captured funds to the customer. You can refund any payment whose money has actually moved - one that is succeeded or partially_captured. Refunds can be full or partial, and you can issue multiple partial refunds against the same payment as long as the total does not exceed the captured amount.

See the supported payment methods table for each method's refund limitations.

Refund via the API

Send a refund request using the refunds endpoint. Refunds process asynchronously - track the outcome with webhooks, or inspect a payment's refunds in the payment explorer.

Refund using the Dashboard

1. Log in to your Peach Dashboard.
2. In the Transactions section, use the search bar or filters to find the transaction that you want to refund, and select it. Only debit (DB), credit (CD), and capture (CP) transactions can be refunded.
3. In the details panel that appears, click Refund.
4. In the Refund transaction window, choose a full or partial refund (enter the amount for a partial refund), select a reason, and click Issue refund, then confirm.

The refund is submitted for processing. Two things worth knowing:

• The refund typically reflects in the customer's account within 3 to 10 working days.
• A refund on a transaction older than six months must be processed manually by the Peach Payments team - contact support.

Once processed, a proof of refund PDF becomes available from the refund transaction's details panel (more options icon → Proof of refund).

Refund support and completion times

Not every payment method supports refunds, and those that do complete on different timelines. The supported payment methods table lists refund support (full, partial, or none) for every method, with per-method notes.

Depending on the payment method, refunds complete in:

For payment methods that do not support refunds, you must process refunds manually. One way of doing this is to contact your customer to request their bank account details for an EFT transfer.

Related resources

• Pre-authorisation, Manual capture, and Partial capture - guided authorise-then-capture walkthroughs
• Payment states - where requires_capture, partially_captured, and cancelled sit in the lifecycle
• Payment explorer - inspect a payment's attempts, captures, and refunds
• Customer payment methods - refund support for every payment method
• Webhooks - hear about refund outcomes asynchronously
• Capture, cancel, and refund endpoints - Orchestration API reference