Our PayPal v2 setup uses the unusual Transaction Type of 'Authorization' (instead of the more common 'Capture').

Whenever we void an order that was never captured, the dropdown box to the right of Capture Amount shows "Close Authorization".

However we sometimes get customer emails complaining that the authorization still appears on the customer's online statement, so they worry about still being charged.

Is there anything else that we can do on the Order detail page to promptly remove the authorization?

Hi Paul, it's my understanding that the customers bank will have a policy on how long they hold funds and merchants do not have much control over this. It's typically 5 days.
However, some (banks) will release the hold if the merchant "voids" the authorization, but that may not always happen.
In your paypal account, you should be able to void the authorization, or cancel it.
I'm not sure if you can do that from the admin page as I no linger use Paypal.

Thanks,
David

Thanks for that, Dave.

Like you said, I suspect that the Authorization window is set by the payment card issuer, with no way for the merchant to close it.

Hi Paul, we've seen it both ways.
I also know that we used to use a debit card to pay vendors and sometimes they would attempt to authorize a transaction then we make a small edit and they want to authorize the whole thing again, throwing us over a daily spending limit.
So we would ask them to void that first authorization and it did go through right away.

So maybe it depends on if it's a debit or credit card, or just based on the card issuing bank.
I can't be 100% sure.
I am certain though that each card issuer sets the lifespan on funds being held for an authorization, and most often, that is five days.

When we have a customer ask about the funds on a cancelled order, we have a canned response to the effect of "You have not been billed and the "pre-authorization" on the funds will expire in a few days based on the policy set by your card issuer".

Now if a customer pushes back, which is almost never, we will go in and attempt to void the authorization via our payment processors portal.

David

We've got a canned response, too, that reads like,

"Your order # XXXXXX was cancelled, and your payment card will not be charged. Please call the toll-free number on the back of your payment card to verify that the order was not charged."

Though it's a bit cruel for us to suggest that the customer wait on hold for payment card customer service, it's assumed they'll get the correct, authoritative answer there. :-)