Terminology

Technical Author Note

This page establishes the canonical terminology used throughout the PAYSTRAX Developer Documentation. Before publication, confirm canonical definitions for Operation ID and Transfer ID, the complete list of response status values, and whether any additional terminology should be included.

Overview

This page defines the terminology used throughout the PAYSTRAX Developer Documentation.

Where possible, terminology is based on verified PAYSTRAX behaviour. Use this page as the canonical reference for terminology used throughout both the Guides and API Reference.

Payment terminology

Documentation term	Definition
Sale	A payment that authorises and transfers funds in a single operation.
Pre-authorisation	A payment that reserves funds until it is captured or cancelled.
Capture	Settles a previously authorised payment.
Cancel	Releases all or part of a pre-authorisation before settlement.
Linked Refund	Returns funds against an existing payment.
Payout	Pushes funds to a payment card.
Funding	Pulls funds from a payment card.

API implementation

Documentation term	API implementation	Notes
Sale	intent: transfer	Creates a sale payment.
Pre-authorisation	intent: authorise	Creates a pre-authorisation.
Linked Refund	POST /payments/{payment_id}/reverse	Business terminology used in the guides. The API operation is Reverse.
Payout	custom_data.credit_type = direct_credit	Push-to-card operation: Visa OCT / Mastercard MoneySend.
Funding	custom_data.account_funding = true	Pull-from-card operation: Visa AFT / Mastercard Funding.

Identifiers

Identifier	Purpose	Further information
Payment ID	Identifies a payment and is used when performing Capture, Cancel and Reverse operations.	Response ID Fields
Operation ID	—	Response ID Fields
Transfer ID	—	Response ID Fields

Related pages

• Payment Flows
• Response ID Fields
• Response Statuses
• Payments API