The card reader beeps, the screen stalls, and the guest at the window says, “My bank app already shows the charge.” Now the cashier has to decide whether to run the card again. That one decision is where most pending-charge problems in Altru either get resolved cleanly or turn into a double charge and an angry email the next morning.
“Pending charge” can mean two different things, and the fix depends on which one you have. Sort that out first.
Two kinds of “pending”
1. Pending on the guest’s card statement
When a card is run, the processor first authorizes the amount. The issuing bank places a hold, and the guest sees it as “pending” in their banking app. That hold exists whether or not the sale finished in Altru. If the transaction is later completed, the hold becomes a settled charge. If it is voided or never completed, the hold is released, but on the bank’s timeline, not yours. That can take anywhere from a few hours to several business days depending on the guest’s bank.
2. Pending inside Altru
This is a sale that started but did not finish: the payment step timed out, the browser was closed, the device lost its connection, or a cashier walked away mid-transaction. The order may sit incomplete, the tickets may not have printed, and you may not know whether the card was actually authorized.
Often you have both at once: the card was authorized, but Altru never recorded a completed sale. That is the case that needs care.
What to do at the window, right now
- Do not run the card a second time yet. A retry is the most common way a single problem becomes two pending holds on the guest’s card.
- Check whether Altru recorded the payment. Look at the open or recent transaction for that guest. If the sale shows as completed with a payment, you are done; reprint tickets or a receipt.
- If Altru shows nothing, check the processor side. Look up the transaction in your merchant processing account’s transaction history (for most Altru sites that is Blackbaud Merchant Services). An approved authorization there with no matching Altru sale means the card was hit but the sale was not recorded.
- Decide based on what you find:
- Approved on the processor side, nothing in Altru: void that authorization in the processor if you can, then run a fresh sale in Altru. Or, if your process allows it, record the sale in Altru against the existing approval. Which option is available depends on your setup, so confirm with your finance lead or Blackbaud support before making it standard practice.
- Declined or no record anywhere: it is safe to run the sale again.
- Tell the guest the truth. Something like: “Your bank may show a pending hold from the first attempt. It was not completed and will drop off on its own, usually within a few business days. Here is a receipt for the charge that did go through.” Write the time and last four digits down so the next person can follow up.
Void versus refund
This distinction trips up a lot of staff. A void cancels a transaction before it settles; nothing ever posts to the guest’s statement except the temporary hold. A refund applies after settlement; the guest sees the original charge and then a separate credit. If a pending charge is caught the same day, a void is usually cleaner for the guest and for your reconciliation. Settlement timing varies by processor and configuration, so check when your batches settle before relying on a same-day void.
Neither one makes a bank release a hold faster. If a guest is upset about a hold that should already have been released, the only party that can speed it up is their card issuer.
Cleaning up incomplete sales afterward
An incomplete sale left alone causes trouble later: it can throw off daily sales reconciliation, hold capacity on a timed event, or leave a constituent record that looks like a purchase that never happened. At close of day:
- Review any open or incomplete transactions and either finish or cancel each one deliberately.
- Compare Altru’s daily sales and deposit totals against the processor’s settled totals for the same period. A gap is usually an authorization with no matching Altru sale, or the reverse.
- Keep a short log of each incident: time, register, amount, last four, and what was done. Patterns (one station, one network, one time of day) point you to the real cause.
Reducing how often it happens
- Check the hardware and network first. Repeated timeouts on one register usually trace back to a weak connection or an out-of-date device or browser at that station.
- Train one rule: never re-swipe until you have checked both Altru and the processor. Post it at every register.
- Give supervisors processor access. If only the finance office can see merchant transaction history, the front desk is forced to guess.
- Escalate patterns to Blackbaud support. If sales are hanging at the payment step regularly, open a case with specific times and amounts. Whether a given behavior is a known issue or a configuration problem is something they can confirm and you cannot from the front end.
Quick answers
The guest sees two pending charges. Were they charged twice?
Not necessarily. Two authorizations can appear even if only one sale completed. Check the processor for which one settled, void the other if it is still open, and explain that the extra hold will fall off.
Can Altru release a pending hold on the guest’s card?
No. Voiding the authorization tells the processor the charge will not settle, but the hold itself is released by the guest’s bank on its own schedule.
