February 21, 2025
Pay Theory Update: Flexible Transaction Management—Enhancing Control and Efficiency
Managing payments within complex ecosystems presents unique challenges. We recognized this and founded Pay Theory to improve how payments are built and managed.
Over the past year, we've significantly improved transaction management. Most of us consider a payment a one-step “sale” of something; I put in my card or bank credentials, press pay, and boom, a payment happens almost by magic. Behind the scenes, the story is more complex. SaaS platforms and merchants want control over how payments are accepted and processed. By developing a flexible transaction management system that adheres to industry standards and enhances them, we have built efficiency and reliability into payment processes.
Flexible transaction management allows our partners to handle problematic transactions (referred to as “exceptions” in payments lingo) in ways that best serve their merchants and their payors—tools like holding and voiding to ensure seamless transaction oversight and reduce errors.
Holding (and “Flagging) a payment transaction allows businesses to efficiently identify and manage duplicate payments. For example, if a payor accidentally initiates two identical payments, both transactions are flagged and held for manual approval or denial. This optional feature matches payment details, amounts, and customized metadata within a customizable time window, such as 30 minutes. Any flagged payment will be paused, ensuring the system won't settle duplicated payments until reviewed via the partner portal. With Pay Theory, the exact rules for holding and flagging a payment can be set by the SaaS platform so that whether the platform is concerned about duplicate payments, payments that are over a given amount, or payments that happen in rapid succession, the SaaS platform can control those exceptions accordingly.
Unlike refunds, which return funds after a transaction has already been settled and funded to a merchant, voiding allows a merchant to cancel transactions entirely before the system actually moves funds. Voiding is particularly useful for catching mistakes early. Pay Theory has improved upon voiding in three key ways:
Flexible transaction management is just one of the many ways Pay Theory enhances payment management. It empowers businesses to streamline operations, reduce errors, and deliver a better payment experience for merchants and payors.
