Diagram showing how an open authorization moves to a card statement after batch close and clearing

In credit card transactions made through a POS, receiving approval is not enough for the transaction to post to the card's statement period. For the transaction to post to the card's statement period, settlement must also take place.

The settlement period (the waiting time while a transaction is in open authorization) varies depending on whether the transaction is Onus or Not Onus. For Onus transactions (where the card bank and the POS bank are the same), it generally posts to the card's statement activity after 1 day. For Not Onus transactions (where the card bank and the POS bank are different), it generally posts to the card's statement activity after 2 days.

For Onus transactions, 2 conditions must be met for the transaction to move from open authorization to statement activity:

  1. The batch for the relevant POS must have been closed, either through the POS itself or by the bank's system.
  2. After the POS's batch is closed, the bank's system must have completed its general end-of-day operation. 

For Not Onus transactions, in order for the transaction to move from open authorization to statement activity:

The relevant transaction must be sent to the card-issuing bank in the clearing file, and the transaction must be reconciled within the bank's system.

So what could cause the 1-day/2-day waiting period mentioned above to be extended?

  1. The POS may not perform its end-of-day operation on that same day. In this case, the transaction stays in open authorization until an end-of-day batch is taken from the POS. In this situation, the transaction does not go out for clearing or post to statement activity.
  2. In Not Onus transactions, a transaction that did not complete successfully on the POS may still have been debited from the card. In this case, the transaction will not come through clearing. The card-issuing bank waits 7 days for transactions in this situation. If the transaction does not arrive within 7 days, it is removed from open authorization and the card's limit is restored to its previous value. The transaction does not post to the card's statement activity.