How pre-authorisations work

When a patient books an appointment with pre-authorisation enabled:

• A valid payment method is required at the time of booking.

• If the appointment is booked within 6 days of the appointment date, funds are pre-authorised immediately.

• If the appointment is more than 6 days away, HotDoc securely stores the patient’s card and will pre-authorise funds 5 days before the appointment.

Once funds are pre-authorised, they are held on the patient’s card until the appointment or until payment is collected. Patients receive notifications before the pre-authorisation occurs and can update their payment method at any time.

1. When a patient books an appointment more than 6 days from the start date, they’ll clearly see the date at which we'll pre-authorise the estimated cost.

   • The appointment will be “Appointment confirmed, (pre-auth pending)” and the patient can update their payment method at any time. 

     

   • The status of this appointment in your HotDoc Dashboard (Payments > Booking Activity) will be “Card stored for pre-auth”
     
      

      

2. 6 days out from the patient’s appointment, we'll send the patient a Push Notification, Email or SMS to remind them that we’ll pre-authorise funds for their appointment ‘tomorrow’ and to ensure funds are available on their card. If required, they can update their payment method:
   

3. 5 days out from the patient’s appointment, we will attempt to pre-authorise the funds.

   • If this pre-auth is successful, the patient will receive a confirmation email.
      

     The status of their payment will be “Pre-auth received” in your HotDoc Dashboard.
      

   • If the pre-auth fails (e.g. insufficient funds), we'll send a Push Notification, Email or SMS informing them to update their payment details. If they do this, we’ll pre-authorise instantly, otherwise we’ll store their card for you to charge after their appointment. You will see the status “Pre-auth failed, card stored"

4. 4 days out from their appointment, if the pre-auth still hasn’t been successful, we’ll send a final reminder to update their payment method.
    

   

   • If the patient updates their payment method successfully, we will pre-authorise the amount instantly. This will update in their HotDoc account and they'll receive a confirmation email.
      

   • If it fails, we’ll store this card for you to collect at the time of the appointment, and the status in the Sidebar and Dashboard will say “Pre-auth failed, card stored”
      

     
     
      

5. When you collect payment at the time of the appointment:

   • Where payment has been pre-authorised - you'll see this in the HotDoc Sidebar/Dashboard. We’ll capture the payment from the pre-auth. 
      

   • Where the pre-auth failed, you'll see 'pre-auth failed, card stored' in the HotDoc Sidebar/Dashboard. You can capture payment from the stored card:

     • If the patient has sufficient funds, we'll capture payment successfully.

     • If the patient has insufficient funds, they’ll receive a ‘failed payment' notification and can add valid card details, or alternatively they can pay with your practice directly.

How to enable pre-authorisations for your appointment types

Watch the video or follow the steps below for how to enable these settings for your appointment types.

• Video instructions
• How to set up pre-authorisation for appointments

Video instructions

How to set up pre-authorisation for appointments

Where to see the pre-authorisation status for an appointment

You can track pre-authorisations in several locations:

• Bookings > Booking History in your Dashboard
  
   

• The HotDoc Sidebar
   

  

   

• The appointment note in your clinical software
   

Statuses you might see include:

• Card stored for pre-auth

• Pre-auth received

• Pre-auth failed, card stored

Additionally, these statuses are included in your daily payment summary email. This will be sent to the email address registered in your Dashboard under Payments > Payment Setup > 'Account' tab > Contact's Email Address field.
 

FAQs

Will appointments be cancelled if the patient doesn’t add a valid payment method?

This depends on your clinic’s Auto-cancel unpaid appointments setting.

• If auto-cancel is enabled, appointments booked within 6 days may be cancelled automatically if the patient does not add a valid card in time.
• If auto-cancel is disabled, appointments will not be cancelled automatically.
• Appointments more than 6 days away will not be cancelled automatically, even if the pre-authorisation fails.

Will you automatically try the patient's card again if it fails?

No, the patient must update their payment method in their HotDoc account for us to capture the pre-auth. 
 

What happens if the pre-auth fails and the patient adds more funds to their card?

If the pre-authorisation fails because there weren’t enough funds, the patient can add more funds to their card. Since we store the patient’s original card, when you collect payment after their appointment, we will process the payment on that card.

What happens if the pre-authorised amount and the final invoice differ?

• If the final amount matches the pre-authorised amount, payment is captured directly from the hold.
• If the final amount is higher, the hold is released and a new payment is taken for the updated amount.
• If the final amount is lower: 
  • Stripe will capture the payment from the hold and release the difference. 
  • Pin Payments will release the hold and take a new payment.