Glossary
Clearing
Clearing is the step after capture in which the acquirer sends the transaction records to the scheme, the scheme delivers them to the issuers and calculates the net positions of each bank, with interchange and scheme fees applied. Authorisation asks whether the money is there, clearing says how much actually changes hands, and settlement moves it. Clearing files are batched, usually daily, and the clearing date, not the authorisation date, drives interchange rates, currency conversion and the chargeback clock.
What happens in clearing
Captured transactions, refunds and chargebacks are presented in files with the data the scheme requires: amounts, merchant identifiers, category, indicators, token data. The scheme validates them, applies the fee tables and the exchange rates for cross-border payments, and produces the net amounts to settle between acquirers and issuers. Errors in clearing data mean downgraded interchange or rejected records.
Why a payment business notices it
The gap between authorisation and clearing is why a statement line that looked like a decline later changes, why foreign payments settle at a rate set a day later, and why acquirers’ statements group transactions by clearing date. The dispute timelines of the schemes also run from the clearing date.
On the platform
Clearing happens between the acquirer and the scheme, outside the platform; Tranzify records the capture that enters it, and the exports per terminal and period give the client’s finance team the platform’s side of the match against the acquirer’s statements.
Updated: 2026-11-08