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A transaction lifecycle typically involves several key stages, although the exact flow may vary depending on the payment method, the context, or the specific use case. The following diagram shows the key participants in the payment flow. The lifecycle can be divided into the following phases:

In this phase, the authenticity of the person initiating the transaction is verified to check whether they are the legitimate cardholder, using methods appropriate to the payment channel such as PIN entry for POS transactions, 3D Secure and passwords for e-commerce, and biometric or device-based authentication when using digital wallets.

For more information, see Cardholder Authentication.

The ledger performs a series of real-time checks, including verification of sufficient funds or credit, as well as validations of technical and business rules, such as spend limits, card status, and expiration date, before approving or declining a transaction.

For more information, see Authorisation.

The transaction details are exchanged between the relevant financial institutions to confirm the transaction and prepare for fund transfer.

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Functions of Processor and Ledger

Enfuce acts as the payment processor, handling communication with card schemes and validating transactions, while the ledger manages cardholder account balances. The two roles have distinct responsibilities:
  • A processor communicates with card schemes in real-time, receives transaction messages from the scheme, and processes transaction requests by validating rules and checking spending limits.
  • A ledger verifies the cardholder’s account balance for the card used in the payment.
Other participants in the workflow include systems that send notifications to cardholders’ devices or feed data to warehouses. The following table summarises the responsibilities of Enfuce and the ledger in a typical payment processing workflow:

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Interfaces

Enfuce communicates with the ledger through three distinct interfaces:
  1. Authorisation Request: Enfuce asks the ledger to verify that sufficient funds are available on the account and, if approved, to place an account hold for the requested amount.
  2. Transaction Event: Enfuce notifies the ledger of events that have taken place, such as a successful authorisation, a reversal, or an adjustment.
  3. Clearing File: Enfuce notifies the ledger of all financial transactions that follow from prior authorisations, finalising the amounts to be posted to the account.

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Example sequence

This is an example sequence involving a payment authorisation followed by a partial reversal and then finalised by a clearing message.

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Authorisation

  1. The payment scheme sends an authorisation request to Enfuce.
  2. Enfuce performs initial validations — technical, business, and fraud checks. If any validation fails, Enfuce returns a decline response to the payment scheme without contacting the ledger.
  3. If validations pass, Enfuce sends an Authorisation Request to the ledger, asking it to verify the available balance and place an account hold for the requested amount.
  4. The ledger validates the account balance and creates an account hold.
  5. The ledger responds to Enfuce, approving, declining, or partially approving the request.
  6. Enfuce maps the ledger response to the appropriate scheme response code and forwards it to the payment scheme.
  7. Enfuce asynchronously sends a Transaction Event to the ledger to confirm the authorisation message it received and processed.
  8. The ledger acknowledges receipt of the Transaction Event.

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Partial Reversal

  1. The payment scheme sends a partial reversal advice to Enfuce.
  2. Enfuce validates that the card exists and adjusts spend control usage if needed. No decision step is required — the reversal is processed as an advice.
  3. Enfuce acknowledges the message to the payment scheme.
  4. Enfuce asynchronously sends a Transaction Event to the ledger with the adjustment details.
  5. The ledger adjusts the account hold according to the reversal amount.
  6. The ledger acknowledges receipt of the Transaction Event.

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Clearing

  1. The payment scheme sends a clearing file to Enfuce.
  2. Enfuce matches each clearing record with the corresponding authorisation, assigns the correct transaction ID, and removes sensitive cardholder data.
  3. Enfuce forwards the transformed clearing file to the ledger.
  4. The ledger locates the account holds by transaction ID, removes them, and posts the clearing transactions to the accounts.