Payment Authorization for Variable-Cost Work When the final cost of a job isn't known upfront — v...Payment Authorization for Variable-Cost Work When the final cost of a job isn't known upfront — v...
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Ajay's avatar
Ajay Singh
• 1d
Payment Authorization for Variable-Cost Work
When the final cost of a job isn't known upfront — variable hours, adjustments, extras — charging afterward means chasing failed payments. Pre-authorizing the full amount for a long engagement is equally wrong.
I designed a per-unit authorization model that holds funds incrementally as work is confirmed, rather than one large upfront authorization. An append-only ledger records every money event, so new transaction types are catalog entries rather than schema migrations.
The audit that came with it surfaced the gaps that matter: costs incurred but never invoiced, and the difference between what was authorized and what was actually captured.
Backend DevelopmentProduct StrategySoftware ArchitectureNode.jsSupabase
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