Littlepay can process authorisations in two ways, either as soon as it has been received from the ticket machine, or through aggregation.
If the merchant decides to process an immediate authorisation, then the transaction will be processed as soon as Littlepay has received it.
If aggregation is enabled, then Littlepay will process the authorisation for payment once the aggregation window has ended. Aggregation is available for a specified number of hours after the customer has tapped their card or alternatively, you can set end of day aggregation at a time that best suits you.
For example, if a merchant has aggregation enabled for 10 hours and a customer taps their card at 8am, all transactions up until 6pm the same day will be aggregated and sent for authorisation. This will also apply for transactions applied later in the day. If a customer taps their card at 10pm, with the same aggregation rules in place, the authorisation would be sent at 8am the following day.
Littlepay does offer limits on how much a customer can aggregate up to which may impact which transactions are eligible for aggregation.