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Dashboard & Failed Authorisations

Get an at-a-glance view of your card programme’s health, starting with failed authorisations

The Cards Dashboard is the first screen you see when you open the Cards section of the Modulr portal.

Instead of checking cards one by one to find problems, the dashboard surfaces what needs your attention so you can act quickly.

What’s on the dashboard

The dashboard displays two widgets that summarise failed authorisation activity over the last 48 hours.

Failed authorisation count

A single number showing how many card authorisations have failed in the last 48 hours. Use this as a quick health check:

  • Zero or low: your card programme is running smoothly.
  • Higher than expected: something may need investigating.

Top failure reasons

A ranked list of the four most common decline reasons over the same 48-hour window. Each reason is displayed as a clear, human-readable label (for example, “Restricted MCC” or “Insufficient Funds”) rather than a raw processor code. This tells you at a glance what is going wrong, not just how often.

Refreshing the data

Click Refresh next to the dashboard title to update both widgets with the latest data.

Viewing failed authorisations

To see the full list of failed authorisations, click View Failed Auths. This opens a dedicated list that shows every declined transaction, eliminating the need to inspect cards individually.

Each row in the list includes:

Column Description
Card ID The identifier of the card involved in the failed transaction
Auth Date The date and time the authorisation was attempted
Merchant The name of the merchant that attempted the transaction
Reason A clear, human-readable decline reason (e.g. “Insufficient Funds”, “Restricted MCC”)
Reference The transaction reference
Currency The currency of the attempted transaction
Amount The value of the attempted transaction

Searching and filtering

Use the filter at the top of the list to narrow results by Account ID. Type an account ID into the search field to find failed authorisations associated with a specific account.

Time range

The displays up to 7 days of failed authorisations. This is longer than the 48-hour dashboard window, allowing you to investigate trends and patterns over a wider timeframe.

Click ‘...’  next to Auth Date to modify the timeframe shown in the list.

Getting more details about the decline reason

Each row in the failed authorisations list includes a More Info link beneath the decline reason. Click it to open a detail panel showing:

  • Reason: the rolled-up category (e.g. “Restricted MCC”)
  • Full Reason: the specific processor detail (e.g. “MCC (7996) not allowed.”)

This is useful when the category alone doesn’t give you enough context. For example:

  • Restricted MCC → Full Reason shows MCC (5812) not allowed. : You can see exactly which Merchant Category Code was blocked.
  • Currency Mismatch → Full Reason shows Card Billing currency GBP does not match authorisation currency 978 : You can identify the specific currency discrepancy.

Click Close to dismiss the detail panel.

Navigating to the card

Click on any row in the failed authorisations list to open the associated card’s detail page. From there, you can review the card’s configuration — including its account, type, currency, limit, auth window, and custom fields — and take corrective action directly.

The card’s Activity tab will show the declined transaction along with the processor’s decline reason, so you have full context in one place.

To return to the failed authorisations list, click the Failed Authorisations back link at the top of the card detail page.

Exporting data

To export the list of failed authorisations for offline analysis or reporting, click the download icon in the top-right corner of the list view. This exports the current data as a file you can open in Excel or any spreadsheet application.

The export reflects any filters you’ve applied, so you can narrow the list before downloading to get exactly the data you need.

The following video demonstrated how to navigate the dashboard and investigate the failed authorisation:

Understanding decline reasons

When a card transaction is declined, the Modulr portal translates the technical processor code into a clear, human-readable category. These categories are grouped into three tiers based on what you can do about them.

Actionable

These declines have a clear resolution you can carry out yourself in the portal.

Decline reason What it means What you can do
Insufficient Funds The funding account did not have enough balance to cover the transaction. Top up the funding account
Limit Exceeded The transaction amount exceeded the card’s spending limit. Increase the card limit, or create a new card with a higher limit.
Auth Window Restriction The merchant attempted to charge the card outside the allowed authorisation window. Extend the authorisation window on the card, or coordinate timing with the merchant.
Restricted MCC The merchant’s category code is not permitted on this card. Review the card’s MCC restrictions. Contact Modulr if you believe the MCC should be allowed.
Currency Mismatch The transaction currency does not match the card’s billing currency. Ensure the card currency matches the expected transaction currency, or issue a card in the correct currency.
Restricted Country The merchant is in a country that is not permitted on this card. Review the card’s country restrictions and update them if the merchant’s country is expected.
Expired Card The card has passed its expiry date. Issue a replacement card.

Investigate

These declines may require you to look into the issue further or contact Modulr for assistance.

Decline reason What it means What you can do
Inactive Account The associated account is not active. This may indicate a configuration issue. Contact Modulr if you need assistance.
Blocked Card The card has been blocked. Check whether the block was intentional. If not, unblock the card.
Inactive Card The card is not currently active. Verify whether a replacement card is needed.
Cancelled Card The card has been cancelled. Verify whether a replacement card is needed.
Inactive Token There is a token-level issue with the card. The token may need re-provisioning. Contact Modulr if you need assistance.
Suspected Fraud The transaction was flagged as potentially fraudulent. Verify whether the transaction is legitimate. Contact Modulr if you believe the flag is incorrect.
Invalid Merchant The merchant was not recognised by the processor. Verify the merchant details. Contact Modulr if you believe the merchant should be valid.

Informational

These declines are typically caused by merchant-side or system issues. No direct action is required from you, but they may be useful for understanding patterns.

Decline reason What it means
Do Not Honor A generic refusal from the processor. No specific action is available.
Invalid CVV The CVV did not match at the processor level. This is typically not caused by anything on your side.
Missing CVV2 The CVV2 was not provided in the transaction. This is usually a merchant-side issue.
Invalid Expiry Date The expiry date did not match. This is typically a merchant-side data entry issue.
Missing Expiry Date The expiry date was not provided. This is usually a merchant-side issue.
CVC Tries Exceeded Too many failed CVC attempts were made. 
Unsupported Transaction Type The transaction type is not supported by the card. No direct action is available.
System Error A processor or system failure occurred. These are sometimes temporary and resolve on retry.
Other A catch-all for codes that do not map to a specific category. No specific action is available.

Tips for managing failed authorisations

  • Check the dashboard regularly. The 48-hour window is designed to make changes easy to spot between visits. A quick glance tells you whether anything needs attention.
  • Use the top failure reasons to prioritise. If one category dominates (e.g., for example, Restricted MCC) focus your effort there first, as resolving the root cause will clear multiple failures at once.
  • Drill into More Info when the category isn’t enough. The full processor reason often reveals the specific detail you need to take action, such as the exact MCC code or currency that caused the mismatch.
  • Export for reporting and supplier conversations. Download the failed authorisations list to share with internal teams or to have data-driven conversations with merchants about charge behaviour.
  • Navigate to the card to fix the issue. Click any row to go directly to the card, where you can adjust limits, auth windows or other settings without having to search for the card separately.