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# High Level Process Flow

![The Enhanced Authorization Process Flow.](/_fern-img/57be29b42c9797bdf2cb4f9c5efc812e303805ca89885ee0374d933bca5c3005.webp)

Below are the general steps of the process:

1. The Customer enters information online at the Merchant's website.
2. The Merchant calls the Enhanced Authorization API (passing mandatory and optional information).
3. The Merchant submits the Authorization request to American Express.
4. American Express matches the Enhanced Authorization call to the Authorization request, completes risk assessment, and responds back to Merchant with the Authorization response (an approval or decline for that transaction).
5. Optional: Upon Merchant request, American Express will provide the API response with American Express results (e.g., `risk score, individual element match results`).