How to visualize abstract concepts

Authorizations images...

• Rubber Stamp
• "Approved" text
• Thumbs Up
• Check Mark
• Green Light

Payment authorization isn't an abstract concept. It is a step by step process so one option is to show the information as a numbered step-by-step process (maybe using a slider) or as a clickable flow chart.

I'm assuming there are stages to the authorization and capture process as there are in the pension industry, where I work. (Maybe authorization and capture are two separate but related processes, but I'm sure each has stages.)

One thought is to find a single photo image, perhaps not a literal one (so, not an image of some authorization document) and divide it into sections corresponding to the major stages. Blur, dim, or mask all but the first section for stage one; unblur the second section as you move on to stage two, and so on.

Another approach: Can you identify some recognizeable, non-authorization process that people are familiar with, and use (say) five small images from that process as visual anchors for the (imagined) five stages of your process?

Here's an off-the-cuff example: a simplified list of the stages for retirement, with possible images related to an airline trip. (This is a low-key way to use the "new journey" theme.)

Stage 1: review personal information.
Image: a passport page or driver's license.

Stage 2: choose pension option.
Image: screen shot of airline flights, or detail from departure board.

Stage 3: choose retirement beneficiaries.
Image: photograph-style or phone-photo-style picture of a person who's plausibly the spouse of a retiree.

Stage 4: choose benefits.
Image: airline-style options like seat upgrade or meals.

Stage 5: provide payment information (in our business, this means "where do you want us to send the cheque?")
Image: bank building, personal cheque, similar.

I can see these as standalone images (new one replacing old one as you go along, or all in a line, like a filmstrip, with each one lighting up as the course unfolds.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.  We have an entire elearning module on the authorization and settlement process, so we use step-by-step visuals in that one. 

For the specific module that I am working on right now, we don't need to explain all of the steps again.  On one slide, we refer to an authorization on an online purchase.  I want to use an image that conveys that the authorization was approved.  The image of a person using a laptop that I am using now, doesn't quite work. 

I like the idea of using the green light or "approved" stamp.  I'll have the laptop image merge into one of those when we talk about the approval. 

Thanks!