Payment statuses

The payment status reflects the current result or processing phase of a given transaction. Each status matters for correctly steering what happens next - for example, when a service can be made available, when it is necessary to wait for authorization, or when a payment can be closed without further action.

The statuses listed below will help you understand which phase a payment is in and how to react accordingly in your system.

Status	Final status	Description
PENDING	No	The payment has been created, but its result is not yet known - the transaction is being processed and is still in progress.
AUTHORIZED	No	The payer has successfully pre-authorized the card payment - to complete the transaction it is necessary to request the debit of the pre-authorized amount.
PAID	Yes	The payer has successfully completed the payment - the goods can be issued or the ordered service made available.
CANCELLED	Yes	The payment was not completed successfully - the goods will not be issued and the service will not be provided.

Warning

A payment can be considered successfully paid only in the PAID status. Statuses such as PENDING and AUTHORIZED are not terminal and may be followed by the CANCELLED status.

Terminal statuses

The PAID and CANCELLED statuses are terminal. Once a payment transitions into one of them, it stays there permanently and does not change any further.

Sequence diagram

The following sequence diagram shows how the payment statuses progress during processing. It describes the individual steps and status changes that occur from the creation of the payment until its successful completion or cancellation.

Payment attempt

Besides the payment itself, Comgate also distinguishes so-called payment attempts. In common integrations you will usually not come across this concept and there is no need to study it in detail.

Warning

Continue reading only if you are implementing native Apple Pay or Google Pay buttons in a mobile application.

Payment attempt statuses

The diagram above shows how the statuses of the whole payment progress. Payment attempts go through the same statuses, but they have specifics that are worth knowing when implementing native Apple Pay and Google Pay buttons.

Each payment attempt has its own life cycle and is fully independent of the other attempts. It therefore represents a separate instance within the life cycle of a single payment.

The following rules apply when working with payment attempts:

1. Each payment attempt has its own status - individual payment attempts may have different statuses that differ from the status of the whole payment.

2. One successful attempt is enough - if at least one payment attempt is in the PAID status, the whole payment is considered successfully completed and also transitions to the PAID status (the same applies to AUTHORIZED). All other unfinished attempts (PENDING) are cancelled (CANCELLED) at that moment.

3. An unsuccessful attempt does not end the payment - if one of the attempts fails (CANCELLED), the payment can continue with further attempts. The status of the whole payment stays open (PENDING).

4. Cancelling the payment also cancels attempts in progress - as soon as the whole payment transitions to the CANCELLED status, all of its attempts in progress (PENDING) are cancelled immediately.

5. The payment is cancelled as a whole - this happens, for example, when the time limit expires or when the payer or the e-shop cancels it manually.

Tip

It is important to realise that some payment attempt statuses have a direct effect on the result of the whole payment, while others do not affect it and allow the process to continue with another attempt.

How to behave in individual statuses

The following table is split into two parts - the first concerns the payment itself, the second focuses on payment attempts. For each status there is an explanation of its meaning and the recommended way to proceed at that moment within your application logic.

Status	Final payment status	Description
Payment - represents the overall processing result
PENDING	No	the payment is open and waiting to be made further payment attempts can be made
PAID	Yes	the payment has been successfully settled a "victory screen" can be displayed no further payment attempts can be made
AUTHORIZED	Yes and No	the payment has been successfully pre-authorized a "victory screen" can be displayed the funds will not be debited automatically no further payment attempts can be made
CANCELLED	Yes	the payment was cancelled (it expired or was ended manually) no further payment attempts can be made
Payment attempt - the status of an individual attempt within one payment
PENDING	No	the payment attempt is still in progress further payment attempts can be made - even concurrently
PAID	Yes	the attempt was successfully settled the whole payment is marked as PAID the other active attempts are cancelled no further payment attempts can be made
AUTHORIZED	Yes	the attempt was successfully pre-authorized the whole payment is marked as AUTHORIZED the other open attempts are cancelled no further payment attempts can be made
CANCELLED	No	the attempt was cancelled or failed the payment stays active in the PENDING status further payment attempts can be made