Payment Flow - Transaction Statuses and Lifecycle

This is the canonical reference for OwnPay transaction statuses. Every payment link, API payment, and invoice payment passes through the same state machine. When you build integrations or troubleshoot transactions, this is the page to check.

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Transaction state diagram

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State descriptions

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Created

The payment intent exists in the database but the customer hasn’t interacted with it yet. This is the initial state for API-created payments and freshly generated payment links. No webhook is fired. Transitional

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Pending

The customer has visited the checkout page and sees the payment form. No funds have been authorized. The payment sits in this state until the customer submits payment details or the auto-expiry timer fires. Transitional

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Processing

The customer has submitted their payment details and OwnPay has sent the authorization request to the gateway. The customer sees a loading indicator. OwnPay is waiting for the gateway’s response. Transitional

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Completed

The gateway approved the payment. OwnPay records the transaction in the double-entry ledger, fires the payment.completed event, and delivers a webhook to your configured URL. The customer sees the success page. Terminal: Yes

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Failed

The gateway declined the payment - insufficient funds, invalid card, fraud detection, or a temporary network error. A payment.failed webhook is delivered. The customer can retry from the Pending state. Terminal: Yes

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Expired

The payment link or checkout session timed out without customer action. The configurable auto-expiry timer fires a scheduled job that moves the payment to Expired. No webhook is sent. Terminal: Yes

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Cancelled

A merchant or staff member manually cancelled the payment before it was completed. A payment.cancelled webhook is delivered. Terminal: Yes

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Refunded

A previously completed payment was refunded (full or partial). The gateway returned the funds to the customer and OwnPay recorded reversing ledger entries. A payment.refunded webhook is delivered. Terminal: Yes

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Webhook events per state

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Auto-expiry

Unpaid payments are automatically moved to Expired after a configurable timeout (default: 24 hours). The cron job (php public/index.php cron) runs every minute and checks for stale pending payments. Adjust the expiry window in System > Settings.

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Related pages

• Transactions - view and filter transaction history in the dashboard
• Webhooks - configure webhook URLs and verify HMAC-SHA256 signatures
• Gateways - understand how gateway routing affects processing
• Developer quickstart - integrate webhooks into your application
• Common errors - troubleshoot payment failures