What is the mechanism Actinic uses for completing "Pending PSP" orders

[skinnybloke]

Hi - I had a question from a client regarding how "Pending Payment Service Provider" orders work.

My understanding is these are orders that have been made online but the PSP payment has not been approved.

At what point do they become approved and what is the mechanism for achieving this? Is this done via the website and the PSP and this updates the desktop next time orders are downloaded?

[rmorrow]

Hi David

The PSP issues a 'callback' which runs a function in the os000001.pl file to confirm the payment. A .occ file is created in the acatalog folder on the server and this is downloaded as part of the normal order download process. If an equivalent .ord (i.e. standard order) file has been downloaded previously without the .occ, it will be in the "Pending Payment Service Provider" tab, but will be moved over to "Pending" once the .occ file is retrieved.

[skinnybloke]

Hi Richard - just what I was looking for.

My client (www.seasaltcornwall.co.uk) will be sorting out the Activestock purchase in the next couple of days.

[Paul Bulpit]

At what point do they become approved and what is the mechanism for achieving this?

I have just gone over to Actinic Payments a week or so ago, and I understand Post #1.

But with regard to Post #2 - how long can they stay there?

I am (now) aware of downloading an order when the punter has not yet completed (coincidence) or has gone off to find a card that works and had a cuppa on the way (a while later).

But can you get a PSP-Pending order that doesn't come in for a week? Should we be following up these attempts? It's wreaking havoc with using the order number as the invoice number.

[cbarling]

Most PSPs, provided a successful payment is taken, will keep on retrying the callback to the merchant's web site for some time until it is successful. I can't remember the exact numbers but I think Actinic Payments tries callbacks every few hours for a couple of days before it gives up. So if your site goes down once it is back everything should correct itself.

Of course, the PSP pending tab will have orders where the buyer simply decided not to proceed or didn't have sufficient funds. I know that some merchants email everyone in the PSP pending tab and report quite a few conversions as a result. I suspoect that results will vary.

You can configure the number of days that an order is held in PSP pending waiting for a payment before it is deleted. It's at Business Settings | Payment and Security on the right hand side. The field is Payment Service Provider | Expiry period and the deafault is 35 days. You could set this number very high so that you always have a full audit trail of order numbers.

Chris