States and notifications
Understand the order states, refund states, contract states, review states, and notifications associated with the Checkout API.
The information below provides a brief overview of all order states, refund states, contract states, review states, and notifications a merchant will experience using the Checkout API.
Order states
An order state represents an order's current state as it moves through its lifecycle in a payment or commerce system. These states help track and manage the progress of an order from creation to completion (or failure), and are essential for automation, reporting, and troubleshooting.
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Pending | This transient state indicates the payment is in progress but has not yet been fully processed and confirmed. |
| Processing* | A payment attempt requiring external authentication (e.g., PayPal) is in progress. |
| PaymentAuthorized* | The payment was authorized. If the order is not under review, payment capture may proceed. |
| Processed* | Payment for the order has completed successfully. |
| ProcessingFailed* | The payment attempt for the order was not successful. |
| Cancelled* | The merchant canceled the order explicitly, or the order expired before being captured. |
| Declined* | Reach declined the order due to a manual fraud review. |
*Checkout API sends asynchronous notifications when this state occurs.
Order state diagram
The following diagram shows the different states of the order during the checkout process and the transitions between those states.
Order state diagram
Refund states
Refund states represent the current state of a refund as it moves through its lifecycle in a payment or order management system. These states help track, manage, and automate the refund process, ensuring accurate reporting and compliance. These states are independent of the state of the order the refund is associated with.
Best practice
Attempting to process a refund again after an initial failure may or may not be successful. Reach personnel are notified and investigate each refund failure. Give Reach time to investigate the refund failure before trying again.
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| InProgress | The refund is still pending. |
| Succeeded* | The refund succeeded. |
| Failed* | The refund failed. |
*Checkout API sends asynchronous notifications when this state occurs.
Refund state diagram
The following diagram shows the different states of a refund request and the transitions between those states.
Refund state diagram
Fraud states
Fraud states are statuses assigned to an order or payment to indicate the outcome of fraud checks during the transaction process. These states help determine whether an order can proceed, needs further review, or should be stopped due to suspected fraud.
Review states
Review states are independent of the status of the order under review. The Reach Fraud team initiates and resolves fraud reviews. The following states indicate whether an order is under review for fraud.
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| True | The payment attempt is under review. |
| False | The payment attempt is not under review. |
Notification events
| Order Under Review | The payment attempt is under review. Fulfillment should not continue regardless of the state of the order. |
| Order Approved | The payment attempt has been approved and is no longer under review. Fulfillment may continue if the order is in a completed state. |
| Order Declined | The payment attempt was unsuccessful, and the order status has been changed to Declined. Fulfillment should not continue. |
Fraud state diagram
The following diagram shows the different states of a fraud review and the transitions between those states.
Fraud state diagram
Contract states
Contract states represent the current status of a payment contract within a payment system.
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Open* | The contract is open, and you may use the associated ContractId in subsequent /create, /checkout, and /authorize requests. |
| Closed* | The contract is closed, and you may not use the ContractId for new orders. |
*Checkout API sends asynchronous notifications when this state occurs.
Contract state diagram
The following diagram shows the different contract states and the transitions between those states.
Contract state diagram
Notifications
Notification events are sent to merchants via asynchronous HTTP POST requests to synchronize the merchant's payment information with Reach's information. You can find technical information about the notification structure in the API notifications guide.
Updated about 12 hours ago