Understanding PayPal PENDING Payments in PhotoBiz
If you use PayPal as a payment method in your PhotoBiz tools (ECommerce, Client Galleries, Scheduler, Forms, etc.), you may sometimes see an order marked as PENDING. This guide will explain what that means and how to ensure your payments go through smoothly.
Why Is My Order Status Pending?
An order may show as PENDING for a few common reasons:
- Your client did not complete the PayPal checkout.
- You need to verify your PayPal account (e.g., confirm your email or phone number).
- The payment is in your PayPal account but needs to be manually accepted.
💡 Most often, the issue is that your client left PayPal before finishing payment.
How PayPal Checkout Works for Your Client
After your client places an order on your site, they are redirected to PayPal to complete the payment.
At that point, they must either:
- Log in to their PayPal account, or
- Checkout as a guest using a credit or debit card.
If they don’t complete this step, PayPal doesn’t confirm the payment, and your order will remain in PENDING status inside PhotoBiz.
Below is what the process looks like for your customer:
What You Should Do
Verify the Payment in PayPal
- Log into your PayPal account.
- Look for the payment related to the PENDING order.
If the Payment Went Through: Update the Order in PhotoBiz
You can manually mark the order as PAID by following the steps below:
How to Update a Pending Order to Paid
Log into your PhotoBiz account and access your orders through the ECOMMERCE option in the left side menu. Click on the order number you want to update the payment status for.
STEP ONE
Log in to your PhotoBiz account and click ECOMMERCE from the left-side menu.
STEP TWO
Click on the ORDER NUMBER you want to update.
STEP THREE
In the upper-right corner of the order page, click the STATUS button.
STEP FOUR
Click CHANGE STATUS in the right-side menu.
FINAL STEP
Under SELECT PAYMENT STATUS, choose Paid.
You can also choose to send an email notification to your customer with the payment and receipt information for their order.
Click SAVE CHANGES to complete the update.
