Payment Lifecycle
The states a payment moves through, which ones are terminal, and when you can fulfill the order.
Every transaction in Tonder starts as a payment. A successful payment can later be refunded or contested as a dispute. Each of these — payment, refund, dispute — moves through its own set of statuses that tell you where it is in processing.
Understanding these statuses is the foundation for everything else: webhooks report status changes, your order fulfillment keys off terminal statuses, and your dashboard groups transactions by them. This page is the canonical reference for all three.
Terminal vs. non-terminal. Pending / Authorized / In review mean processing is still
underway — don't fulfill the order yet. Success / Declined / Failed / Cancelled / Won /
Lost are terminal. Only act on terminal statuses, and always confirm them server-side via
webhooks rather than a client redirect.
Payments
A payment transfers funds from the payer to the payee for goods or services. When you create a payment it always starts in the Pending status, then moves through the lifecycle below.
| Status | Terminal? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | No | A payment attempt is processing. Common with asynchronous processors (e.g. SPEI). The default status right after creation. |
| Authorized | No | The payment processor has authorized the attempt — funds are held but not yet captured. |
| Declined | Yes | The payment processor declined the attempt. See decline codes. |
| Failed | Yes | The attempt failed. Tonder shows the failure details in the payment details dashboard. |
| Success | Yes | The attempt was captured successfully. Safe to fulfill the order. |
| Cancelled | Yes | Cancelled before settlement, often by the customer prior to completion. |
Refunds
A refund is a merchant-initiated reimbursement to a customer — for returns, cancellations, or dissatisfaction. You initiate it from the Tonder dashboard. A refund also starts in Pending.
| Status | Terminal? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | No | The refund is awaiting processing. |
| Failed | Yes | The refund attempt was unsuccessful. |
| Success | Yes | The refund was processed successfully. |
Disputes
A dispute is a customer-initiated complaint contesting a transaction — for example an unauthorized charge, non-receipt of goods, or dissatisfaction. When a dispute is created it starts in Needs response, and you must submit evidence to contest it.
| Status | Terminal? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Needs response | No | Your customer raised a dispute with their bank; you must respond. |
| In review | No | Evidence was submitted and is awaiting the processor's decision. |
| Lost | Yes | You lost the dispute, or accepted it by not responding in time. |
| Won | Yes | You won the dispute. |