---
title: A payment failed or is stuck
slug: a-payment-failed-or-is-stuck
category: Troubleshooting
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/a-payment-failed-or-is-stuck
audiences: business_owner, manager
updated: 2026-09-08
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# A payment failed or is stuck
Sidebar: **Business Settings → Payment Settings**. The **Transactions** tab is where every card payment and its current state lives.

Work out which of these four you have — they have nothing to do with each other.

## The card was declined

The customer's bank refused the charge. Alaga shows the reason the bank gave, and nothing was taken.

Declines are the bank's decision, not Alaga's, and there is no setting on our side that changes one. The usual causes are an expired card, insufficient funds, a wrong postcode or security code, or a fraud hold on an unusual amount or location. Ask the customer to try a different card or to phone their bank — a bank will often approve the same card immediately after the customer confirms the charge is genuine.

Nothing needs cleaning up. A declined payment leaves no charge behind.

## A payment is sitting on "pending"

Most often this is an abandoned checkout rather than a real payment. Opening the card form starts a payment; if the customer closes the window, walks away, or the card form is never completed, that started-but-never-finished payment stays on the list.

**You do not need to do anything.** Once a day Alaga cancels card payments that have been sitting unfinished for more than 24 hours, and the row settles as cancelled. Payments that are genuinely processing or already succeeded are never touched by this.

If the same payment is still pending after 48 hours, that is worth reporting.

## The customer paid but the invoice still says unpaid

Alaga is told about a completed card payment by the payment provider, and that message occasionally arrives late. Give it a few minutes and reload the invoice.

If it has been longer than that:

1. Open **Payment Settings → Transactions** and find the payment.
2. If the payment is there and shows as completed, but the invoice still shows a balance, that is a genuine mismatch — report it with the invoice number and we will settle it.
3. If the payment is not there at all, the money did not reach Alaga. Ask the customer for the name of the charge on their statement. A pending authorisation on their card is not the same as a completed payment and often disappears on its own.

Do not take a second payment to "fix" an invoice that looks unpaid. That is how customers get charged twice, and refunding is more work than waiting.

## The money has not reached your bank

Payments and payouts are different things. A completed payment means the customer's money reached your payment account; a **payout** is that balance being transferred to your bank, which happens on a schedule set by the payment provider — commonly a couple of business days behind, and longer for a brand-new account's first payout.

**Payment Settings → Payouts** lists what has been sent and when. If the payment shows as completed and no payout has gone out yet, nothing is wrong; it is in transit. A payout that has failed will say so, and the usual reason is bank details that need re-entering.

## Refunds

Refunds are issued from **Payment Settings → Transactions**, not from the invoice or the appointment. You can refund the whole amount, a partial amount, or just a tip. Refunds go back to the card that was used — there is no way to redirect one to a different card — and processing fees come back proportionally. A full refund returns any products on the sale to stock.

## What to include if you report it

The invoice number or client name, the date and time, the amount, and what the customer's card statement says. "A payment failed" without those takes several rounds of questions to place.