Transaction States

Every payment in Ottu moves through a series of states, from creation to completion. Understanding these states helps you maintain an accurate audit trail, manage operations efficiently, and know exactly where each payment stands.

tip

For the full technical state machine, see Payment States.

Transactions in Ottu fall into two categories:

• Parent Transaction -- Stores all the essential data about the payment. This is the primary record of the transaction.
• Child Transaction -- Created when a subsequent operation is performed on a parent transaction, such as a capture, refund, or void.

Parent States

The parent state reflects the overall status of the original payment transaction.

State	Description	Actor
Created	The payment has been initiated successfully.	Merchant
Pending	The customer has interacted with the payment (viewed the checkout page, accessed the link, etc.) but has not completed it yet.	Customer
Attempted	The payment failed on the customer's end and is waiting for a retry. It stays in this state until successfully processed, expired, or canceled.	Customer
Authorized	The customer entered card details, and the bank has allocated (held) the amount, but it has not been deducted yet.	Customer
Paid	The bank has successfully deducted the payment amount.	Customer
Failed	The transaction encountered an error and could not be completed. Only applies to transactions that allow a single attempt.	Customer
Canceled	The merchant canceled the payment. No further action can be taken.	Merchant
Expired	The payment link's lifespan has ended.	Customer
Invalid	The payment is no longer available due to changes in payment configuration, currency exchange settings, or other unforeseen events.	Merchant
COD	Cash on Delivery -- the customer chose to pay in cash.	Customer

note

The Pending state is only available when using an Ottu plugin with the checkout page. The Attempted state does not exist for single-attempt transactions; those go directly to Failed or Authorized.

Child Payment States

Child transactions are created when a merchant performs an operation (capture, refund, void) on a parent transaction. The table below shows each child state, its originating parent state, and what it means.

Child State	Parent State	Description
Paid	Authorized	A portion or all of the authorized amount has been captured. A child transaction record is created to track the capture.
Refunded	Authorized / Paid	A partial or full refund has been returned to the customer.
Refund-queued	Authorized / Paid	The refund is awaiting bank approval.
Refund-rejected	Authorized / Paid	The bank did not approve the refund.
Voided	Authorized	The authorized amount has been reversed. The full amount (including any fee) is returned to the customer.

warning

Voiding can only be performed on authorized transactions that have not been captured. Once a capture occurs (even a partial one), the void option is no longer available -- use a refund instead.

The figure below illustrates a payment transaction with both parent and child states. The parent transaction is in the Authorized state, and the child transactions show Paid (captured) and Refunded states for the same payment.

Payment Attempts

A payment attempt represents a customer's individual try at completing a payment. When a transaction fails, the customer can retry -- potentially multiple times -- until the payment succeeds, expires, or is canceled.

Attempt States

Each attempt has its own state, separate from the parent transaction state:

Attempt State	Description
Pending	The customer has viewed the transaction details.
Failed	Payment failed (insufficient funds, card declined, etc.). The number of allowed attempts depends on the payment configuration.
Canceled	The customer clicked the cancel button.
Success	The payment attempt was successful.
Error	A payment gateway error occurred (service unavailable, network issue, etc.).
COD	Cash on Delivery was selected.

note

When COD is used, a payment attempt is still created. Every change in the final state of a payment transaction must be associated with a payment attempt.

State Combinations

Understanding how parent transaction states and attempt states interact is key:

For transactions that allow multiple attempts:

• If the attempt state is canceled or failed, the parent transaction remains in the attempted state. The customer can try again until the transaction either expires or succeeds.
• If the attempt state is success, the parent transaction moves to paid or authorized.

For transactions that allow only a single attempt:

• There is no attempted state. The transaction goes directly to either failed or authorized.

---

What's Next?

• Transaction Insights -- Review amounts, fees, and dashboard charts
• Operations -- Perform captures, refunds, and voids
• Notifications & Timing -- Configure when notifications are sent for each state change
• Search & Filter Payments -- Find transactions by state, user, or gateway