From time to time you may receive payment at your payment gateway but the order was not marked as paid in your Rocketspark Dashboard order history.
Please check out the Unpaid / Abandoned cart guide to mark orders as paid manually in Dashboard.
There are numerous reasons that this might happen, but usually it's related to a technical reason that Rocketspark's shop system wasn't notified by the payment gateway.
The general solution is to check that the money for the order has come through into your chosen payment gateway account. If it has, you can mark the order as paid manually.
Please read through the checks below for the payment gateway in concern.
Paypal
Make sure the email address you have set at Rocketspark to link Rocketspark & Paypal is the primary email address in your Paypal account.
- View your primary email address in Paypal
- View your Paypal email address setting in Rocketspark (Step 6)
Make sure the primary currency in Paypal is the same currency your Rocketspark shop is running in. Otherwise you have to manually approve the payment in Paypal.
Make sure you have configured the IPN settings correctly. This is how Paypal tells Rocketspark that the order was successful, even if the customer doesn't navigate back.
Make sure you have setup the PDT settings, this is particularly important for purchases made on a Mobile phone.
Windcave (Payment Express)
Make sure you have FPRN (Fail-proof Result Notification) turned on at Windcave. This is not always turned on at their end. Please email support@paymentexpress.com to check if this is turned on for your account.
eWay
Currently, customers must navigate back to your shop's finish page in order to confirm the order instantly with Rocketspark.
We also do a check every hour with eWay to see if there are orders completed, but the customer didn't click the 'Return to website' button. We'll then send you the order confirmation for any confirmed orders in eWay. We are working on a more robust solution here. In the time between this hourly check, the orders will appear in “View unpaid orders & abandoned baskets” area of your dashboard.
Stripe
This usually results from the customer not returning to the site after payment. Check your Stripe account to see if the money has come through. If so, you can manually mark the order as paid.
Other Gateways (Afterpay, Zippay, Laybuy etc)
These gateways don't generally have this issue, but if you're finding there are problems, please get in touch with us, and we'll do some further investigation.
FAQs
Q: What should I do if I can see the money in my payment gateway, but the order is still “Unpaid” in Rocketspark?
A: First, verify the payment is definitely “completed” in the gateway (not pending, on hold, or flagged). Then go to Orders → View unpaid orders & abandoned baskets in your Rocketspark Dashboard. If you see the order there and you've confirmed the funds, click the “Paid” checkbox to manually mark it as paid. Make sure to adjust stock if needed.
Q: Why do PayPal payments sometimes not notify Rocketspark even if payment is done?
A: With PayPal, common causes are:
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The primary email used in Rocketspark doesn’t match your PayPal account’s primary email.
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The currency set in PayPal is different from the currency your Rocketspark shop uses.
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Instant Payment Notification (IPN) or Payment Data Transfer (PDT) isn’t set up properly. These are what let Rocketspark know that the payment was successful even if the customer doesn’t return to your site.
Q: What about eWay or Stripe — why might they fail to mark orders as paid automatically?
A: With eWay, an issue can be if the customer doesn’t click “Return to website / Finish checkout” after payment — Rocketspark may only mark it paid after either their return or during an hourly check.
With Stripe, sometimes the customer’s browser doesn’t redirect back, or the screen gets closed before returning to the site. The payment may have succeeded, but Rocketspark didn’t get the “notification” signal. If you can see the funds in Stripe, you can manually mark the order as paid.
Q: Will manually marking an order as paid adjust stock levels automatically?
A: No — when you manually mark an order as paid from the unpaid/abandoned orders section, Rocketspark doesn’t always automatically reduce your inventory. If stock tracking is enabled, check your product stock levels and adjust manually if needed.
Q: Can I prevent this problem from happening?
A: Yes, there are some best practices to reduce incidents:
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Ensure that for each gateway, notification/redirect settings (IPN, PDT, FPRN etc.) are correctly configured.
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Test a real purchase as a customer (using small amount) to confirm everything works end-to-end, including returning to the finish page.
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Maintain consistent email addresses, currencies, and settings between gateway and your Rocketspark store.
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Regularly check the Unpaid / Abandoned Orders area to catch orders that need manual updating.
Q: What should I do if the payment gateway I use doesn’t support automatic notifications?
A: If your gateway doesn’t push notifications automatically, you’ll need to rely on manual checks. Look for the transaction in your gateway dashboard, verify that it succeeded, and then mark the order paid in Rocketspark. Also, communicate with your customers (if possible) so they know their order is confirmed despite Rocketspark still showing “unpaid.”