Delivery Indications
A delivery indication tells you whether you can safely ship the goods or deliver the service for a transaction. It exists because payment methods differ in how reliably the money actually arrives: a card authorisation reserves funds immediately, while an invoice or bank transfer may only be confirmed days later.
We have thoroughly investigated each payment method we offer, which allows us to advise whether a payment is likely to be fulfilled or is guaranteed by the provider.
Timing of shipment
Once the delivery indication changes to Fulfill, your application should initiate the shipping of a physical product or enable the download of a digital product.
If the delivery indication results in Decline, you must not fulfill the order — for example when the customer refuses the payment or the risk of a chargeback is too high.
Shipping before the delivery indication is available means carrying the payment risk yourself. This is a business decision: for guaranteed payment methods there is nothing to wait for, while for others the wait is what protects you from delivering goods that are never paid.
How it relates to transaction states
The delivery indication is what moves a transaction from Completed into one of the two final states:
| Delivery indication | Resulting state | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Fulfill | Deliver the goods or service. |
| Negative | Decline | Do not deliver. |
For some payment methods this decision is automatic; for others — when no automatic process confirms that the funds arrived or are guaranteed by a third party — you verify the payment yourself and transition the transaction manually.
To react to the decision in your system, subscribe to webhooks instead of polling: the notification tells you the new state as soon as it is set.
Related topics
- Transaction States (the chapter this page belongs to) — the full lifecycle including
FulfillandDecline. - Authorisation Response — why an authorisation succeeded or failed in the first place.