Redesign workflow for pending transactions [4167]

Last post 09-27-2010, 10:40 AM by Chief_Apricot. 23 replies.
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  •  03-01-2009, 12:04 AM 11473

    Redesign workflow for pending transactions [4167]

    It seems as though pending transactions (new members, renewals, and event registrations) can be left hanging in the wind.  Certainly, we want to allow time for people to send us checks, and for us to process the checks, but it seems as though it would be nice to specify that something happens after a certain specified amount of time.  For example: After X days/months, email the administrator and/or email the member.  

    I'd put this on the wish list, but at this point I'm looking for suggestions on how to handle pending transactions that don't seem to be moving along.

  •  03-02-2009, 9:10 AM 11483 in reply to 11473

    Re: Pending transactions

    You are right, we have been thinking about this ourselves for a while.

    I would love to hear what other users think - what kind of actions/reminders are needed for Pending transactions?

    (They probably would be different for two types: "Normal" - manual payment selected and "Abnormal" - Pending due to online payment incomplete)


    Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
  •  03-02-2009, 11:54 AM 11489 in reply to 11483

    • gypse is not online. Last active: 02-08-2012, 8:28 PM gypse
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    Re: Pending transactions

    We tend to get the "abnormal" ones. 

    They tend to fall in 2 categories - Duplicates and the ones I can't explain where people take all of the time to fill in the application and then either are not bothering to take the payment step or are having an issue completing payment with PayPal.

    Duplicates - pretty much always just deleted

    Non-Pays - have been sending an email letting them know we see the incompleted application & asking if they need any help completing the payment step.  Haven't heard back from anyone this note has been sent to and have decided just to delete them also . . . .

    So I'm kind of thinking on abnormals that are still in pending after 36 hours, have the system generate a note to the effect that the application is being cancelled due to inactivity and they are free to apply again.

  •  03-04-2009, 2:13 AM 11511 in reply to 11483

    Re: Pending transactions

    How do I tell which ones are normal and which are abnormal?  I can't seem to figure this out.
  •  03-04-2009, 8:24 AM 11515 in reply to 11511

    Re: Pending transactions

    It's hard to tell now because it is not a hard distinction. Basically if onlinie payment was selected and now it is pending, most commonly it is 'abnormal' - but not always since some transactions can take a few hours or even a few days to clear by Payment processor. E.g. Paypal echecks and some Google Checkout transactions.

    Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
  •  03-04-2009, 12:17 PM 11522 in reply to 11515

    Re: Pending transactions

    I'm sorry -- I meant that I'm not sure how to tell if manual or online payment was selected.
  •  03-05-2009, 2:55 PM 11538 in reply to 11522

    • jim is not online. Last active: 02-08-2012, 5:31 PM jim
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    Re: Pending transactions

    From the transaction list go into each individual transaction and Payment type or Payment history will show you the type of payment that was used, see recording payments.

     


    Jim Sympathy, Fluid Apricot
  •  03-05-2009, 6:00 PM 11539 in reply to 11538

    Re: Pending transactions

    Ah, I see now -- thank you.  This further convinces me, though, that some automation with respect to pending transactions would be extremely helpful.
  •  04-17-2009, 5:21 PM 12084 in reply to 11483

    • Gpetron is not online. Last active: 01-29-2010, 1:42 AM Gpetron
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    Re: Pending transactions

    I'd like to echo the need to improve Pending transactions. We just launched our Wild Apricot site this month, and have an event next Tuesday night for which some 90 people have registered. We're nervous and excited, as there was skepticism this site would meet our needs. While everything else seems to be going well, we have 9 pending registrants, and we don't know what to do about them. Do we let them in anyway if they show up and hope their payment goes through eventually? Or do we tell them, "Sorry, you can't come in, maybe your should call your credit card company"? Does everyone get a confirmation upon registration, whether their transaction ultimately ends up "confirmed" or "pending"?

    We have volunteer RSVP handlers who are following up with pending registrants on an individual basis. Mostly no one has responded, making this a frustrating and largely futile waste of time. One person, however, did respond, saying she was not aware anything was wrong with her transaction and fully expects to attend the event.

    It would be helpful to have more information in Wild Apricot regarding pending transactions. There's a difference between a user abandoning a process and a user who has a problem with a credit card or PayPal. Our site is managed by volunteers, so I'd rather not have our RSVP folks wasting time chasing down people who simply abandoned their transaction when they could be tracking down a real problem.

  •  04-20-2009, 9:29 AM 12103 in reply to 12084

    Re: Pending transactions

    If you have a Pending online transaction, in 99% of cases it means that payment was either abandoned before completion or did not go through - and will not go through on its own. You have to follow-up with people in question and have them re-process their payment.

    Unfortunately it is very hard for us to distinguish that because it happens on another website and in both cases what we get is absence of payment confirmation to our system.

     Pending manual transactions are a different story - usually means you are waiting for check in the mail.

    I hope this helps.

    Anyway, I fully agree that our workflows around this should be improved - and we plan a major overhaul of this whole setup in the next few months.


    Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
  •  04-21-2009, 6:21 PM 12129 in reply to 12103

    Re: Pending transactions

    If they do abandon the process for various reasons after initiating a membership renewal via PayPal, how can the member pick up where they left off when they are ready? I find this a bit confusing. Can they do it from their membership page, or is there an email we can send out to give them the PayPal link which when clicked and paid, will update their records automatically? Thanks.
  •  04-22-2009, 2:20 PM 12148 in reply to 12129

    • jim is not online. Last active: 02-08-2012, 5:31 PM jim
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    Re: Pending transactions

    There is currently no way of knowing when exactly the payment was abandoned since all these transactions are simply shown as pending. Generally speaking you have to cancel the previous transaction and/or restart the whole process, but for some transactions you can simply re-submit the payment, see self service functionality for new applications.

    Jim Sympathy, Fluid Apricot
  •  04-22-2009, 5:10 PM 12152 in reply to 12148

    Re: Pending transactions

    I would love to see a button for resubmit payment on the profiles page for renewals just like it is for new applications.
  •  04-23-2009, 10:14 AM 12170 in reply to 12152

    • jim is not online. Last active: 02-08-2012, 5:31 PM jim
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    Re: Pending transactions

    Noted. We are moving this thread to the wishlist so we can gather feedback from others.

     


    Jim Sympathy, Fluid Apricot
  •  04-25-2009, 10:10 PM 12189 in reply to 12170

    Re: Pending transactions

    Hi I agree that pending transaction are completely lost.  For events they are pretty easy to find, but event then if some one manually confirms the registration, the payment may still be in limbo.  For membership renewals it is even hard to find out if a payment is pending unless you search them out.  I was wondering if you could add to either the dashboard or to the members page a column for pending payments.  Then some one could drill down on them and find out who is pending and how old they are.
  •  04-27-2009, 9:28 AM 12197 in reply to 12189

    Re: Pending transactions

    In v 3.0 we are adding a special list 'Attention required' which will list all people with Pending payments and some other exceptions.

    Longer-term, we will redesign our payment workflows as we are designing a new full-blown financial management module.


    Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
  •  05-22-2009, 6:15 PM 12603 in reply to 12170

    • GEM is not online. Last active: 2012/02/08, 8:42 PM GEM
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    Re: Pending transactions

    I'd like to vote on this.

     How do I find the right thread among the hundreds on the wishlist?

    GEM 

  •  05-25-2009, 9:07 AM 12635 in reply to 12603

    Re: Pending transactions

    Hmm... You are already in this thread - or am I missing something?

    Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
  •  01-08-2010, 11:30 AM 16016 in reply to 11473

    • Anonymous

    Re: Redesign workflow for pending transactions [4167]

    Redesigning the workflow is one of our Top 50 items for 2010. We plan to start development on it within the next 12 months.

    As always, please use this forum to give us suggestion or how this would best work with your organization. We'll post the analysis we do, as well as any release dates that go with this feature. 

  •  01-28-2010, 5:44 PM 16443 in reply to 11473

    • dsheetz is not online. Last active: 05-25-2010, 11:50 PM dsheetz
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    Re: Redesign workflow for pending transactions [4167]

    We would like to be able to cancel pending transations, or at least modify them.
  •  01-28-2010, 6:56 PM 16446 in reply to 16443

    Re: Redesign workflow for pending transactions [4167]

    @dsheetz - actually you should be able to do that now. Please contact support with the details if you are having problems with that.

    Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
  •  01-28-2010, 8:28 PM 16448 in reply to 16443

    • Teri is not online. Last active: 02-08-2012, 7:40 PM Teri
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    Re: Redesign workflow for pending transactions [4167]

    I would like to be able to sort the manual payments from the pending online payments.

     

    Teri

    OFLA

  •  08-16-2010, 4:57 PM 19287 in reply to 11473

    Re: Redesign workflow for pending transactions [4167]

    This area has been redesigned in our version 4.0 coming up for release in September.

    There are too many changes from the current version but I will mention two:

    Failed online payments will be  automatically marked as 'Likely abandoned' after 24 hours and will disappear from main views (but will be accessible via special filters)

    New aging receivables report can be used to easily find outstanding  manual payments.


    Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
  •  09-27-2010, 10:40 AM 19881 in reply to 11473

    Re: Redesign workflow for pending transactions [4167]

    This has been redesigned in version 4.0

    You can view contact balances on all lists and see all contacts with  open balances via Aging Receivables report.

    Failed online payments are now automatically marked as 'Probably abandoned' after 24 hours are automatically hidden from main views ( can be accessed via special filters)


    Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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