Abandoned payments

With online payment channels where payers go through multiple steps to make a payment, the process can be interrupted for any number of reasons, both intentional and unintentional. This results in abandoned payments that leave useful data in Salesforce. You can collect information for reporting as well as build follow-up business processes, such as an "abandoned cart" process for commercial transactions.

The key data points to follow are:

• Abandoned one-time payments: Installment records with an unexpected or unchanging status and no Payment records
• Abandoned recurring payment: source-specific records (Recurring Payment, Recurring Donation, etc.) missing linked payment profiles and/or mandates

An abandoned payment typically occurs when the payer has triggered the payment intent call to the FinDock Payment API, but thn fails to complete the steps to make the payment. Those steps are specific to the payment method and processor, and may vary depending on the integration with the Payment API (e.g. custom front end versus Giving Pages).

The payment intent is an Inbound Report record (subtype Default) that FinDock processes through Guided Matching. When the payment intent is captured, FinDock creates and updates Salesforce records like Contact and Account, in addition to creating payment-related records like Installment, Recurring Payment, Payment Profile and Mandate.

In the case of Giving Pages, this happens when the payer clicks the Pay button. The payer is then prompted to enter details for the selected payment method. This is where the payer may fail to complete all the necessary steps to finalize the payment.

Identifying abandoned payments

One quick way to identify abandoned payments is to simply use the Data Quality component. This will catch payment records that are missing required data like a payment profile.

When it comes to the status of an installment, indication of abandonment varies depending on the payment processor. For native payment processing, the installment status remains New after running your next payment schedule.

The installment status of abandoned payments processed through PSPs depends on the types of notifications the PSP sends to FinDock. In most cases, the status does not remain New, but is updated to another status, such as Cancelled or Rejected. Check the Last ReasonCode Received field for indications that the status is due to the payer abandoning the payment process.

Another good general indication a payment was abandoned is the lack of Payment records linked to the installment. In most cases, the installment status changes and Payment records are created within a few days, if not immediately.

As noted already above, for recurring payments, the main indicator of abandonment is a missing payment profile and mandate. Under normal, completed payment conditions, FinDock automatically creates and links these to the recurring payment record. You can easily identify these missing, required links when you use the Data Quality component on payment schedules, for instance.

Verifying abandoned payments

Before taking action, you should verify that the payment is indeed abandoned. You can confirm this by searching for Inbound Reports with the Payment Intent Id of the one-time or recurring payment. If none of the inbound reports failed, it’s safe to assume the payment is abandoned.

For recurring payments, you can also safely assume they are abandoned if neither a mandate nor a payment profile is linked to the recurring payment record after a full day passes.

Handling abandoned payments

What you do with abandoned payments is entirely up to your business practices and preferences. Here are a few examples we see customers employing:

• If the payer is an existing contact....
• If the payer is a new contact...
• If abandoned payments are common...
• ....