---
title: When a payment does not finish
summary: What to do when a card payment stalls, a checkout refuses to take money, a sale is left part paid, or a guest paid and no order was made.
id: when-a-payment-does-not-finish
type: troubleshooting
audience:
  - cashier
  - manager
areas:
  - payments
since: "2.0"
updatedAt: 2026-11-07T15:47:58.638Z
release: 2.5.0
url: https://help.omviq.com/payments/when-a-payment-does-not-finish/
markdown: https://help.omviq.com/payments/when-a-payment-does-not-finish.md
related:
  - take-a-payment
  - split-a-payment-and-add-a-tip
  - hold-and-resume-a-sale
  - void-a-sale
  - fix-printing-problems
keywords:
  - payment stuck
  - declined
  - nothing was charged
  - payment in progress
  - abandon payment
  - paid no order
  - retry
  - settlement
lang: en
---

# When a payment does not finish

Omviq checks a sale before it takes any money, and it refuses to charge a sale that is already paid. This page lists what you may see when a payment does not go through, and what to do next. When a message says **nothing was charged**, no money moved.

## First, find out what happened to the money

1. Read the message on the checkout. It says whether anything was charged.
2. Look for the sale on the **Transactions** screen. If the sale is there, the payment went through.
3. Do not take the payment again until you have checked. If a check you just paid still reads unpaid, wait a few seconds and refresh the **Orders** list. The payment is recorded a moment after it settles. If it still reads unpaid, check **Transactions** before you take it again.
4. If a sale you just took is missing from the **Transactions** list, tap the list's refresh button. The list shows what it read when you opened it.

## What you see at the checkout

| What you see | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| The card reader does not answer | Check the USB or Bluetooth connection to the card terminal. If it never answers, tap **Abandon Payment**. That cancels the card payment. When nothing else has been paid, you go back to the check with every item still on it, ready to take payment another way. |
| **This checkout cannot take a payment right now — nothing was charged. Reopen the checkout and try again.** | The checkout could not reach the payment service. Reopen the checkout and try again. |
| **This order was voided after this checkout opened. It can no longer be paid — nothing was charged.** | The check was voided at another till while this checkout was open. Open the check on **Orders** to see what happened to it. |
| **This order was merged into another check after this checkout opened. Pay that check instead — nothing was charged.** | Another till merged the check. Find the check it was merged into on **Orders** and pay that one. |
| **This order was split into seat checks. Pay the seat checks instead — nothing was charged.** | The check was split by seat. Pay each seat check. |
| **This order was paid online to the delivery partner — nothing was charged here.** | The order was prepaid with a delivery partner. There is nothing to collect at the till. |
| **Payment method unavailable** | The method is turned off in the checkout settings. An admin has to turn it on. |
| The **Cash** button is greyed out | No till is open. Open the till from the header. See [Open and close a till](https://help.omviq.com/till/open-and-close-a-till/). |
| You tapped **Back** after a payment was taken and the sale was cancelled | **Back** cancels a sale once a payment has been taken, and reverses that payment. Next time use **Suspend** to put a part-paid sale down. See [Take a payment](https://help.omviq.com/payments/take-a-payment/). |

A **Collect** at pickup on the **Orders** page is refused in the same way, for an order that can no longer take money, and nothing is recorded.

## A sale was left part paid

If the till was locked or reloaded while a customer was paying, the sale is not lost. It appears under **Payment in progress** in **Suspended Sales**, with what was paid and what is still due.

1. Tap **Suspended Sales** in the bottom navigation.
2. Find the row marked **Payment in progress**.
3. Tap **Resume**. The sale's own checkout opens with the payments already taken shown.
4. Take what is still due, or tap **Suspend** to set it aside again.

To abandon the sale, a manager resumes it and taps **Cancel** at its checkout. That voids the sale and reverses the payments taken. If the checkout does not hear back in time, it offers **Try again**, and trying again can never take the payment twice. See [Hold and resume a sale](https://help.omviq.com/selling/hold-and-resume-a-sale/).

## A guest paid and no order was made (managers)

Sometimes a guest pays and the order that payment should produce cannot be made. For example, the business's currency could not be read at that moment, a pay-first sale arrived with nothing on it, or the order to attach the payment to was not found. The guest's money has moved, so Omviq never drops it. It records the payment as an item to resolve and shows it to managers.

Open **Manager → Exceptions** and look at the **Paid, no order** panel. Each row shows:

| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Reference | The sale's transaction, or the delivery partner and the partner's order number. |
| Status | **Needs a decision** (nothing happens until a person acts), or **Awaiting retry** or **Retrying** (a retry a manager asked for is on its way). |
| Amount | What the guest's payments took, less any change handed back. It reads **Amount unavailable** when it cannot be stated. A delivery partner's order the guest pays at the store has taken nothing yet, so its amount reads unavailable. |
| Attempts | Shown once a retry has been asked for. |

Choose an action for each row:

| Action | When to use it | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| **Retry now** | The cause has been fixed, for example the business's settings can be read again. | Omviq tries once more to finish the order as it would have been made. For a sale, the order is made, sent to the kitchen and recorded as paid by the guest's payment, so the till never offers to charge it again. For a partner's order, it is linked back to the partner. The row leaves the panel only when the order is in place. If the sale's payment was refunded or voided in the meantime, nothing is sent to the kitchen and the row stays for you to close by hand. |
| **Mark refunded** | You refunded the guest. | Scan the refund receipt or enter the refund's transaction ID. The obligation is recorded as refunded, linked to that refund, and the row leaves the panel. |
| **Mark resolved** | The guest was looked after another way, such as a voucher, a new order rung by hand or a phone call. | Write what was done. It is recorded as resolved by hand with your note, and the row leaves the panel. |

**Mark refunded** and **Mark resolved** close any item that needs a decision, including one a retry cannot settle. While a retry is running on an item, those two are not offered. Wait for the retry to finish, then refresh.

When you press **Record**, the dialog refuses a note that is blank or longer than 500 characters, something that is not a transaction ID, and the sale's own transaction. A refund is a different transaction, so scan the refund receipt, not the sale receipt. Omviq records the refund ID you enter, so check that it is the refund's own receipt.

Every resolution records who resolved it and when. If the server refuses a resolution, for example because another manager resolved it first, the panel says why and the row stays where it was.

**Who can do this.** Listing, retrying and resolving all need the **Resolve Settlement Obligation** permission (Settings → Staff & Permissions). Admins and Managers hold it by default. If a role loses it while the panel is open, the buttons stay on screen but turn off, with a note saying why.

## Still stuck?

Ask a manager to check **Transactions** and the daily reports before taking the payment again. If you still cannot tell whether the customer was charged, contact support. Tell them the step you were on, the time and what the screen said.

## Related pages

- [Take a payment](https://help.omviq.com/payments/take-a-payment/)
- [Split a payment and add a tip](https://help.omviq.com/payments/split-a-payment-and-add-a-tip/)
- [Hold and resume a sale](https://help.omviq.com/selling/hold-and-resume-a-sale/)
- [Void a sale](https://help.omviq.com/refunds/void-a-sale/)
- [Fix printing problems](https://help.omviq.com/printers/fix-printing-problems/)