Payment Intents
A Payment Intent is instellix’s instruction to move money via a payment provider: charge a customer, refund a payment, or pay out an amount. It represents the collection attempt on the instellix side and is submitted to the connected PSP.
Payment Intents can be created automatically (via Payment Intent Tasks and open items) or manually from a document in the webportal.
Prerequisites
- At least one Customer Payment Account for the customer
- A configured Merchant Payment Account / Gateway and Payment Provider
- Payment Intent processing enabled for the tenant (see below)
Types
| Type | Typical use |
|---|---|
| CHARGING | Collect money (e.g. invoice) |
| REFUND | Return money for a previous charge (e.g. invoice correction) |
| PAYOUT | Pay out money (e.g. credit note) |
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CREATED | Intent exists, processing not finished yet |
| IN_PROGRESS | Being processed / submitted toward the PSP |
| SUBMITTED | Successfully submitted to the PSP; waiting for final outcome |
| RETRY | Scheduled for an automatic retry after a recoverable failure |
| FAILED | Collection attempt failed (may still be retryable, or final) |
| CANCELLED | Cancelled; no further automatic processing |
| PROCESSED | Successfully completed |
For Stripe, intents in SUBMITTED may be polled periodically for an updated status. See Payment Provider Stripe.
Final Retry
When automatic retries are configured, each attempt can be marked as the final retry. In the Payment Intent overview you can filter and sort by Final Retry to find intents where no further automatic collection attempts will follow.
See also Payment Retry Configuration.
Payment Intent Tasks
A Payment Intent Task is the planning step before a Payment Intent. It is created from the open-item (OPOS) situation of a document and is updated when the open item changes (amount, assignments, etc.).
When the task’s due date is reached and the task is still valid, instellix creates the actual Payment Intent.
Task statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| WAITING_FOR_DUE_DATE | Planned; Payment Intent will be created when due |
| PROCESSED | Payment Intent was created |
| FAILED | Creation of the Payment Intent failed |
| CANCELLED | Task cancelled (e.g. open item changed so the planned charge is no longer valid) |
When tasks are used
Typical case: charging on due date. The task holds the planned amount and CPA until due date; then the Payment Intent is created.
Tasks can be enabled/disabled for the tenant (automatic creation and updates from OPOS). If you enable tasks for a tenant that already has open items, not all historical cases get tasks retroactively — new/changed open items create tasks going forward; older cases may need a manual Payment Intent.
You can update a task (for example the Customer Payment Account) while it is still waiting — useful when the payment method changes after the document exists but before charging runs.
Payment Intents in the webportal
Overview
Go to: Payment > Payment Intents
The overview shows Payment Intents and surfaces planned / failed Payment Intent Tasks (for example via summary widgets with counts and links into filtered lists):
- Planned payment intent tasks (
WAITING_FOR_DUE_DATE) - Failed payment intent tasks (
FAILED)
Use the table filters and sorting to work operationally with collection attempts. Available filters include status and Final Retry (Yes / No), so you can focus on intents that will not be retried automatically anymore.
Open a row to see details (amounts, CPA, merchant account, responses from the PSP, retry information, linked payment transaction where available).
Actions on a Payment Intent
Depending on status and permissions:
- Retry — for failed intents that can be retried (also available via API)
- Cancel — for failed intents that should not be processed further (also available via API)
Automatic retries are controlled by the provider Retry Strategy; manual retry is for operator-driven follow-up.
Create a Payment Intent manually
- Open the document (invoice, credit note, deposit invoice, or deposit credit note):
Billing > Documents (or via the customer details page) - Click Create payment intent
- Enter the amount and select the Customer Payment Account
- Select the type according to the document (Charging / Refund / Payout)
- Optionally add a statement descriptor
- Save to start processing
On the document details page
Document details include tabs for related payment objects, including:
- Payment Intent Tasks — planned / related tasks for this document
- Payment Intents — intents already created for this document
This lets you jump from the invoice to the planned charge or to failed/successful intents without searching the global overview.
Enable processing
Two related switches control automation:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Payment Intent processing | If disabled, existing and new Payment Intents are not processed further by instellix |
| Payment Intent Task processing | If disabled, tasks are not created/updated automatically from open items |
Enable these only when full-service charging (or the relevant payment setup) is configured for the tenant.
Reporting
Payment Intents are available as a Data Area in Data Reports / Scheduled Reports (from the release that introduced the report; historical data may only start from that date).
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Updated 21 days ago