Guide

What “Payment pending” means in Shopify, and what to do about it

Updated 2 November 2026 · 3 min read

Payment pending is the status Shopify gives an order when the money has not arrived yet. It covers two quite different situations, and only one of them needs anything from you.

A manual payment method

Bank deposit, money order, cash on delivery, and any method you set up yourself under Settings, Payments, Manual payment methods: the customer has promised to pay and Shopify waits for you to mark the order as paid once the money arrives. Nothing happens until someone acts.

A payment provider still processing

Some online payments take time — a direct debit, for example. The order is pending while the provider finishes. The customer has already done their part; a reminder would be wrong.

Which pending orders need a reminder

• Bank transfer and other manual methods the customer pays themselves: yes, after a few days.
• Cash on delivery: no, the customer pays the courier.
• Payments a provider is still processing: no.
• Part-paid orders: usually a deposit or an agreed instalment, so check before chasing.
• Orders with Net or fixed-date terms: Shopify’s own payment reminders cover these.

Keeping the list short

Mark orders paid as soon as the money arrives — by hand, or with an app that reads your bank. Then the pending list is only the orders that really are unpaid, and any reminder you send is one the customer needs.

ReminderClerk tells these cases apart by itself: it chases manual methods, never cash on delivery or a provider’s payment, and lists part-paid and due-dated orders without chasing them.