Managing unsuccessful payments

Avoid failures due to insufficient funds 
If your payments sometimes fail with Deferred (Internal) due to insufficient funds in your payer account, you can request Tipalti Support to enable the 'Pending Funds' model. This marks payments as 'Pending funds' instead of 'Deferred' and automatically processes them once funds are available.

While most payments sent through Tipalti progress successfully and are marked as 'Paid' or 'Cleared', some payments may encounter errors, resulting in a 'Deferred', 'Deferred (Internal)', or 'Rejected' status. These three statuses represent different types of failures. 

Deferred

• What it means: Payment couldn't be submitted to the provider due to issue with payee. 
• Common causes: Incorrect bank info, missing tax form, no payment method, or below threshold.
• Who fixes it: The payee (notification is sent to the payee with the reason for deferral).
• What to fix: To receive payments, the payee must amend the details or upload the necessary documentation.
• Note: The existing payment order cannot be changed; to pay the payee, another payment order must be submitted.

Deferred (Internal)

• What it means: Payment failed before submission due to an internal validation issue.
• Common causes: Insufficient funds (if ‘Pending Funds’ is disabled), missing required data, or validation errors.
• Who fixes it: The payer (alert is sent to users in your team who receive email notifications to fix the issue).
• What to fix: The payer must fill in the missing data to fix the error or contact Support.
• Note: For payments with Tipalti Card, the payment order is resubmitted with the previous payment method.

Rejected

• What it means: The payment provider received the payment but rejected it.
• Common causes: Incorrect or mismatched account details, regulatory restrictions, or returned payment.
• Who fixes it: Usually the payee (A notification is sent to the payee with the rejection reason).
• What to fix: To receive payments, the payee must amend the details or upload the necessary documentation.
• Note: Since these payments were sent for processing, Tipalti charges transaction fees. When a bank rejects a payment, the amount returned might be smaller than the original amount due to lifting fees. 

Viewing the reason for a failed payment

To view the reason for a failed payment:

1. Go to Payments > Manage payments.
2. Select the payment batch.
3. Open the payment batch details.
4. Click the payment to see the error reason and click on the status.

For more information on tracking and approving payments, go to Manage payments.