Online Transaction Flow

This page describes the shared lifecycle of an online order placed with Resolve.

It is intended as a cross-platform reference for merchants using:

• a platform integration such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento 2, or WooCommerce
• a custom integration built with the Checkout SDK

At a high level, the online transaction flow looks like this:

1. The customer begins checkout on the merchant website.
2. The customer selects Resolve as the payment method.
3. The merchant website or platform sends checkout details to Resolve.
4. The customer completes the Resolve authentication and approval flow.
5. Resolve authorizes the transaction.
6. Resolve redirects the customer back to the merchant's order confirmation experience.
7. The merchant stores the Resolve identifier associated with the authorization.
8. The merchant fulfills the order.
9. The merchant captures the authorization when it is time to receive funds.
10. Cancellations and refunds follow procedures specific to your integration. On platform integrations they are initiated in the platform, and how the platform's request maps onto the Resolve invoice depends on whether the invoice has been captured yet. See your platform's guide.

The overall customer journey is similar across integrations, but the operational model after authorization depends on how Resolve is integrated into the merchant's e-commerce stack.

For platform integrations, order and payment actions are generally driven through the e-commerce platform and synced into Resolve.

Use these guides if you are on a supported platform:

• Shopify / Shopify Plus
• BigCommerce
• Magento 2
• WooCommerce

Typical platform-driven behavior:

• the platform controls the checkout experience
• Resolve authorizes the buyer during platform checkout
• capture, cancellation, refund, and fulfillment behavior may be triggered from the platform and reflected in Resolve
• the exact post-authorization behavior depends on the platform integration

By default, Resolve captures when the platform captures, and the two systems stay in step. Some platform integrations also let you decouple them, so that Resolve captures — and the buyer's terms clock starts — independently of the platform's own capture. Merchants use this when terms should begin at their discretion rather than whenever the platform happens to capture, for example on fulfillment or on a manual review.

While the two are decoupled, the platform and Resolve can hold different views of the same order: the platform may consider the payment captured while the Resolve invoice is not yet captured, or the reverse. Any action taken on one side is then interpreted against that side's view, and actions taken in Resolve are generally not pushed back to the platform at all. Check your platform's guide for how it exposes this setting and what it changes — Shopify, for example, exposes it as Invoice Capture Mode, which also affects Test Mode. See Shopify.

For custom integrations, the merchant controls the integration flow more directly through the Checkout SDK and Resolve APIs.

Use these guides if you are building a custom e-commerce checkout:

• Checkout SDK
• Charge Management
• Checkout SDK Order Management

Typical custom-driven behavior:

• the merchant embeds or launches the Resolve checkout flow
• Resolve returns either a charge_id or an order_id after successful authorization
• the merchant stores that identifier and manages the authorization through the appropriate model

If you are using a custom Checkout SDK integration, there are two possible authorization models.

In the charge model:

1. Resolve returns charge_id after checkout success.
2. The merchant stores the charge_id.
3. The merchant captures or cancels the charge as needed.
4. If the charge has already been captured, refunds are handled against the resulting invoice by issuing a credit note.

Use this model when you want a simpler one-authorization flow.

Related guides:

• Checkout SDK
• Charge Management

In the order model:

1. Resolve returns order_id after checkout success.
2. The merchant stores the order_id.
3. The merchant can fetch, update, capture, or cancel the order before and during fulfillment.
4. If the order has been captured, refunds are handled against the resulting invoice by issuing a credit note.

Use this model when you need partial capture, multiple captures, or a richer order-management workflow.

Order management can be handled either from the Resolve dashboard or through the Merchant API.

Related guides:

• Checkout SDK
• Checkout SDK Order Management

Note: To use the Checkout SDK order model, your merchant must opt in to Checkout - Order Authorization.

• If you are using Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento 2, or WooCommerce, start with your platform guide.
• If you are building a custom e-commerce checkout, start with Checkout SDK.
• If your custom checkout success flow returns charge_id, use Charge Management.
• If your custom checkout success flow returns order_id, use Checkout SDK Order Management.