What a checkout is
A checkout is created from the cart when the shopper starts to pay. It takes the cart's items that can still be bought, its currency and its discount codes, and adds what a sale needs: the shopper and their email address, billing and delivery addresses, the delivery option for each fulfilment, order details such as a gift message, and totals with discounts, shipping and tax.
Shoppers create checkouts, so the admin has only the Checkouts settings, with no list to edit. Once a sale completes, its record is the order.
Ready for payment
A checkout can be paid only when all four of these hold:
- It has at least one fulfilment.
- Every fulfilment has a delivery option selected, and the option has not expired. An option lasts an hour.
- It has a shopper with an email address.
- It has a billing address.
A delivery address is not on the list, but a delivery option is: a store that sells only downloads still needs a shipping method that offers a free option. The checkout reports which condition is missing, so a well-built checkout page shows the reason beside the pay button.
Changing the cart during checkout
A change to the cart ends the checkout, and the shopper starts a new one. Once a payment is under way (waiting for the bank's authentication, sent to the provider's page, or covering only part of the total), the checkout is separated from its cart and kept until the payment is settled, for up to a year.
When the payment completes
When the checkout's invoice is paid in full, the checkout becomes an order. The order number is created at that moment, so an abandoned checkout never uses one, and the checkout record is removed. A checkout that costs nothing still gets a paid invoice of zero and becomes an order.
Payments that finish away from the page, such as on the provider's own site, are confirmed by the provider directly. That is why an order can exist even if the shopper closed the browser before the confirmation page.
When a sale did not complete
- There is an order: the sale went through. Look at its invoice and fulfilments.
- No order, but a payment was taken: the payment is pending or covers part of the total. The checkout waits, and becomes an order when the provider confirms the full amount.
- No order and no payment: the checkout was abandoned. The cart still exists and can be restored for the customer.
Developers: The checkout in the commerce guide.