About order checkout steps

When StoreConnect converts a cart into an Order, it sets a Checkout Step field (s_c__checkout_step__c) on the Order record. This field tracks the order through checkout, Salesforce sync, and final completion.

Unlike the cart’s Status field, which reflects the customer’s progress through the checkout flow, Checkout Step is an internal processing state that shows where the order is in StoreConnect’s backend pipeline.

Checkout step lifecycle

Every order moves through three phases:

1. Syncing — the order has been created and is waiting to sync to Salesforce
2. Finalized — payment has been captured and the order is ready to complete
3. Complete — the order is fully processed and confirmed

Syncing states

When an order is first created, its checkout step is set to a -syncing value while it waits for Salesforce sync to complete.

Value	When it appears
payment-syncing or paid-syncing	Standard web checkout orders
pos-syncing	POS orders
quotation_requested-syncing	Quotation requests
pending_renewal-syncing	Subscription renewal orders

Payment vs paid prefix

Standard web checkout orders use either payment- or paid- as a prefix, depending on the timing of order creation relative to payment capture:

• payment-syncing — the order record was created before payment was captured (the normal case)
• paid-syncing — the order record was created after payment had already been captured (occurs when the checkout flow is retried after a partial failure)

Both lead to the same outcome. The difference is only visible in the syncing and finalized stages and does not affect the customer experience.

Orders should pass through the syncing state quickly. If an order remains in a -syncing state for more than a few minutes, it may indicate a Salesforce sync issue.

Finalized states

Once Salesforce sync completes and payment has been captured, the order moves to a -finalized state. This means the order is queued for final processing.

Value	When it appears
payment-finalized or paid-finalized	Standard web checkout orders
pos-finalized	POS orders
quotation_requested-finalized	Quotation requests
pending_renewal-finalized	Subscription renewal orders
shipping-finalized	Orders processed through the API

Orders in a -finalized state are picked up automatically by StoreConnect’s order completion process within a few seconds under normal conditions. A background recovery process also checks for finalized orders that have not yet completed and retries them after one hour.

Terminal states

Once processing is complete, the order moves to a terminal state and is not updated further by the checkout pipeline.

Value	Meaning
complete	Standard web checkout order successfully processed
pos-complete	POS order successfully processed
quotation_requested	Quotation request successfully processed
failed	Payment or processing failed

Transactional emails and checkout step

Transactional emails — including order confirmation emails sent to customers — are triggered by the Checkout Step field reaching complete (or pos-complete for POS orders). If an order has not yet reached a terminal complete state, those emails will not be sent.

If a customer reports not receiving a confirmation email, check the order’s Checkout Step value first. If it is still in a syncing or finalized state, the order has not finished processing. Check the Salesforce sync error log for any errors that may be preventing the order from completing.

Triggering automations from orders

If you are using Salesforce Flow, Process Builder, or other automation tools that fire on order creation or update, use the Checkout Step field reaching complete (or pos-complete for POS orders) as your trigger condition rather than order creation alone. Until the checkout step reaches a terminal complete state, StoreConnect may still be syncing order data — triggering automations earlier risks acting on incomplete records.

POS intermediate state

POS orders may briefly appear in a pos-pending state after creation. This state indicates the POS order is waiting to be finalized. If a POS order becomes stuck in pos-pending for more than one hour, the recovery process will automatically finalize it and allow it to complete.

What paid-finalized means for customers

If you see an order with a checkout step of paid-finalized (or payment-finalized) that has not yet moved to complete, the customer’s payment has been captured. The order will be confirmed and the customer will receive their confirmation shortly after.

There is no risk of the customer being charged twice — once payment is captured, StoreConnect prevents any further payment attempts on the same order.

If an order has been stuck in paid-finalized or payment-finalized for longer than two hours, contact StoreConnect support.

Checking checkout step in Salesforce

The Checkout Step field is stored on the Order object as s_c__checkout_step__c. You can view it directly on the Order record in Salesforce or use it in reports to identify orders that may need attention.

:::note The Checkout Step field is managed entirely by StoreConnect. Do not modify it manually unless the order is in a terminal state (complete or pos-complete) — StoreConnect will likely override any changes made to orders that are still in progress. :::