Status transitions and finalization

Learn about invoice status transitions and finalization.

The following graphic shows the different ways that an invoice can transition from status to status:

Transitions and endpoints

The following table outlines the status transitions and their endpoints. It also lists the webhooks that are emitted by the endpoint, and the resulting status for each:

Status	API Endpoint	Emitted Webhook	End Status
`draft`	DELETE /v1/invoices/:id	`invoice.deleted`	(Deleted)
`draft`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/finalize	`invoice.finalized`	`open`
`open`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/pay	`invoice.paid`	`paid`
`open`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/pay	`invoice.payment_failed`	`open`
`open`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/send	`invoice.sent`	`open`
`open`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/void	`invoice.voided`	`void`
`open`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/mark_uncollectible	`invoice.marked_uncollectible`	`uncollectible`
`uncollectible`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/pay	`invoice.paid`	`paid`
`uncollectible`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/pay	`invoice.payment_failed`	`uncollectible`
`uncollectible`	POST /v1/invoices/:id/void	`invoice.voided`	`void`

Finalize draft invoices

When you enable automatic collection, Stripe automatically finalises, and begins automatic collection of the invoice. We wait 1 hour after receiving a successful response to the invoice.created event from all listening webhooks before attempting payment. If we don’t receive a successful response within 72 hours, we attempt to finalise and send the invoice. You can configure a longer grace period.

Invoices are initially created with status=draft, and you can only edit them while they’re in this state. When an invoice is ready to be paid, finalise it. Finalising an invoice sets status=open on the invoice. You can manually finalise an invoice in the Dashboard or by using the Finalise endpoint. If you’ve configured webhook endpoints, you receive an invoice.finalized event when an invoice finalises.

Command Line

Select a language

cURL

Stripe CLI

Ruby

Python

PHP

Java

Node.js

.NET

No results

In live mode, if your webhook endpoint doesn’t respond properly, Stripe continues retrying the webhook notification for up to 3 days with an exponential back-off. In a sandbox, we retry three times over a few hours. During that time, we won’t attempt to charge the customer unless we receive a successful response. We also send you an email to notify you that the webhook is failing.

This behaviour applies to all webhook endpoints defined on your account, including cases where a Connect application or other third-party service is having trouble handling incoming webhooks.

Post-finalization

Finalizing an invoice does the following:

It allows the invoice to be paid.
It ensures that an invoice number is present.
It makes certain properties immutable on the invoice.
It creates an incomplete payment intent for the invoice.
It generates a unique URL where someone can pay the invoice, and a link to download a PDF of the invoice .

Caution

If an invoice isn’t finalized, you can’t collect payment.

Finalized invoice restrictions

After you finalise an invoice, you can’t change most of its details, including fields related to the amount or customer. For most invoices, this also includes the description field. This is to satisfy the common tax-compliance requirement that finalised invoices be retained – as they were finalised – for a legally required minimum time period.

In some jurisdictions, editing fields that modify the total amount due on an invoice could render the invoice invalid. These are typically fields associated with your account, customer, line items, or taxes. It’s your responsibility to make sure that the invoices you create comply with all applicable laws.

If you require updates to the invoice amount after it finalises, use credit notes. Credit notes allow you to modify the invoice amount by specifying an adjustment in money owed by the customer. You can issue credit notes for any invoice in an open or paid status. Finalising the invoice copies the following customer fields to it and makes them immutable:

invoice.customer_address
invoice.customer_email
invoice.customer_name
invoice.customer_phone
invoice.customer_shipping
invoice.customer_tax_exempt
invoice.customer_tax_ids

If you want to change a customer-related property on an invoice:

Void the current invoice.
Duplicate the voided invoice.
Update the customer information on the new invoice.

Emails after finalization

By default, Stripe automatically sends invoices when you set collection_method to send_invoice. Stripe doesn’t email invoices in the following cases:

When charged automatically .
When automatic collection is turned off for the invoice.
When the Email finalized invoices to customers option is turned off.

Note

If you turn off the Email finalized invoices to customers option, automatic or manual finalization doesn’t send an invoice.

Asynchronous payments

Some payment methods require customer interaction to complete the payment – for example, a European card or bank transfer might require Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).

Use the invoice’s payment_intent parameter to choose how to handle the response from the payment attempt, which might be either success or requires_action.

When the PaymentIntent status is requires_action, your user must complete a 3D Secure authentication to complete the payment.

Instead of building this yourself, you can rely on Stripe to handle it for you. Enable reminder emails in the Dashboard so that Stripe can automatically send emails to your customers whenever requires_action occurs. These emails include a link to the hosted invoice page, where a customer can perform all of the actions required to pay the invoice. To learn more about these emails and how to customise them, see Sending email reminders.