Payment Processing — Proposed Guide

Planned API — Reference Only

Payment Processing: Processing describes work between an accepted payment request and a provider-confirmed outcome. Temporary uncertainty should remain…

Overview

Processing describes work between an accepted payment request and a provider-confirmed outcome. Temporary uncertainty should remain visible rather than being converted to success or failure by the client.

Key concepts

Track provider acknowledgments, attempt state and correlation identifiers. Separate a transport timeout from a definitive provider rejection.

Implementation considerations

Do not automatically issue another payment after an ambiguous timeout. First reconcile the provider outcome through an approved future workflow.

Illustrative data model

This local fixture shows a possible representation for the concepts above. It is not an endpoint response, production configuration or a claim that the described capability is implemented.

JSON fixture

Fictional concept fixture

{
  "reference_only": true,
  "topic": "Payment Processing",
  "attempt_id": "attempt_example_123",
  "provider_reference": "provider_example_123",
  "status": "draft",
  "request_id": "request_example_123"
}

Design review checklist

Document which organization owns the payment processing representation and which actor may view or change it.
Test the boundaries of attempt id, provider reference, status, request id using synthetic values, including missing or inconsistent references.
Before future implementation, obtain an approved contract and review failure behavior. This documentation does not authorize production activation.

Proposed data types

Illustrative field dictionary
Name	Type	Description
attempt_id	string	Stable fictional attempt reference; not a secret and not evidence that a resource exists.
provider_reference	string	Fictional provider correlation reference, not settlement evidence.
status	string	Proposed lifecycle value. Its meaning depends on the resource and must not be inferred from HTTP success.
request_id	string	Stable fictional request reference; not a secret and not evidence that a resource exists.

Payment Initiation

Reimbursements & Payments

Payment Completion