# The four stages

Sales > Activity · How it works · https://vendordue.com/docs/four-stages

**In short:** Every dollar a vendor earns is On hold, Scheduled, To pay or Paid. On hold waits for something, and says what. Scheduled knows its pay day. To pay has landed and is yours to pay. Paid is covered by payments you recorded.

Who: Admin, Viewer. Where: Activity, Payouts.

A sale's stage tells you one thing: where its money stands. Each stage answers a question you'd otherwise have to work out yourself.

*The four stages, and what moves money from one to the next.*

| Stage | It answers |
| --- | --- |
| On hold | Can it be paid yet? Not yet, and here's why |
| Scheduled | When will it be paid? On this day |
| To pay | Do I owe it now? Yes, its payout has landed |
| Paid | Is it settled? Yes, payments you recorded cover it |

You see the stage on every row in **Activity**, across the top of a sale's timeline, and in **Payouts**. Each has its own colour, always beside its word.

## On hold

A sale is On hold until it has a pay day. It always says what it's waiting for. First, the sale's own holds:

| It reads | Waiting for |
| --- | --- |
| **Until it ships** | Shopify to mark the order fulfilled |
| **Until it's delivered** | The carrier to report delivery, when your return window counts from delivery |
| **Return window until 18 Sep** | The return window to end |
| **Needs a decision** | Your answer in **Activity > Needs attention** |

Then the vendor's payout. A sale can clear all its own holds and still wait, because the payout it would join can't land yet:

| It reads | Lands |
| --- | --- |
| **Held by you** | When you release them. See [Holds](https://vendordue.com/docs/holds#holding-one-vendor-yourself) |
| **Under the minimum** | Once they're owed your minimum payout |
| **They owe you first** | Once what has cleared covers what they owe you, like a bill |
| **No date yet** | When they ask to be paid, on an "ask to be paid" schedule, or when you press **Pay now** if no schedule is set |

A hold ends by itself when the thing it waits for happens. You can also end it early: see [Releasing a hold by hand](https://vendordue.com/docs/holds#releasing-a-hold-by-hand).

(example) The stoneware mug sold on 3 September. It was **Until it ships** that day, then **Return window until 18 Sep** from the 4th, when it shipped.

## Scheduled

Every hold has cleared. The sale knows the pay day its payout lands on, from the vendor's [pay day schedule](https://vendordue.com/docs/pay-day-schedules). The mug was Scheduled from 18 September for Thursday, 1 October.

Until a payout's **Open until** day, new sales can still join it; after that it's **Final**, and only a refund can change it. See [Upcoming payouts](https://vendordue.com/docs/upcoming).

## To pay

On the pay day, the vendor's cleared sales land in a **payout**: one list of lines, with a total, that you now owe. It shows in **Payouts > To pay**, and the vendor gets an email that it's ready. From then on, the payout's lines and total are fixed.

The mug landed in Alder Ceramics' 1 October payout and was To pay until it was paid.

A payout stays To pay until payments cover all of it. If you pay part, the rest stays To pay, and the vendor sees **Part paid**. Their page says **Not paid yet** until the first payment. The longer it waits, the louder its row: the age reads in amber from 15 days and red from 30. See [To pay and Pay now](https://vendordue.com/docs/to-pay).

## Paid

Payments you recorded cover the whole payout. Its day is the day of the last payment. The mug was Paid on 2 October, by check 1043.

Paid means you told VendorDue you paid. Unless you used **Send now**, VendorDue didn't move the money and can't see your bank: it keeps the record you made. See [Record a payment](https://vendordue.com/docs/record-a-payment).

## When money goes back

A sale's stage only moves forward, with three exceptions, and each one is a line of its own that says what happened:

- **A refund.** It never undoes the sale. It's a minus line that comes off the vendor's next payout. If the sale hadn't landed yet and the refund covers all of it, the sale stops waiting, and both go on the next payout, where they cancel out. See [Refunds and returns](https://vendordue.com/docs/refunds-and-returns).
- **A payment you voided.** The payout goes back to To pay, and the Paid stage on its timeline is marked **Payment voided**.
- **A payment PayPal or Venmo sent back.** The same, marked **Sent back**.

## When it looks wrong

### A sale is still Scheduled on its pay day

Payouts land at the start of your store's day. If you're early, opening **Payouts** lands anything due. If it still hasn't landed, read its row in **Payouts > Upcoming**: the vendor may be below your minimum, owe you more than they've earned, or be held by you.

### A paid payout is back in To pay

A payment on it was voided or sent back. Open the payout: its timeline names the payment and who voided it, or that PayPal or Venmo sent it back.

### A refund shows as To pay, with a minus

It came after the sale's payout landed, so it comes off the vendor's next payout. Nothing else is needed. See [Refunds and returns](https://vendordue.com/docs/refunds-and-returns).

## Common questions

**Why doesn't a sale go straight to To pay?** Holds stop you paying a vendor for something the customer might still return. Set them in Settings › Terms, or choose to pay each sale as it's sold.

**Can I pay a sale that's still Scheduled?** Yes. Pay now lands everything a vendor has cleared, today, and you can tick held sales to include them. See To pay and Pay now.

**Does Paid mean the vendor has the money?** It means you recorded a payment. A vendor can press Looks right to me on their payout to confirm it reached them.

**What does the vendor see?** The same four stages, in the same colours. To pay reads Not paid yet or Part paid on their side.

Checked against VendorDue on 2026-10-06.