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Understanding why your PayPal payment is showing as 'pending' in Bonsai
Understanding why your PayPal payment is showing as 'pending' in Bonsai

Learn about why your PayPal payment is pending and strategies to avoid delays.

Updated over 3 months ago

At times, a PayPal payment may have a 'pending' status on Bonsai. In this article, we'll explore the reasons why this happens and how to avoid it in the future.

Reasons for pending PayPal payments

If your PayPal payment on an invoice template is stuck with the status 'Your payment is processing', then it could be due to one of two reasons.

  • Payment review: The payment is currently undergoing a standard risk review by PayPal, which may take a few days. This review process is designed to ensure the transaction's security and prevent potential fraud. If PayPal identifies any issues or suspects fraudulent activity, the transaction may be reversed, and the funds will be returned to the sender.

  • Unclaimed payment: The contractor needs to claim or accept the payment in their PayPal dashboard. If the payment remains unclaimed for more than 30 days, it will be returned to the client.

Strategies to avoid payment disruptions with PayPal payments

To prevent delays with your PayPal payments, follow these strategies.

Currency considerations

Ensure your PayPal account is in the same currency as the currency on your invoices.

Configure receiving preferences

Take a look at your PayPal account to verify that your Payment Receiving Preferences are not set to manually accepting payments or automatically denying payments from senders without an address.

Verify your account

We recommend logging into your PayPal account to confirm there a no verification issues.

Avoid account changes

To avoid disruptions to payments, refrain from altering your PayPal account email address.


For additional support with your payments, get in touch with Bonsai's Support team at support@hellobonsai.com.

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