Payments: completion, recovery and casework

A fee-paying response stays awaiting payment until collection is confirmed. Follow its payment status, resolve outstanding fees and keep staff decisions with the response in Response Hub.

From final submit to receipt

1. The final submit validates and locks the applicant’s answers. The applicant sees the accepted amount, payee and reference.
2. The applicant chooses to pay and continues to the provider’s hosted checkout. Govform does not collect card details.
3. Verified collection completes the response and starts its confirmation, emails, actions and workflow. There is no second submit.

Use the read-only payment result in the Data Inspector, content and workflow. It includes the outcome, amount, currency, references and receipt information, including whether the payment was simulated or recorded by staff. Stored amounts use ISO minor units: pence for GBP.

While completion actions prepare results, Check confirmation refreshes the saved confirmation without starting another payment. A calculated zero follows ordinary completion with no checkout.

Help an applicant recover

Before checkout starts, the applicant can return to their answers. After checkout, Govform checks the provider’s outcome before allowing another charge. Retry or reopening answers is available when no collection is confirmed.

Pending or uncertain attempts offer checking and, where supported, resume or cancellation. A browser cancellation or an inactive link does not prove that no money was collected. Options differ by provider.

Background checks can confirm collection after the browser closes, but checking is bounded. If the outcome remains uncertain, investigate it with the provider rather than assuming no payment was taken. A lost browser session may require staff help.

Work with outstanding payments

Open Response Hub → service → Awaiting payment. Each accepted response shows its payment, payment history and the steps after payment.

• Check or cancel an online payment: use the available provider-supported action and review the resulting status.
• Let the applicant pay again or reopen answers: use the permitted recovery action after confirming that another charge is safe.
• Record a payment taken another way: take the telephone or in-person payment in your provider’s tools first. Record the method, receipt reference, date and reason in Govform.
• Waive the fee: record the reason. Recording a payment or waiving the fee completes the response and starts its confirmation and workflow.

Staff never enter card details in Govform. Each action has a final confirmation and is audited with the staff member’s identity. Actions other than check and cancel also need a reason.

Control access and unfinished work

In Library Security settings → Payment actions in Response Hub, allow staff who can manage responses to use payment actions, or restrict them to administrators.

If a step after payment is uncertain, complete any missing work and check that results needed by later steps are available before marking it as handled. Whole-stage reruns are unavailable. Contact support for interrupted work that remains in progress.

Refunds and settlement

Manage refunds, disputes and settlement reporting in the provider’s tools. Govform takes no share of your payments; your merchant contract and provider fees stay with your organisation. Deleting a Govform response does not refund a payment.

See payment provider and fee setup or payment casework capabilities.