Manual invoice activation lets you decide when Klarna and Walley payments are activated after payment creation. By delaying activation until the order is ready to ship, you can prevent the invoice or credit from activating too early. This helps ensure that the customer receives the order before the invoice falls due and is especially recommended when delivery times are longer.
How manual invoice activation works
To use manual invoice activation, include the following parameter in your payment creation request:
manualInvoiceActivation: true
Detailed information about the field and activation logic is available in the Paytrail documentation under Manually activating payments.
When you use manualInvoiceActivation: true in the payment request, the payment remains in pending status until you activate it later.
Manual invoice activation is supported for both Walley and Klarna, but the behavior is not identical. In both cases, the payment remains in pending status until activation. However, the effect on invoicing and charging differs depending on the payment method.
Manual invoice activation is supported for both Walley and Klarna. While the payment remains in pending status until activation in both cases, the details differ depending on the payment method. Review the payment method-specific behavior below.
With Walley payment methods, the payment remains pending until activation, and the customer is not sent an invoice before activation is completed.
- The payment remains in pending status after a successful transaction.
- Walley payments can be activated for 90 days.
- If not activated within this time, the payment expires and must be created again.
- The customer does not receive an invoice before activation.
- Activation is completed through the e-commerce platform or via API.
Klarna supports the manualInvoiceActivation parameter, but its behavior differs from Walley. Activation refers to confirming the transaction, not always to the moment when the customer is charged.
What happens when manual activation is enabled
- The transaction remains in pending status until activation.
- You activate the transaction later via API or your e-commerce platform.
- Klarna transactions can be activated for 28 days.
- If not activated within this time, the transaction expires and must be recreated.
When the customer is charged
The charge timing depends on the Klarna payment method used.
Charged at activation (for example invoice or credit):
- The customer is charged only when the activation request is made.
Charged at checkout (for example bank payments or Swish):
- The customer is charged immediately when the payment is made.
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manualInvoiceActivationdoes not affect the charge timing. - Activation is still required to change the status to ok and to include the payment in the normal settlement cycle.
Canceling and activating payments
When manualInvoiceActivation is in use, your e-commerce platform should also support canceling and activating payments through API requests.
You can cancel a payment through the cancelling payment endpoint. When canceled, the transaction status changes from pending to fail.
This is especially important with Klarna when the customer has selected a payment method where the charge is made immediately at checkout.
We recommend that if manualInvoiceActivation is used, the e-commerce platform always supports payment cancellation so that the transaction can be canceled if the order is not delivered.
Payment activation is completed through the capturing payments endpoint. When activated, the transaction status changes from pending to ok.
Some e-commerce platforms, such as MyCashFlow, support these functions automatically, so separate action may not be required from the merchant.
Why manual activation is recommended
- Prevents invoices or credit from activating before the customer receives their products.
- Reduces customer service inquiries.
- Improves the overall delivery and payment experience.
- If the order is canceled, transaction fees are not charged.