The following steps below are typical of how the store operates. Every business is different and your own steps may vary. 

There are many cases where the order may be unpaid. For example, the customer placed an order and selected a payment term via the "Purchase order" option if enabled. It can also occur with recurring orders that could not process the payment at the moment of re-occurence or you created an order on behalf of the customer manually.

In the event that the customer has not yet paid for an order, the system will normally send an invoice by email to the customer at the time when the order is recorded. The default template should direct the customer to the Manage Order module to complete the payment. If the customer did not receive the email, you may also direct the customer to the Manage Order module on your site manually.

1. Customer navigates to the Manage Order module.
2. Customer locates the unpaid order (Payment status = "Incomplete") and makes the payment. 

For recurring orders, the following additional steps may be taken by the customer:

1. The customer may go to the Manage Payment module and add/update their payment information (e.g. if credit card has expired) and/or change their preferred payment from the Manage Recurring Order module.
   
   Updating a payment information will only affect future re-occurences of the order. However, if the Retry incomplete payment is enabled under Configuration > Recurring sales order, the system will attempt taking payment against any unpaid recurring orders using the newly updated payment information.

Once the order is paid, the merchant will receive a payment alert email notifying of the new payment made. The merchant follows the usual steps to fulfill the order.