---
title: "Handling payments that need action - NexPay"
description: "The \"Needs action\" tab gathers payments waiting on you. Here's how to work through them — holds, failures, and payments ready to send."
lastModified: "2026-06-02"
lang: "en"
url: https://nexpay.com.au/training/payments/handling-payments-that-need-action
---
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# Handling payments that need action - NexPay

## At a glance

- **Intended for:** Agents & school admins
- **Reading time:** 4 minutes
- **Last updated:** 1st June 2026

**TL;DR:** "Needs action" on the Payments page collects everything waiting on you — payments on hold, ones that failed, and ones ready to be sent. Open each, read what it's waiting for, and act: provide a requested document or detail for a hold, retry or fix a failed one, or send a ready one. Checking this tab regularly keeps payments from stalling.

{/* Body content for needs-action queue */}

## Your to-do list, in one place

Most payments sail through without you lifting a finger. A few don't — and when one needs you, the last thing you want is for it to hide in a long list until a deadline is looming. That's what the **Needs action** tab is for: it gathers every payment waiting on you, so you can work through them in one sitting.

You'll find it on the **Payments** page, alongside the other tabs. Make a habit of checking it, and stalled payments become a non-issue.

> **For agents and schools:** A payer rarely knows their payment needs something until you tell them. This tab is how you stay ahead of that — you spot the hold or the failure first, and reach out before they have to chase you.

## What lands here

Three kinds of payment show up in Needs action:

**Failed.** Something stopped the payment from processing. Usually it's fixable — a detail to correct, a document to supply — and then it can continue.

**Requires recovery.** The payment hit an error mid-flight that needs a hand to clear. It's flagged here so it isn't forgotten. This is one where reaching out to your NexPay contact is the normal path.

**Ready to send.** The payment is fully prepared and just needs you to proceed. Nothing's wrong — it's waiting on your go-ahead.

## Working through them

The approach is the same for any payment in the tab:

1. **Open it.** Click the payment to see its detail page.
2. **Read what it's waiting for.** The status and the detail page tell you what's needed. If a payment you're still building can't go ahead, the final **Confirm** step lists the exact blockers — a missing detail or document — each with a link to the step that fixes it. For a payment that's already in flight and on hold, the detail page shows the status, and the **email from your NexPay contact spells out the one specific thing required** (the in-app status itself stays general). Check the payment's **Documents** area too, since a hold is most often waiting on a document there.
3. **Act.** Provide what's asked, fix what's flagged, or proceed. If it's a recovery or the cause isn't clear, that's a good moment to contact your NexPay person.

> **If you're not sure what a payment needs:** for one you're creating, the Confirm step names the blocker precisely; for one already on hold, the email is your most specific source, and the Documents area shows what's been uploaded. More often than not it's a quick, specific fix — a clearer document — not a mystery.

## Holds versus failures

A quick distinction. A payment **on hold** is paused for a check — frequently it just needs one thing from you, and there's usually an email explaining what (see [payment status explained](/training/payments/payment-status-explained.md)). A **failed** payment hit a snag and stopped. Both want the same response from you: open it, see what it needs, and either provide it or reach out.

If you want to see everything paused for a check in one view, go to **All payments** and filter by the **On Hold** status.

## When to involve support

You're never expected to untangle a payment alone. Provide a requested document or correct a detail yourself — that's quick. But for anything labelled **requires recovery**, or any failure where the cause isn't obvious, your NexPay contact is the right next step. That's precisely what they're there for, and they can often resolve it faster than any self-service path.

## Your next step

- **Want to understand the underlying statuses?** Read [payment status explained](/training/payments/payment-status-explained.md).
- **Need to provide a document a hold is asking for?** See [uploading documents](/training/payments/uploading-documents.md).
- **A payment needs replacing entirely?** See [reissue, cancel and replace a payment](/training/payments/reissue-cancel-and-replace.md).
- **Not sure who to contact?** Your account manager's details are on the home-screen support card.

## Checkpoint

After reading this, you should be able to:

- Find the "Needs action" tab on the Payments page
- Recognise the three things that land there — failed, requires recovery, ready to send
- Work through a flagged payment by opening it, reading what it needs, and acting
- Tell a hold apart from a failure, and respond to each
- Know when to resolve something yourself and when to involve your NexPay contact

## Frequently asked questions

### What kinds of payments show up in "Needs action"?

Three kinds — payments that failed, payments that need recovery (stuck in an error we can help sort), and payments that are ready to be sent and just need you to proceed. It's everything that won't move forward on its own.

### A payment failed. What should I do first?

Open it and read the status and any message shown. Often it's something straightforward — a detail to correct or a document to add — after which the payment can continue. If the cause isn't clear, your NexPay contact can tell you what happened and the best way to resolve it. You're not expected to diagnose it alone.

### What does "requires recovery" mean?

It means the payment hit an error along the way that needs a hand to clear. It's flagged here so it doesn't get lost. Reach out to your NexPay contact, who can help recover it — this is one where support involvement is normal and expected.

### How often should I check this tab?

A glance once a day is plenty for most people. The whole point of the tab is that things needing attention are gathered in one place, so a quick daily check means nothing sits unnoticed.

### Can a payment be on hold and in this tab at the same time?

A hold is its own status, and the things in "Needs action" are mainly failures, recoveries, and ready-to-send payments. Either way, the approach is the same — open it, read what it needs, and act. If you want everything paused for a check, filter "All payments" by the On Hold status.

## More on NexPay

**Platform**

- [For students & parents](/for-students-and-parents.md)
- [For ed. agents](/for-education-agents.md)
- [For universities](/for-universities.md)
- [For schools](/for-schools.md)
- [For accommodation](/for-accommodation.md)
- [AI automation](/payments-ai-automation.md)
- [Pricing](/pricing.md)

**Help & resources**

- [Training](/training.md)
- [Contact](/contact-us.md)
- [Developers](/api.md)
- [Zapier integration](/zapier.md)
- [Claude & ChatGPT](/mcp.md) — Claude & ChatGPT integration

**Company**

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- [Group Regulatory Disclosure](/group-regulatory-disclosure/)
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- [Developer & API Terms](/developer-terms/)

## NexPay

NexPay Pty Ltd (ABN 56 153 910 984) holds Australian Financial Services Licence No. 560782 and is authorised to provide non-cash payment services to retail and wholesale clients in Australia.

- **Address:** Level 12, 64 York St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
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