---
title: "What do the payment statuses in Cleo Pay mean?"
description: "Cleo Pay shows two kinds of status. Each bill has a status such as Awaiting Payment, Payment Held, Payment Error or Paid, and each payment on a bill has its own, such as Processing, Held, Failed or Completed."
url: https://cleo-pay.com/help/payment-statuses-explained
category: "Payment timing and problems"
audience: [business]
updated: 2026-10-22
support: support@cleo-pay.com
---

# What do the payment statuses in Cleo Pay mean?

> Cleo Pay shows two kinds of status. Each bill has a status such as Awaiting Payment, Payment Held, Payment Error or Paid, and each payment on a bill has its own, such as Processing, Held, Failed or Completed.

Cleo Pay shows a status in two places. Every bill on the **Pay** page has a bill status, like Awaiting Payment, Payment Held or Paid. Inside a bill, each payment has its own status, like Processing, Held or Completed. The bill status tells you where the bill stands. The payment status tells you what happened to the money.

## Bill statuses

You see these on the **Pay** page and in the Status row when you open a bill.

| Status | What it means | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Awaiting Approval | The bill is waiting for someone in your approval workflow. | The approver approves it. See [How bill approvals work](https://cleo-pay.com/help/how-bill-approvals-work). |
| Awaiting Payment | The bill is approved, or didn't need approval, and nothing has been sent yet. | Pay it when you're ready. |
| Processing Payment | A payment on this bill is moving right now. | Nothing. It changes on its own. |
| Payment Scheduled | A payment is set to go out on a future date. | Nothing. To change it, open the bill and use **Edit Scheduled Date** or **Cancel Scheduled Payment**. |
| Partially Paid | Part of the bill has been paid and the rest is still open. | Pay the rest when you're ready. |
| Payment Held | Your payment is waiting on the vendor. They haven't accepted your invitation, or they don't have a bank account we can pay. | Remind the vendor. Hover over the status to see which one. See [Why is my payment held?](https://cleo-pay.com/help/why-is-my-payment-held) |
| Payment Error | A payment didn't go through. | Open the bill to see why and retry. See [Why did my payment fail?](https://cleo-pay.com/help/why-did-my-payment-fail) |
| Payment Returned | A bank sent the payment back. It can be the vendor's bank or yours. | Hover over the status to see the bank's reason. See [A vendor's bank sent back my payment](https://cleo-pay.com/help/a-vendor-payment-was-returned) or [Why did my payment fail?](https://cleo-pay.com/help/why-did-my-payment-fail) |
| Paid | The bill is paid in full. | Nothing. |
| Declined | Someone on your team declined the bill. It won't be paid. | Nothing, unless it was a mistake. |
| Cancelled | The bill was cancelled. Cleo Pay also cancels a bill on its own if a vendor's invitation expires while a payment is held for them. | Nothing. |

The status filter on the **Pay** page lists eight of these: Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Payment, Payment Scheduled, Partially Paid, Payment Error, Paid, Declined and Cancelled. To find held payments, filter by Partially Paid. To find returned payments, filter by Payment Error.

## Payment statuses

Open a bill to see its payments. A **Payment Transactions** list shows up on bills that were sent as more than one transfer or that have a scheduled payment. Each row has one of these statuses.

| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | The payment is waiting for its date. It goes out at 9:00 AM ET that day. |
| Ready | The payment is queued to go out. |
| Processing | The money is moving. When you pay from your linked bank, this covers both steps: the pull from your bank and the payment to the vendor. |
| Completed | Cleo Pay finished sending the payment to the vendor's bank. |
| Failed | The payment didn't go through. The reason shows on the row after "Error:". |
| Cancelled | The payment was stopped before it went out, for example a scheduled payment you cancelled. |
| Held | The payment is waiting for the vendor to accept your invitation or add a bank account. |
| Refunding | A cancelled payment's money is on its way back to you. |
| Refunded | A held payment was cancelled. Either the pull from your bank was stopped before it settled, or the money is in your Cleo Pay balance. |
| Returned | The vendor was paid, but the money pulled from your bank for this payment came back from your bank. This one needs our team. Email support@cleo-pay.com. |

## Payment details in the activity log

Every bill also has an **Activity Log** tab. Click a payment event there to open **Payment details**, which shows each payment with its status, where it was paid from and any problem in plain words. The labels there are a little different: Held shows as "On hold", Cancelled as "Canceled", and a payment a bank sent back as "Returned by the bank".

## Still not sure?

If a status doesn't match what you expected, email support@cleo-pay.com with the bill's invoice number, the vendor's name and the status you see.