Troubleshooting

POS blocked during payment recovery

Refer to this guide when POS shows that the last ADYEN_CLOUD transaction did not complete successfully and offers recovery before a new sale can start.

Symptoms

Before a new sale can start, POS displays a recovery prompt for the last ADYEN_CLOUD transaction, showing:

  • the sales ticket number,
  • the payment type,
  • the amount, and
  • the external reference number (when one was returned by the terminal).

Until the prompt is answered, the POS unit cannot be used for further sales. In some cases the prompt reappears on the next sale as well, even after it was answered once.

Cause

POS only checks the single most recent ADYEN_CLOUD transaction to confirm whether it completed successfully. The recovery prompt exists to resynchronize POS with the payment terminal after the outcome of that transaction is unclear — for example after a terminal timeout, a dropped connection, or a power interruption during payment.

The prompt keeps returning until a subsequent ADYEN_CLOUD transaction completes successfully. Declining the prompt does not retroactively resolve the earlier transaction — it only tells POS to stop waiting on it and move on.

Safe recovery decision tree

  1. Attempt recovery first. Let POS try to recover/resync the flagged transaction. This is the intended path for short interruptions, such as a brief network drop or power loss during payment.
  2. If recovery does not resolve it, confirm what actually happened before dismissing the prompt. Use the ticket number, amount, and external reference number shown in the prompt to check:
    • the payment terminal’s own screen or printed receipt for that transaction, and/or
    • the Adyen Customer Area, if an external reference number is available.
  3. Decide based on the confirmed outcome:
    • Customer was not charged — it is safe to decline the recovery prompt and continue with a new sale. Declining does not attempt recovery; it simply moves on.
    • Customer was charged, but the transaction did not sync back to POS/Business Central — do not simply decline and forget about it. Record the ticket number, amount, and external reference number and route it for manual reconciliation, since declining the prompt does not reverse the charge.
  4. If the prompt still won’t clear, start a new sale and complete one full, successful ADYEN_CLOUD transaction (a small test sale is enough). Because POS only checks one transaction back, a subsequent successful transaction clears the block.
  5. Escalate to Support if the prompt keeps reappearing after a successful transaction, or if it recurs on every new sale — this points to an unresolved out-of-sync state rather than a one-off interruption.

Avoid trying to manually delete or edit the flagged transaction in Business Central as a way to clear the prompt. Deleting the transaction has not been confirmed as a safe fix, and a saved EFT entry is rarely the actual cause — check EFT Setup for saved/pending EFT entries related to the POS unit only to rule that possibility out, not as a first response.

Missing external reference number

If the recovery prompt does not show an external reference number, the transaction likely never reached Adyen (for example, it failed locally on the terminal before an Adyen reference was issued). In that case:

  • you cannot look up the transaction in the Adyen Customer Area,
  • rely instead on the terminal’s own transaction log or printed receipt, using the ticket number and amount to identify it, and
  • treat the outcome as unconfirmed until you’ve checked the terminal directly — do not assume the customer was or wasn’t charged.

Recurring recovery prompts

If the same prompt (or a new one) keeps appearing after you’ve already completed a successful ADYEN_CLOUD transaction, or if it appears again on every subsequent sale, this is not the expected behavior and should be treated as a possible defect rather than repeated manual dismissal. Collect the diagnostic information below and contact Support.

Diagnostic information to collect before contacting Support

  • POS Unit No. and terminal ID (POS ID, for example P400Plus-123123123).
  • The sales ticket number(s) affected.
  • The external reference number, if one was shown.
  • The approximate date and time of the failed transaction.
  • Whether a subsequent ADYEN_CLOUD transaction has completed successfully since, and whether the prompt still returns.
  • Whether any saved/pending EFT entries exist for the POS unit in EFT Setup.
  • A short screen recording of the prompt and the steps taken, if possible — this significantly speeds up investigation.