This article helps System Admins identify and resolve common issues with E-Commerce in Absorb LMS. It covers Portal and Course configuration, pricing, the cart and checkout, Payment Gateways, fraud protection, Coupons, taxes, manual payments, transactions, refunds, receipts, and Subscriptions. Each section describes what you are likely to see, the most common causes, and how to resolve them.

For initial setup, see Getting Started with E-Commerce and Configuring E-Commerce.

Gather Information Before Troubleshooting

Many E-Commerce issues are resolved quickly once the scope is clear. Before changing any settings, collect the following details. They help you decide whether you are dealing with a configuration question or a technical problem, and Absorb Support will ask for them if you contact us.

• The exact error message, or a screenshot of the page where it appears.
• The steps taken leading up to the issue.
• The affected Users and Courses, and whether the issue affects one User or many.
• Whether the issue occurs in Test or Live payment mode.
• Any recent changes to the E-Commerce Settings, the affected Course, or your Payment Gateway account.
• Whether Enable E-Commerce is turned on for the affected Course.

For declined transactions or fraud-related errors, also collect:

• The Transaction ID.
• The date and time of the attempted purchase, including the time zone.
• The purchaser's email address.
• How many purchases the purchaser made in a row, and whether the same card or network was used each time.
• Whether a reCAPTCHA appeared during checkout, and whether the purchaser completed it.

Test Your E-Commerce Setup

Reproducing an issue in a controlled way is often the fastest path to a resolution. Use the following methods to test purchases without affecting your customers.

• Start in test mode. The Payment mode (live/test) setting defaults to test, and test transactions are not charged. Use the numbers in E-Commerce - Test Credit Card Numbers. These numbers only work in test mode.
• Run a live test purchase before launch. After switching to live mode, create a low-cost Course (for example, $1.00 or the regional equivalent) and use Enrollment Rules to limit Self Enrollment to yourself. Complete a real purchase to confirm the full workflow.
• Step through checkout as the affected User. With appropriate authorization, use User Impersonation to follow the same path as the affected User. Keep your browser's developer tools open to capture console errors and correlation IDs.
• Recreate the scenario. Copy the affected Course's settings to a test Course to confirm whether the issue is specific to one Course.
• Confirm fixes on your live gateway. Test gateways do not always behave like live gateways, so a successful test transaction does not guarantee a successful live one.

Portal-Level E-Commerce Settings

E-Commerce Settings are managed in the AE. Open the Account menu, click Client Settings, then click E-Commerce. Incomplete settings are one of the most common causes of checkout problems, so review every section of the modal (Settings, Payment Gateways, Manual Payment Settings, and Checkout Communication) when troubleshooting.

Course Setup and Visibility

Each Course, Curriculum, and Course Bundle must be configured for sale before Learners can purchase it. These settings are found in the Enrollment Rules section of the editor. 

For full details, see Enable E-Commerce on a Course.

Course Cannot Be Purchased or Does Not Appear

If Learners cannot find or purchase a Course, confirm that the following settings are in place:

• Enable E-Commerce is turned on.
• A Default Price is set.
• Self Enrollment is set to All Learners if the Course should be available to everyone, including public visitors.
• Allow Public Purchase is turned on if the Course should appear on a Public Dashboard.
• The correct Public Dashboard is chosen under Specific Public Dashboards or All Public Dashboards, if your Portal has more than one.

If the settings are correct and the Course is still unavailable, review the following limitations:

Course Settings That Change Purchase Behavior

Some Course settings change what happens during or after a purchase. The following behaviors are expected, but they are often reported as issues.

• Approval is bypassed. When a Course has both E-Commerce and Approval enabled, purchasing the Course grants access immediately.
• ILC Sessions are chosen later by default. Unless Require Learner to Choose Session Upon Purchase is turned on, Learners select a Session after purchase rather than at checkout.
• Admin enrollments are free. An Admin with the required permissions can enroll a User in an E-Commerce Course without charging them.
• Curriculum pricing takes priority. Pricing set on a Curriculum overrides the pricing of the Courses within it.
• Course Extensions have prerequisites. Extensions are only available when an expiration is set in the Course's Availability section. A Course or Curriculum can have up to three Extensions. Extensions are not available for Course Bundles or ILCs, and they cannot be purchased in quantities greater than one. See Course Extensions.
• Course Repurchase has several requirements. Course Repurchase must be turned on in E-Commerce Settings, and the Course needs Allow Repurchase, a Repurchase Price, and Re-Enrollment configured. Repurchase is not available for Course Bundles, cannot be purchased on behalf of others, and does not use Variable Price Groups. For Courses that allow failure, Allow Re-enrollment on Failure is also required. See Course Repurchase.

Pricing and Currency Issues

When a Learner sees an unexpected price, the cause is usually how Absorb LMS chooses between prices and discounts. If a Variable Price Groups price exists for the Learner's Department, the Learner pays that price. Otherwise, the Learner pays the Default Price, minus any Department discount.

Keep the following in mind when reviewing prices:

• Sub-Departments do not inherit Variable Prices or discounts from their parent Department. Configure each Department that needs a different price.
• Department pricing and discounts only apply to signed-in Learners. Public visitors see the Default Price, so direct existing Users to sign in before they purchase, for example through a deep link.
• A Department Discount Percentage, where available, is set in the E-Commerce section of the Department. It must be a whole number from 0 to 100, applies only to the Default Price, and is cut off (not rounded) at two decimal places. Items with Exclude from department discount turned on are not discounted. Integrations may also update this value. 
  • See Department Creation & Management.
• Variable Price Groups are unavailable while additional currencies are configured.
• Multi Currency Prices are read-only and are calculated from the Default Price and each currency's Conversion Rate, with optional rounding. 
  • See E-Commerce Multi-Currency.
• When multiple currencies are configured, Course Extension pricing only applies when the Learner is viewing the Catalog in the default currency.
• If a Learner changes their currency while items are in their cart, the cart is emptied after a confirmation prompt.
• When Free courses is turned on, items priced at $0.00 or the regional equivalent display as Free.

Cart and Checkout Issues

Checkout moves through three stages: Cart, Account Information, and Payment. Card, PayPal, and PawaPay payments are completed on a secure checkout page hosted by our payment processing partner. Learners then return to an invoice page in Absorb LMS.

Cart and Checkout Messages

The following table lists messages Learners may see in the cart or during checkout, along with the likely cause and resolution.

Account and Sign-In Requirements

Checkout behavior depends on the User Authentication options in the Settings section of E-Commerce Settings, along with related checkout options.

• Users must be logged in to access shopping cart: Visitors must sign in or create an account before purchasing. When this is on, Course previews also require sign-in.
• New users are required to validate their email before checking out: New Users must confirm their email address before they can complete a purchase. This is separate from the email validation setting in Portal Settings.
• Default Department: Users who sign up during checkout are placed in this Department. If new Users see unexpected prices or content, review this setting and any Department assigned by the Coupon they used.
• Billing and shipping information: When turned on, Learners must re-enter their billing and shipping details after canceling a checkout. This is expected.
• Carts created before signing in are kept for four hours and are merged into the Learner's account when they sign in.
• When Learners can save their payment details under Saved payment details & subscriptions, guests cannot complete Multi-Seat Purchases. 
  • See Multi-Seat Purchases.

Multi-Seat Purchases and Buying for Others

Purchases made for other Learners generate Enrollment Keys instead of enrolling the purchaser. This changes what the purchaser sees after checkout.

• Learners can only change the quantity, or click the Buying for Others tab, when Single seat enrollment key purchase or Multi-seat Purchases is turned on in E-Commerce Settings.
• After changing a quantity, the purchaser must click Refresh to update the cart. Otherwise, the quantity resets to one.
• The purchaser is not enrolled when buying for others. Enrollment Keys appear on the invoice and are emailed to the purchaser to distribute.
• Depending on the Generate multiple, single-use enrollment keys option, the purchaser receives either one multi-use key or one single-use key per seat.
• For ILCs, seats are taken when keys are redeemed, so recipients should redeem their keys promptly. When purchasing different seat counts for several ILCs, use separate transactions. Otherwise, the highest seat count in the cart is applied to every ILC.
• Subscriptions can be purchased for up to 100 seats per transaction.
• Coupons set to Single Use Per Learner cannot be applied to Multi-Seat Purchases.
• For more information, see E-Commerce Buy on Behalf.

Enrollment Does Not Appear After Purchase

Enrollments, Enrollment Keys, and the receipt email are created when our payment processing partner confirms the payment, not when the Learner returns to the invoice page. A short delay is normal. If the content still does not appear, check the transaction's Status in the Transactions report. Transactions that are pending approval or incomplete do not grant access until they are approved.

Purchasing on Mobile Devices

Purchases cannot be completed inside the Absorb Learning Mobile App. When a Learner opens a link to E-Commerce content in the app, it opens in the device's web browser, where they can complete checkout. In the browser, the cart icon only appears in the header when the cart contains items, and it is hidden on mobile-sized screens.

Payment Gateway Issues

Absorb LMS works with a payment processing partner that hosts the secure checkout page and connects to your Payment Gateway. Learners enter their card details on this hosted page, at your E-Commerce Subdomain (for example, yourstore.securecheckout.myabsorb.com), and never on an Absorb LMS page. If an error appears while the browser shows this secure checkout address, the error came from payment processing or your Payment Gateway rather than from Absorb LMS.

General Gateway Checks

Before contacting your Payment Gateway's support team, confirm the following:

• The correct Payment Gateway is selected. Confirm which gateway your organization actually uses, because some organizations hold merchant accounts with more than one provider.
• The payment mode matches the credentials entered: live credentials in live mode and test credentials in test mode.
• The credentials match your gateway account exactly. Saved values are masked, so re-enter them if you are unsure.
• Supported Credit Cards matches the card types your merchant account accepts.
• 3D Secure Options, where shown, matches the 3D Secure (3DS) configuration on your gateway account. A mismatch causes errors at checkout.
• Your gateway's Address Verification Service (AVS) settings are not rejecting valid cards. Strict AVS settings often reject international cards.
• Your gateway's own email receipts are turned off, because Absorb LMS sends receipts to purchasers.

Declined payments are reported on the secure checkout page, and Absorb LMS does not display a separate decline message. Check the Gateway Message column of the Transactions report and your Payment Gateway's records for the decline reason. 

For gateway setup steps, see Payment Gateway Setup Guide.

Fraud Protection Errors

Checkout includes fraud protection to protect your store from fraudulent card use. When fraud protection blocks a purchase, the purchaser sees the following message: "This transaction exceeds our fraud risk settings and cannot be processed. Please contact us directly to process your order."

Three separate checks can block a purchase. Identifying which one applies helps determine the resolution.

The following causes and resolutions are the most common:

• Repeated purchases with one card. Several fast checkouts that use the same card, from the same location, for different new accounts look like fraud. If one person regularly pays for others, use Buying for Others or a Multi-Seat Purchase in a single transaction instead of many separate checkouts.
• reCAPTCHA not completed. Ask purchasers to select the reCAPTCHA checkbox whenever it appears.
• Short-term workaround. An Admin can approve the incomplete transaction from the Transactions report to grant access. Approving a transaction does not charge the purchaser's card, so collect payment through another channel.
• Fraud settings are managed by Absorb. The fraud score threshold and IP allowlisting cannot be changed in the AE. Reach out to Absorb Support with the details listed in Gather Information Before Troubleshooting. Written approval from your organization is required before these settings are changed.
• Moneris. If every Moneris purchase fails with this error, review 3D Secure Options.

Fraud Score Guidance

If you work with Absorb Support to adjust your fraud score threshold, the following guidance from our fraud detection provider can help you choose a value:

• Always reject scores of 60 or higher, and review scores between 4 and 59.
• Start at 60, review the scores your store normally receives (each completed transaction shows one), and then lower the threshold to a comfortable upper-normal level. This is often as low as 4.
• If your store has already received fraudulent orders, start at 15 or lower.
• As a general guide, about 90% of orders score 0.1 to 4.99, 5% score 5 to 9.99, 3% score 10 to 29.99, and 2% score 30 to 99.99.

Gateway-Specific Guidance

The following guidance applies to specific Payment Gateways. For complete setup steps, see Payment Gateway Setup Guide.

PayPal

The error "This store appears to be sending invalid merchant account information to PayPal" comes from PayPal, not Absorb LMS. Confirm the following, and contact PayPal support if the error continues:

• PayPal is selected as a payment method and the store is in live mode.
• Supported Credit Cards is configured correctly.
• The Account Email Address exactly matches the primary email address on your PayPal account.

Stripe

Stripe Connect is a centrally managed gateway, so some changes require Absorb Support. Review the following behaviors:

• Contact Absorb Support to enable or change Stripe Connect, to accept EU payments that require 3DS, or to set up multiple currencies. Multiple currencies must be set up when Stripe Connect is first configured.
• Stripe shows a system-generated email address (in the format absorbuserID@absorb.com) instead of the purchaser's email. This is expected. Payment processing requires every customer email to be unique, while Absorb LMS does not, so Absorb LMS sends a unique placeholder address. The purchaser enters a separate billing email at checkout, and receipts are sent to that address. This cannot be changed in settings.
• If Stripe reports that sending card numbers directly to its Application Programming Interface (API) is unsafe, follow the steps in the Stripe section of the Payment Gateway Setup Guide.

Chase Paymentech

Chase Paymentech errors usually appear as "There was an unknown gateway error" or "Internal automatic decline." Review the following:

• Enter only the Merchant ID. Leave the Username and Password fields blank.
• Contact Chase and authorize our payment processing partner to submit transactions on behalf of your merchant account. This is the most commonly missed step. Absorb Support can provide the details Chase needs.
• Internal automatic decline comes from Chase's own risk checks. If the issue continues, Absorb Support can help coordinate a call between your organization, our payment processing partner, and Chase.

Moneris

Moneris uses separate systems for the United States and Canada, so a few settings must match your account:

• Set the Country in Store Information correctly, because it determines which Moneris system is used.
• Set 3D Secure Options to match whether 3DS is enabled on your Moneris account.
• Ask Moneris to enable AVS for your account. Without it, AVS errors are likely.
• When testing, use whole-number prices under $10.00 (for example, $9.00 rather than $8.99).

Authorize.net

Response reason code 103 usually means the API Login ID or Transaction Key does not match your Authorize.net account. Response reason code 87 usually means the Market Type on your Authorize.net merchant profile must be changed to eCommerce by Authorize.net support. 

For details, see the Authorize.net section of the Payment Gateway Setup Guide.

Learners Are Enrolled but Funds Are Not Received

If Learners are enrolled but the funds do not appear in your merchant account, check your Payment Gateway to see whether the transactions were authorized but not captured (settled). Authorized transactions that are never captured can expire. Contact Absorb Support with the affected Transaction IDs and dates.

Coupon Issues

Coupons are validated when a Learner applies them in the cart. Use the following table to identify why a Coupon is not working as expected. For configuration details, see Coupons.

To discount a group of Courses without requiring a code, consider creating a Course Bundle priced at the discounted amount.

Tax Issues

Absorb LMS uses separate tax configurations for payments processed through your Payment Gateway (Credit Card, PayPal, and PawaPay) and for manual payment methods (Check, Purchase Order, and Wire Transfer). Confirm that you are reviewing the correct set of Tax Rates for the payment method used. 

For configuration details, see Setting Up Tax Rates.

• Automatic Tax Rates are available for the USA, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. They are based on the purchaser's location and cannot be customized.
• Automatic Tax Rates still charge tax to tax-exempt purchasers, such as charities and schools. One workaround is a Coupon that offsets the tax for those purchasers. Keep in mind that only one Coupon can be applied per cart.
• Additional Tax Rates only apply when the purchaser's shipping address (or billing address, if no shipping address is entered) matches the rate's Type: Global, Country, Region, Local, or European Union.
• Manual payment Tax Rates are set by country and, optionally, by state or province. When Includes Country Tax is on, the state or province rate replaces the country rate instead of adding to it.
• Tax is calculated on the subtotal after discounts. There is no option for prices that include tax, so tax is added at checkout and shown as Estimated Tax.
• Tax rates display with two decimal places at checkout, but the full rate is used in the calculation. For example, a rate of 9.975% displays as 9.98%.

Manual Payments and Transaction Approval

Manual payment methods (Check, Purchase Order, and Wire Transfer) require an Admin to approve or decline each transaction. The Payment approval for enrollment setting in Manual Payment Settings determines when Learners get access.

Keep the following in mind when working with manual payments:

• Manual payment methods only appear when the cart total meets the Minimum Non-Credit Threshold.
• Approve and Decline take effect immediately, are not confirmed, and cannot be undone. To correct a mistake, enroll or unenroll the Learner manually. 
  • See How Do I Change the Approval Option for a Pending Transaction?
• Declining a transaction does not notify the Learner, so send them a message manually. 
  • See Why Didn't My User Get Notified That I Declined Their Transaction?
• Approve and Decline are not available for transactions that contain Subscriptions.
• Reports and the API do not record which Admin approved a transaction, so keep your own record if your organization requires one.
• Absorb LMS does not generate invoices for billing. The Purchase Order payment method can be used as a workaround for invoice-based billing.

Transactions, Refunds, and Receipts

The Transactions and Transaction Details reports, found in the E-Commerce menu of the AE, record purchase activity in Absorb LMS. They do not move money. 

For report details, see Transactions.

Refunds

Refunds must be processed outside Absorb LMS and then recorded in the Transactions report.

Refunds and voids made directly in your Payment Gateway are not synced back to Absorb LMS, so mark them as refunded manually. There is no void or cancel action in the Transactions report.

Reconciling Transactions

The Transactions Report reflects Absorb LMS records and is not tied to confirmed settlement data from your Payment Gateway. Always reconcile financial records against your gateway's reports. The following details help when comparing records:

• Transaction ID is the identifier assigned by your Payment Gateway, and Gateway Message shows the gateway's response.
• Transaction Date reflects when items were added to the cart, while Gateway Transaction Completed uses the time zone reported by your gateway.
• Transaction Status values are Not Started, In Progress, Pending Approval, Complete, Not Complete, Failed, Declined, and Completion With Errors. Refunded is a separate Yes or No value.

Receipts and Purchaser Emails

Purchase receipts are sent by Absorb LMS rather than by your Payment Gateway or our payment processing partner. If purchasers are not receiving receipts, review the following:

• Confirm that the receipt message templates are enabled. 
  • See Message Templates.
• Turn off your Payment Gateway's own email receipts to prevent duplicate receipts.
• Admins can open a copy of any receipt by selecting the transaction in the Transactions report and clicking Receipt.
• Learners can view and print past invoices from Purchase History in their Profile. 
  • See Purchase History for Learners.

Subscription Issues

Subscriptions have additional requirements because they rely on saved payment details and recurring billing. For setup and management, see E-Commerce Subscriptions.

• Subscriptions require Saved payment details & subscriptions and Administrators can configure subscriptions in the Payment Gateways section. Credit Card must be enabled as a payment method.
• Purchasers must be signed in. Guest checkout is not available for Subscriptions.
• Purchasing Subscriptions for others must be turned on separately in E-Commerce Settings.
• Coupons cannot be applied to carts that contain a Subscription.
• Learners who were assigned a Subscription by a purchaser cannot cancel it and do not see its pricing. The Credit Card tab in the Profile only appears for Learners who purchased a Subscription themselves.
• A purchaser's account cannot be deleted while Subscriptions they purchased for others are still active. The Subscriptions must expire or be transferred to another purchaser first.
• E-Commerce cannot be disabled while there are active Subscriptions.
• When a renewal payment fails, the charge is retried one and two days after the failure, followed by a three-day grace period before the Subscription expires. These intervals are not configurable.
• The Daily Billing Cycle charges live payments and should only be used for testing.

Public Dashboard and Deep Link Issues

Public Dashboards and deep links let external visitors browse and purchase content before they have an account. Review the following behaviors if visitors cannot find or reach your content. 

For link formats, see Deep Link Support.

• Some E-Commerce deep links, such as the Categories link, require the Public Dashboard to be enabled. AddToCart links do not.
• AddToCart links can add up to five Courses or Sessions, with one seat each. Absorb LMS checks the Course's Availability Rules before adding it to the cart.
• Deep links must match the Course's Enrollment Rules. For example, if a Course is only available to one Department, the link must include that Department's Globally Unique Identifier (GUID).
• Search engines do not index Public Dashboards, Course cards, or Subscription cards by default.
• To route visitors to a Department specific Public Dashboard, a dedicated URL is required. 
  • Contact Absorb to request one. 
  • See Department Templates: Public and Private Dashboards.

Separating Public and Internal Audiences

There is no single setting that hides public Courses from internal Users. To keep the two experiences separate, combine the following approaches:

• Create a separate Public Dashboard with its own branding.
• Use Enrollment Rules by Department, Group, or Role to keep internal Users out of public Courses.
• Share deep links with external Users that go directly to the public catalog.
• Test that internal Users land on the internal Dashboard and that external Users can browse through to checkout.

Permissions and Integrations

If an Admin cannot see E-Commerce settings or reports, or an integration is not receiving purchase data, review the following:

• Only System Admins can change E-Commerce Settings, because they are managed in Client Settings.
• E-Commerce permissions, such as View Transactions and View or Modify Coupons, appear in the E-Commerce section of the Role editor only when E-Commerce is enabled. Subscription permissions appear when Subscriptions are enabled. 
  • See Admin Roles & Permissions.
• The Transactions and Transaction Details reports require E-Commerce to be enabled and the View Transactions permission.
• Editing a Course's price requires permission to modify Enrollment Rules for that Course type.
• Webhooks do not currently include purchase or transaction events, though enrollment events are available. The API can retrieve transactions and approve or decline them.

When to Contact Absorb Support

Most E-Commerce issues come from Portal settings, Course settings, or Payment Gateway configuration, and can be resolved using the checks in this article. Contact Absorb Support for the following, and include the details listed in the first section of this article:

• Enabling or disabling E-Commerce on your Portal.
• Enabling or changing a centrally managed gateway, such as Stripe Connect or Adyen.
• Reviewing fraud protection blocks, adjusting the fraud score threshold, or allowlisting an IP address.
• reCAPTCHA errors that affect every purchaser.
• Coordinating with your Payment Gateway when it must authorize our payment processing partner.
• Learners who are enrolled but whose payments were not received.

For issues within your Payment Gateway account, such as declines, AVS rules, or merchant account settings, contact your Payment Gateway's support team. Share the settings described in the Payment Gateway Setup Guide so they can assist you.

More Information

This section contains links to other articles in our Knowledge Base that relate to this topic. If you have additional questions not covered in our documentation, please work with your Client Success representative.

• Getting Started with E-Commerce
• Configuring E-Commerce
• Enable E-Commerce on a Course
• Payment Gateway Setup Guide
• Supported Payment Gateways
• Customer Accounts for E-Commerce
• Multi-Seat Purchases
• E-Commerce Subscriptions
• Coupons
• Transactions