# Sandbox: inventory not decrementing + SearchOrders missing orders, refunds PENDING, PayOrder payment remains APPROVED **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2026, 12:08am UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/sandbox-inventory-not-decrementing-searchorders-missing-orders-refunds-pending-payorder-payment-remains-approved/27987 "2026-09-25T00:08:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aok62233](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@aok62233](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/aok62233)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 12:08am UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/sandbox-inventory-not-decrementing-searchorders-missing-orders-refunds-pending-payorder-payment-remains-approved/27987/1 "2026-09-25T00:08:19Z")
Hi Square team, We are testing a customer ordering integration in Square Sandbox and encountered several related issues during testing on September 23–24, 2026 using API version `2026-08-19`. Our primary blocker is **tracked inventory not decrementing for API-created itemized orders**. Our catalog variation has `track_inventory=true`, is sellable/stockable, and had an initial quantity of 20. The same location and exact catalog variation were used throughout the order, payment, and inventory flow. We tested both delayed-capture and immediate-payment flows, including: - Creating an itemized order using the tracked catalog variation - Successfully completing/capturing its payment - Completing pickup fulfillment - In a separate test, explicitly completing both the fulfillment and order Despite ordering quantity 2, inventory remained exactly **20** , even approximately 17 hours later. Inventory change history showed only our initial physical count and its inferred adjustment, with no sale-related adjustment. We have intentionally **not added a manual inventory decrement** , because we do not want to double-decrement inventory if Square is expected to handle this automatically. We also observed three other Sandbox discrepancies during the same testing period: **1. SearchOrders:** Orders remain retrievable directly by Order ID, but do not appear in `SearchOrders`. Removing our source filter still did not return the affected orders. **2. Refunds:** Partial and full refunds against `COMPLETED` payments were accepted but remained `PENDING` approximately 17 hours later. **3. PayOrder:** We created a payment with `autocomplete=false`, which correctly entered `APPROVED`. After calling `PayOrder`, the order became `COMPLETED` with zero amount due, but the linked payment continued to return `APPROVED` rather than `COMPLETED`. We noticed other developers have reported similar **SearchOrders and PENDING-refund Sandbox behavior around September 23–24** , so we are wondering whether there is currently a broader Sandbox issue. Could Square please clarify: 1. Is there a known Sandbox incident currently affecting Orders/SearchOrders, refunds, payment-state processing, inventory processing, or related asynchronous jobs? 2. Could such an incident explain why our tracked inventory is not receiving a sale adjustment? 3. If not, what step is missing from our lifecycle for automatic tracked-inventory deduction? 4. Why can our orders be retrieved directly by ID but not returned by SearchOrders? 5. What event/state should we await before considering a refund successfully completed? 6. Is it expected for `PayOrder` to complete an order while its linked payment remains `APPROVED`? 7. Are there any Sandbox application permissions, seller settings, catalog settings, or account configuration we should verify? Our inventory-tracked customer checkout implementation is currently paused pending clarification. We have retained the affected Sandbox order IDs, payment IDs, refund IDs, location/catalog IDs, timestamps, reproduction details, and sanitized test evidence and can provide them to a Square team member if needed. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![jaeha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ebca7d/32.png) [@jaeha](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/jaeha)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 6:48pm UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/sandbox-inventory-not-decrementing-searchorders-missing-orders-refunds-pending-payorder-payment-remains-approved/27987/3 "2026-09-25T18:48:34Z")
Welcome to the Developer Forum! Thanks for the detailed explanation & questions. We are currently experiencing some issues with our sandbox environment. - Tracked inventory: A tracked catalog variation should decrement automatically after its itemized order is paid/completed. Your described lifecycle appears correct, so please don’t add a manual decrement, as that could later double-decrement inventory. - SearchOrders: This was fixed (successfully created order can be retrieved from `SearchOrder` or via dashboard) as of earlier this morning and the fix is from Sept 24th and onwards. We did not do a backfill so some data prior to this date still would not show up. - Refunds: Refunds can remain `PENDING`; only `COMPLETED` indicates success. Monitor `refund.updated` or poll `GetPaymentRefund`. - PayOrder: `PayOrder` should complete the approved delayed-capture payment. Again, these issues are all noted and the team is looking into it. In the meanwhile, we recommend testing refund flows in a separate free production account using `CASH` or `EXTERNAL` tender types. Production accounts are free and unlimited, and refund lifecycle transitions work correctly there.