We are using **Magento EE 1.13.0.2** with the **PayPal Website Payments Standard** payment method. Unfortunately it's not possible to set an order status for paid PayPal orders in the backend.

We need to set a custom order status when the order has been paid successfully (and not partial). Tutorials to modify the PayPal order status seem to be outdated, wrong or ugly hacks.

From what I gathered:

* the payment updates would be handled by PayPal IPN.
* There is a method `Mage_Paypal_Model_Ipn::_registerPaymentCapture()` responsible for "Process completed payment (either full or partial)".
* In `Mage_Paypal_Model_Ipn::_registerTransaction()` the request from PayPal is analysed and the payment status is compared to `Mage_Paypal_Model_Info::PAYMENTSTATUS_COMPLETED`.

To be honest I'm not sure what to do with this information. I may rewrite `Mage_Paypal_Model_Ipn::_registerTransaction()` and just add my code:

    // paid
    case Mage_Paypal_Model_Info::PAYMENTSTATUS_COMPLETED:
        $this->_registerPaymentCapture(true);
        // my code here
        break;

Of course an event observer (e.g. for one of the order or order state events) would be much nicer but I'm not sure if there is a 100% reliable way to catch that one-time event when the order gets paid completely via PayPal.

Any ideas?

**Update**

We chose to modify our order status flow and don't need to modify the status anymore. I'll leave the question open for some time in case somebody wants to answer it.