How your customers can pay

Card and Pay by Bank through Stripe, or a plain bank transfer. What they see depends on what the quote offered and what you have set up.

The three routes

• Card: needs Stripe connected. The money goes to your own Stripe account.
• Pay by bank: also through Stripe, approved in the customer’s banking app with no card number typed. Stripe switches it on once your account is eligible. Not offered above £10,000.
• Bank transfer: free. Your sort code and account number are printed on the invoice, the emails and the payment page, with the invoice number as the reference. Fill them in under Settings › Payments.

Which routes a quote offers is set under How they can pay on the quote, starting from the switches on Settings › Payments. Offer none, and the invoice asks the customer to contact you to pay.

What the customer gets

When you confirm the order, the confirmation email carries a Pay £X now button and the bank details, with the invoice PDF attached. That is the invoice reaching them; it takes its number and its due date at that moment. The invoice’s own email is only sent when you ask for it, from the invoice or the job. On credit terms with Send the invoice now too unticked, the confirmation carries no money at all and the invoice waits as a draft until you send it.

The link opens their invoice page: the amount, Pay £X by card and Pay £X by bank if offered, the Pay by bank transfer panel if offered, and Download PDF.

When it counts as paid

A card payment is marked paid within seconds of Stripe confirming it. A Pay by bank payment shows as on its way until the customer’s bank releases it, which is usually straight away but is the bank’s call; nothing is marked paid until then, and if it fails afterwards both of you are told. A bank transfer never ticks itself off: when it lands, mark it paid.

Once paid, the page reads “Paid — £X received. Thank you!” and the invoice email becomes a receipt, which you can send with Email receipt.