Request a payment or send an invoice

When you've quoted a job or booked a visit, you can ask the customer to pay online. They get a short email from your business, or you send them the link yourself. They pay by card on Stripe's checkout, and the money goes straight into your own Stripe account. We take no cut.

You can ask for one amount, like "Patio deposit, $500", or send an invoice with line items: several things on one bill, or hours at a rate. An invoice gets a number, can carry sales tax, a due date and notes, and your customer can look it over and save a PDF.

Before you start: connect Stripe

Payments go to your Stripe account, so it has to be connected first. It's the same connection the online store and paid bookings use, so if you've connected Stripe for those, you're ready.

Otherwise, click Payments in the left menu, then Connect Stripe, and follow Stripe's steps. Only the account owner can connect it. See Connect Stripe.

Ask someone who wrote to you or booked

1. Open their message in Inbox, or their booking in Bookings.
2. Click Request a payment.
3. Enter the Amount and What it's for, like "Patio deposit". They see these in the email and at checkout.
4. Leave Email it to them on, and click Send the request.

The request then shows on the message or booking, with where it stands: Waiting until they pay, then Paid.

Ask anyone else

Click Payments in the left menu. Under Request a payment, enter their name and email, the amount and what it's for, and click Send the request.

Send an invoice with line items

1. Click Payments in the left menu, and under Request a payment enter their name and email. (Or start from a message in Inbox or a booking, as above: there's no button to click first, the form is already open.)
2. Turn on Add line items.
3. For each line, type what it is, the quantity, a unit word if you like, and the price of one. For 3.5 hours at $80, enter "Consulting", 3.5, "hours" and 80. The line's total shows beside it. Click Add a line for the next, up to 30 lines.
4. If you charge sales tax, type your rate under Sales tax, like 8.25. Each line then has a Taxable box, on to start with. Untick it for things you don't charge tax on, like labor. The subtotal, tax and total update as you type.
5. Pick a Due date if you want one, and add Notes, like your payment terms.
6. Click Send the invoice.

Your customer gets an email with the invoice number, the due date and the total, and a View invoice and pay button. It opens the invoice: your business details, each line, the tax and the total, with a Pay button and a Download PDF button. You can leave Title (optional) blank, and the invoice is named by its number, like INV-0001.

Invoice numbers count up for your business and are never reused. A request for one amount has no number.

An invoice is paid in one payment. Paying half now and half later on the same invoice isn't available yet. To split a bill, make two requests, like a deposit now and the balance later.

Save your usual tax rate, terms and address

Under Payments, open Invoice details. Type your usual Sales tax rate, how many days until an invoice is due, notes to print on every invoice, and your details: your address, phone or tax ID, printed under your business name. Click Save invoice details. Each new invoice starts from these, and you can change any of them on the invoice itself.

Due dates and reminders

If you pick a due date and send the invoice by email, Remind them on the due date is on. They get one reminder email that morning, from about 9 a.m. your time, saying the invoice is due today, if it hasn't been paid. It counts as one of the 3 emails a request can have. If you only copy the link, no reminder is sent.

An unpaid invoice past its due date shows Overdue in your list, and in Needs you on your dashboard. We don't email you about it.

Send the link yourself

Turn off Email it to them and click Make the link. Click Copy link and paste it into a text message or your own email. The link opens a page with what it's for, the amount and a Pay button, or the whole invoice.

Every waiting request has Copy link in the list too.

Their language

If your site has a Spanish version, choose Their language. Customers who wrote to you or booked from your Spanish pages start with Spanish. The email, the payment page, the invoice and its PDF, and Stripe's checkout are all in that language. What you typed, like line descriptions and notes, stays as you wrote it.

When they pay

You get an email saying who paid and how much, and the request shows Paid. The invoice page then shows Paid and the date, and your customer can still download the PDF. Stripe emails them a receipt. Stripe pays the money out to your bank on your usual payout schedule.

If they somehow pay twice (say, from two browser tabs), the second payment is refunded on its own.

Remind them, change it, or cancel it

In Payments, each waiting request has:

• Email it again: sends it once more, marked as a reminder. A request can be emailed 3 times in all, the first email and the due-date reminder included.
• Cancel request (or Cancel invoice): the link stops taking payments. The invoice page shows it as canceled. Only a waiting request can be canceled; to give money back after it's paid, refund it in Stripe (see below).

An invoice can't be edited once it's made, because your customer may already have it open. If something is wrong, cancel it and make a new one. A canceled invoice keeps its number, so there's never a gap you can't explain.

Refunds

Refunds are made in your Stripe dashboard: find the payment, and choose Refund. A full refund shows as Refunded in Payments; part of one shows as "Paid, $100.00 refunded". See Connect Stripe.

Limits

• From $1 to $20,000 a request. For an invoice, that's the total with tax.
• Up to 30 lines on an invoice, and a quantity from 0.01 to 9,999.99.
• Up to 50 requests a day.
• Not here yet: partial payments or a deposit and balance on one invoice, discounts, and invoices that repeat. For now, make two requests, or use invoicing in your Stripe dashboard or your accounting software.

What it costs

Payment requests and invoices come with the Business plan, the Payment requests add-on ($2 a month) or the Online store add-on. See The Business plan. Stripe charges its usual card fee on each payment; we take nothing.

Related: Connect Stripe, Follow up on leads, Bookings, Ask customers for reviews.