Taking a payment and sending a payment link

Charge a customer's saved card or bank account from Payments, or email, text or show them a link to pay on your branded pay page, and follow the link on the Requests tab.

This article is being updated.

From Payments you can take a one-off payment in two ways: charge a payment method the customer already has on file, or email, text or show them a link so they pay on your own pay page. Both need your business's Payments account to be set up and active first. See Setting up payments - card and bank debit.

You see Take a payment at the top of Payments, and Send a payment link on the Requests tab, if your role can take payments.

Take a payment

Only charge a saved card or bank account when your customer has agreed to that charge.

1. Open Payments and select Take a payment.
2. Under Customer, search for the person or organisation. An organisation shows its name, then (organisation) - via and the person it's billed through. If they aren't in your contacts yet, select + New contact to add the person, or + New organisation to add the organisation and then the person you bill through. Once you save, they're picked for you. Your role doesn't need access to Contacts to search or add a customer here.
3. If your role can see the price book, you can pick an Item from it. This fills in the line, and you can still change it.
4. Enter the Amount the customer pays, tax included, and a Description - appears on the receipt.
5. Pick the Sales tax rate, or No sales tax. The Tax invoice box shows the invoice Prevarro issues for this payment, on your own invoice numbering.
6. Under How to collect, pick the method to charge. The customer's default method is picked for you, marked DEFAULT. A card close to expiring shows EXPIRES and its date, and a method that has been failing shows FAILING.
7. Select Charge now. Once the line is filled in, the button shows the amount it will charge.

The payment is submitted and appears on the Transactions tab. It shows as Processing until the payment provider answers, then Succeeded or Failed.

If you see We couldn't confirm the charge - press Charge again to check; it won't charge twice., select the charge button again. It checks the same payment rather than charging a second time.

If the customer has No payment methods on file, or would rather pay themselves, select Send a payment link instead. The line you've entered carries over to the payment link.

Send a payment link

1. Open Payments, go to the Requests tab and select Send a payment link. Or start from Take a payment and select Send a payment link instead.
2. Fill in the Customer, the Item if you want one, the Amount, the description and the Sales tax rate, as for a payment.
3. Under Expires in, choose how long the link works. After that it stops working and the request shows as Expired.
4. Choose how to send it, then select the button of the same name:
   • Email it sends the link to the customer's email address.
   • Text it sends the link to the customer's mobile. You see this if your business's texting is on.
   • Show QR code puts a code on your screen for the customer to scan with their phone camera. It shows no link text, and the link itself isn't stored anywhere. Closing it and showing it again makes a new link.

Prevarro issues the invoice for it straight away. A choice with no address on the customer's record says so and can't be picked - add the address to their contact record, or ask someone whose role can open Contacts to add it, or show a QR code, which needs no address.

If a send can't go, Prevarro says why and the request stays made, with its invoice issued. Choose another way there and then, or close and use Send the link again on its row. Pressing again in the same window never raises a second invoice.

Each send makes a new link, and the one sent before stops working.

What your customer sees

The link opens your branded pay page. It shows what they owe and lets them choose how to pay, from the payment methods you've turned on in Payments → Settings. They confirm the amount and select Pay.

To see the page as your customer does, find a request marked Sent or Viewed on the Requests tab and select Preview pay page from its menu.

Follow a payment link

The Requests tab lists every payment link you've sent, newest first, with the customer, amount, status and when it expires. A request moves through these statuses:

• Sent - the request is live. Link history shows how its link went, and it reads empty if none has gone.
• Viewed - the customer has opened the pay page.
• Paid - they've paid. Select View payment from the row's menu to open the payment.
• Expired - the link ran out before it was paid.
• Cancelled - you cancelled it.

From a request's menu, if your role can take payments:

• Cancel payment request stops a link that hasn't been paid. The link stops working straight away, and the invoice it raised is voided if nothing has been paid on it. You can't cancel while a payment on it is still going through.
• Send the link again emails, texts or shows a new link for a request marked Sent or Viewed. The earlier link stops working.
• Re-issue payment request sends a new link for an expired or cancelled request, by whichever way you choose.

To see how a link went out, select Link history from the request's menu. It lists Sent by email, Sent by text and Shown as QR code, each with its date and time, and never the link. A send that couldn't go reads Email not sent or Text not sent. A send still waiting to go reads Email queued to send or Text queued to send, and the link before it keeps working until it goes. If your role can't open invoices, an email reads Email queued to send, since whether it arrived isn't something your role can see.

A request raised when a quote was accepted pays through the quote's own link, so Send the link again says no new link is made for it.

If something goes wrong

If a payment fails, or a bank debit seems stuck, select Why? beside it. See Why did a payment fail?.