This article will explain the process of creating and managing payment requests in Cashflow.io
Overview:
- Manually creating a payment request
- Recurring payment request plans
- Managing your payment requests
Creating payment requests allows you to collect payments from your contacts. Through the available features, you can customize the contact's approval process and pre-schedule transactions.
When sending your very first payment request, there may be an additional Compliance Review required before the request can be processed. This review takes less than one business day. Depending on the transaction, you may be required to provide documentation that verifies the transaction (invoice/bill document).
Before creating and sending a payment request to someone, it's generally easiest to add them as a contact in Cashflow.io first. For contact from whom you will be receiving payment requests, you do not need to specify a Payment Method while adding them as a contact.
Manually creating a payment request
To manually create a payment request:
- Go to the Home Page
- Select Receive Payment
- Select Request Payment
- Enter the request details, including:
- Amount enter the amount of the payment request. The amount will always be in your base currency.
- Offer Payment Terms - Offer your customers a Payment Plan via multiple installments, with or without interest fees. Customers can pay the full balance right away, or accept your extended payment terms.
- Early Payment Discount - ****Encourage your customers to pay faster by offering them a discount if they pay sooner.
- Customer Details - Enter the customer's name, email, and SMS number (optional).
- File & Document Attachment - Choose to send a file attached to the receive payment request
- Automated Collections - Automatically send payment reminders to your customer at the interval you choose
- Send Request.
Once completed, an email notification will be queued and then sent to your contact informing them of the payment request.
Recurring payment request plans
Using a recurring payment plan allows you to pre-schedule payment requests on a recurring basis for your contacts.
Payment requests can be set to recur on a daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis or a custom interval of any of those options (e.g. every, 15 days, every 3 weeks, every 6 months, etc.). Recurring payment requests can have a designated end date or occur indefinitely.
To create new plan, select add new plan under the "Offer Payment Terms" section when creating a new send payment request.
Managing your payment requests
Once a payment request is created, it will be visible in the Receivables History list on your Receive Payments tab with the current status. For recurring payment requests, only the next payment will appear in the Receivables History list.
Selecting a transaction in the Receivables History list allows you to view and edit certain details of that transaction. Different options are available depending on the transaction's current status:
- Resend the payment request list
- Cancel a recurring plan for the Payer
- See the progress of a contact's bank account verification
Cancelling a payment request
A payment request may be canceled at any point before it is accepted by your contact. For more information on this process, please see Cancelling Payment Requests.
Changing a contact's email
It is not recommended to change the email address of any contact you send payment requests to. When a contact accepts a payment request, the bank account they use is verified by their email address. When the contact's email address is changed, future payment requests cannot be accepted with the initially verified bank account. Instead, the contact will need to accept the payment request by connecting a brand new bank account.
If you need to change your contact's email address. It's recommended to delete the contact and add a new contact with the new email address. As well as deleting the payment request and creating a new request with the new email.