Getting paid

Your client receives an invoice link with the amount due and the payment methods you accept. Online payments are confirmed through Stripe; cash and checks are recorded by you. This guide explains how payments, pending bank transfers, and refunds affect the balance you see.

The public invoice page

Sending an invoice emails the client’s primary contact a link, with the PDF attached. The page shows the invoice, the Balance at the top, and a How to pay card listing the methods you’ve turned on under Settings, Payments. Methods are read live from your account. Turn on ACH tomorrow and every open invoice offers it.

Online methods (Credit card, Bank transfer (ACH), Cash App Pay) sit under Pay online with a button that reads Pay $X. Pressing it opens Stripe Checkout on your own Stripe account. If you pass processing fees to clients, the card shows the invoice balance, the processing fee, and the total to pay before they click. See Payments and Stripe.

The button always charges the current balance, so a client who paid half sees only the half that’s left.

Cash or check

If Cash / Check is on, the page shows a Cash or check card with the instructions you typed in Settings. The client can press Report payment sent, add an optional amount and note, and press Send notice. You get an email and the invoice’s activity gains a payment notice line.

A notice isn’t a payment. The balance doesn’t move until you press Record payment on the invoice and fill in Amount, Date, Payment method (check, bank transfer, wire, cash, credit card recorded manually, other), an optional Reference number such as the check number, and Notes. Save payment drops the balance.

What marks an invoice paid

An invoice becomes paid when its cleared payments cover the total. A Stripe payment that clears, or a manual payment you record that closes the balance, both flip the status. A paid invoice stops showing the How to pay card. So does a written-off one, which shows a banner saying it’s no longer payable.

Partial payments

Any payment can be less than the total. The invoice stays sent, the public page adds a Payment history table and a Balance due line, and the next Pay button charges what remains.

ACH takes a few days

Card and Cash App Pay payments clear at once. A bank transfer lands as pending. Both your invoice page and the public one show Payment pending clearance with the amount and date, and the balance doesn’t drop yet. When Stripe confirms the funds (usually 3 to 5 business days), the payment succeeds, the invoice marks paid if the balance is covered, you get an “Invoice paid” email, and the client gets a receipt. If the transfer bounces, the payment shows Failed, the activity log records why, and you get an email.

Clearing depends on the payment_intent.succeeded webhook; see Payments and Stripe.

Refunds

Stripe payments show a Refund link in the invoice’s Payments table. Refunds are full only, and they return the whole charge, including any processing fee the client covered. Stripe keeps its own fee. If the refund closes a paid invoice, the invoice reopens as sent.

Manual payments can’t be refunded through Stripe. Use the trash icon on the row to remove the payment instead.

Receipts

When a Stripe payment succeeds, PayPolka emails a PDF receipt to the client’s primary contact on its own. To send one by hand, for a cash payment say, press Send receipt on the payment row.

Reminders

Reminders are an account setting under Settings, Payments: a master switch, Send reminder emails for unpaid invoices, and a Reminder schedule (days) field. The default is -3, 0, 3, 7, 14: three days before due, the due date, and three, seven, and fourteen days after. Each invoice also has its own switch, Send automatic payment reminders for this invoice, on by default.

A job runs each morning at 9 and emails the primary contact once per offset per invoice. Only sent invoices get reminders. Paid and written-off ones don’t.