Send a payment link

A payment link lets a customer pay you by card on your payment provider's own secure page, without a cart. You can use it in two ways:

• Collect the balance of an order. After you edit the items of an order or merge orders, the order can show a Balance due. Send the customer a link for that amount.
• Ask a customer for a payment that is not an order. A deposit, a fee or an invoice you settle by card. You type an amount and what it is for.

A payment link does not charge anyone by itself. The customer opens the link and pays on the provider page. The order, or your records, change only when the provider confirms the payment.

Send a payment link for an order balance

1. Open the order in the Orders list and open its Summary.
2. In the Balance due banner, press Send payment link.
3. Check the email address. Leave Send by email now ticked to email the link, or untick it and copy the link to send it yourself (WhatsApp, a text message).
4. Press Create and send.

The amount is the balance of the order. You cannot type a different amount. If the customer has not paid anything yet, the link asks for the full total, less any gift card already used.

The Order History shows when the link was created, when it was paid and when it was cancelled. When the customer pays, the balance on the order is cleared. Paying the balance of an order that was already paid does not count the sale a second time in your reports.

Ask a customer for a payment (no order)

1. Open the Customers list and tick one customer.
2. Press Request payment.
3. Enter the amount, in your store currency, and what the payment is for. The customer sees the reason on the payment page and in the email.
4. Press Create and send.

The requests you sent to a customer, with their status, appear in that customer's card under Payment requests.

A payment request is not an order. It has no products, does not touch your inventory and is not counted in your order reports or your revenue figures from orders. When the customer pays, you get an email. If you need to refund it, do it in your payment provider's dashboard, not in Brainerce.

What the customer sees

The customer gets an email with the amount and a Pay securely button, or the link you sent yourself. The page shows your store name, the amount and the reason. Pressing Pay securely opens the provider's payment page. Card details are entered there and never reach Brainerce or your store.

The link works for 14 days. After that, or once it is paid or cancelled, the page says the link is no longer active and the customer can ask you for a new one.

The button is missing

The Send payment link button and the Request payment action appear only when your payment provider supports payment links and you are allowed to change orders (or edit customers). Today that is Stripe. If your store uses another provider, or no provider is connected, you will not see them, and you collect the money yourself and press Mark balance as paid on the order. See Payment methods.

You also do not see them while payments are paused for your store.

What changes and what does not

• One link per order. Creating a new link for an order cancels the one that was still waiting, so the customer is never asked twice.
• The link cancels itself if the balance changes. If you edit the items again, merge the order, mark the balance as paid or record a refund by hand, the open link is cancelled. Send a new one for the new amount.
• Cancel a link yourself with Cancel link in the banner or in the customer's card. A link that was already paid cannot be cancelled.
• A paid order, a cancelled order, a refunded order or an imported order has no payment link. Orders that came from Shopify or WooCommerce cannot be charged from Brainerce.
• If the customer pays after you cancelled the link, the money is kept and recorded, you get an alert, and nothing on the order changes. Check it in your payment provider's dashboard and refund it or settle it by hand.
• The customer cannot pay a different amount. The amount is fixed when you create the link.
• Paying in parts is not supported. One link is one payment.

You can also ask the assistant (BOBO) to send a payment link. It shows you the amount and who it goes to first, and nothing is created until you say yes.