Get paid online: Pay on your invoices

Once it's set up, your customers can pay you three ways (Settings › Payments lists them too):

• Card or bank, from the invoice: every invoice email and reminder links to the invoice online, with a Pay button. Cards, or a bank account: ACH in the US, pre-authorized debit in Canada.
• Automatically, on recurring invoices: your customer saves a card or bank account once, and each new invoice is charged on its due date. See Automatic payments for recurring invoices.
• Over the phone: a customer reads you their card and you charge it on the invoice. See Take a card payment over the phone.

Stripe charges its standard fee on each payment (bank payments cost less than cards); TallyPip adds nothing on top.

A customer in another currency (with Multicurrency) pays in theirs, by card. Stripe converts it into your currency (with its conversion fee), and TallyPip records what reached your Stripe balance, with any exchange gain or loss.

Set it up

Go to Settings › [Payments](/settings/payments) and choose one:

• I already use Stripe: press Connect my Stripe account, sign in at Stripe, pick your account and agree. It's the same account, balance, bank and payout schedule; nothing to re-enter. Money already in it becomes an opening balance in your books.
• I'm new to Stripe: press Set up a Stripe account. You'll set up a free account on Stripe's secure pages (about 10 minutes): Stripe checks who you are and asks which bank account to pay into.

Setting up or connecting a Stripe account means you agree to Stripe's own agreement (the Stripe Services Agreement) and to the online invoice payments terms in TallyPip's Terms of Use. In short: Stripe processes the payments into your own Stripe account, TallyPip never holds your money, and as the seller you look after refunds and disputes.

Stripe's pages ask what any payments account must by law: the business (in the US its EIN, or your Social Security number if you work for yourself; in Canada its Business Number, or your Social Insurance Number if you work for yourself), the person responsible (name, date of birth, address) and the bank account for payouts. You give them to Stripe only; TallyPip never sees them. No credit card is needed: setting up is free.

Left Stripe's pages before finishing? That's fine: nothing is charged and nothing is lost. Settings › Payments shows what Stripe still needs, with Finish setting up with Stripe to carry on where you stopped. Your payouts, recent payments and Stripe account show there once Stripe says you're ready.

Changed your mind before finishing?

While a new Stripe account isn't finished and nothing has been paid through it, Settings › Payments gives you two ways out:

• Connect my Stripe account instead: you already have Stripe after all. Sign in at Stripe and pick your account; it takes the new one's place.
• Cancel this setup: go back to the two choices (I already use Stripe or I'm new to Stripe), as if you'd never started. Press Cancel setup to confirm.

Either way, the account you started stays in Stripe unused, with nothing in it. You don't need to do anything with it. Once Stripe says the account is ready, or anything has been paid through it, these choices go away: use Turn off online payments instead.

When Stripe says you're ready, the invoice your customer opens from every invoice email and payment reminder (See and pay it online) has a Pay button. You can also copy the link from the invoice page into a text or chat (how the link works). Your customer pays on Stripe's secure page, by card or from their bank account: ACH for businesses in the United States, pre-authorized debit for businesses in Canada (see Bank payments in Canada below). Card and bank details go to Stripe only.

What it costs

Stripe charges its standard fee on each payment, and you'll see it in your Stripe Dashboard. TallyPip adds nothing on top. Online payments work for businesses in the United States (US dollars) and Canada (Canadian dollars).

What TallyPip records for you

• The payment: the invoice is marked paid, and the money goes into an account called Stripe balance (Chart of accounts, under Cash and bank). That's money Stripe is holding for you.
• Stripe's fee: an expense in Payment processing fees, taken from Stripe balance.
• Each payout: when Stripe sends money to your bank, it's a transfer from Stripe balance to the bank account you chose in Settings › Payments. It isn't income again.

When the payout shows up in Bank transactions, TallyPip suggests Match with "Your Stripe payout". Press Match, not Post: the sale was already counted when your customer paid.

Does your Stripe account also take payments outside TallyPip (your website, other apps)? TallyPip reads what's in each payout and records that part, with its fees and refunds, in the income account you choose under Other Stripe activity goes to, so the payout still matches your bank to the cent.

Bank payments take a few working days to clear (ACH in the US; pre-authorized debit in Canada, usually about 5 business days). The invoice shows the payment is on its way, and it's added once it clears. If the bank turns it down, the invoice stays open and your customer can pay again. Choose which ways to pay in your Stripe Dashboard › Settings › Payment methods.

Bank payments in Canada (pre-authorized debit)

For a business in Canada, customers can pay from a Canadian bank account by pre-authorized debit (often called PAD). It's the Canadian version of ACH, and Stripe's fee for it is usually lower than for a card.

1. 1Your customer presses Pay and, on Stripe's page, picks the bank account option.
2. 2They sign in to their bank to confirm the account straight away, or type in their institution, transit and account numbers. If they type them, Stripe sends two small deposits to the account within 1 to 2 business days and emails them a link to confirm the amounts.
3. 3They read and accept the pre-authorized debit agreement Stripe shows. For Pay it allows one debit: this invoice. Stripe emails them a copy of the agreement, and a notice when the money is taken, from your Stripe account (with your business's name).
4. 4Back on your invoice, it says the payment is on its way. It's added to the invoice, with Stripe's fee, when it clears, usually about 5 business days later.

• New Stripe accounts set up through TallyPip ("I'm new to Stripe") ask Stripe for pre-authorized debit by themselves. Accounts set up before this was added ask Stripe for it the next time you open Settings › Payments.
• I already use Stripe: turn on Canadian pre-authorized debits (under Bank debits) in your own Stripe Dashboard › Settings › Payment methods.
• Customers outside Canada can't use it: it needs a Canadian bank account. They pay by card.

If the bank option doesn't show, or a bank payment fails

• No bank option on Stripe's page: in your Stripe Dashboard › Settings › Payment methods, check Canadian pre-authorized debits (under Bank debits) is on. Stripe may also still be reviewing your account for it: Settings › Payments shows anything Stripe still needs.
• The payment has been "on its way" for days: if your customer typed their bank numbers, they need to confirm the two small deposits from Stripe's email. The payment starts once they do. If they don't within 10 days, it's cancelled and the invoice stays open.
• It didn't go through (not enough money, account closed, debits not allowed on the account): the invoice stays open and your customer can pay again, by card or another account. Nothing is recorded in your books.
• A customer disputes a debit with their bank: Canadian banks let people dispute a pre-authorized debit for up to 90 days. Stripe tells you in your Stripe Dashboard and TallyPip flags it on the invoice, as for any dispute.

When a customer pays

• You're emailed: the owners and admins get an email each time a customer pays an invoice online or an automatic payment goes through ("Oak Street Dental paid $411.35 on invoice INV-0042"), with what's still owed. Not for a card you took over the phone. Untick it under Payment options in Settings › Payments.
• Part payments, if you allow them: tick Let customers pay part of an invoice online under Payment options. The online invoice then has Pay a different amount: your customer types how much (at least $0.50, up to what's owed), and the rest stays on the invoice for later.

Refunds and disputes

1. 1Refund the payment in your Stripe Dashboard (all of it or part).
2. 2TallyPip hears about it from Stripe and records a refund receipt paid from Stripe balance for you, with the invoice's customer. It takes the invoice's income and sales tax down in the same proportions, and totals exactly what was refunded.
3. 3The invoice says so ("$40.00 was refunded to the customer through Stripe…"), with a link to the refund receipt. A second refund on the same payment gets its own receipt.

Stripe keeps its fee on a refunded payment, so the fee stays in your books. If TallyPip can't record a refund for you (for example the refund is more than the invoice), it says so on the invoice and in Settings › Payments: record it as a refund receipt paid from Stripe balance yourself. Disputes are flagged the same way: answer them in your Stripe Dashboard. A payment made online can't be removed in TallyPip, because the money really arrived.

If a customer pays an invoice that was already paid another way, the extra is refunded to them automatically.

A customer on the phone wants to pay by card? Owners and admins press Charge a card on the invoice and type it in on Stripe's page. See Take a card payment over the phone.

Recurring invoices can be paid automatically: your customer saves their card or bank account once, and each new invoice is charged on its due date. See Automatic payments for recurring invoices.

Turning it off

In Settings › Payments, Turn off online payments takes Pay off your invoices online, including links already sent (your customers can still see and print them). Your Stripe account, its money and payouts stay yours. You can turn it back on any time, and Pay comes back on the same links. Disconnecting TallyPip from your Stripe Dashboard turns it off too.