Card Payment Page
What your customer sees when they open a card payment link: the amount to pay, paying by card or PayPal, saving their card, and the messages shown once a link is paid, can't be used or can't be found.
When your customer opens a card payment link, whether from a text, an email or the Pay now link on an invoice, they land on a simple payment page for your business. It works on any phone or computer, and they don't need an account or a password to use it.
What the Customer Sees
- Your logo or business name: At the top of the page, using the logo saved in Organisation Information. The page ends with Powered by Work Planner.
- Heading: Pay [your business name].
- Amount to pay: Worked out when the page opens. For a link that asks for what the customer owes, anything they have paid another way since you sent it has already come off.
- For: The description you gave the link, or Payment for and the service name when you left it empty. A Pay now link from an invoice shows Invoice and the invoice reference, with the reference on its own Invoice row as well.
- Secure payment note: Under the ways to pay, a line names the provider handling the payment, for example Your payment is handled securely by Stripe and PayPal, and says your business never sees the card details.
Paying by Card
How the customer enters their card depends on which provider your business uses for online card payments.
- Stripe: The customer taps the pay button, for example Pay £25.00 by card, and enters their card on Stripe's own secure checkout page. Once they have paid, Stripe sends them back to a confirmation page. If they leave Stripe's page without paying, they come back to the payment page.
- Square: Square's card form sits on the payment page itself. The customer enters their card and taps the pay button with the amount on it.
- PayPal: When PayPal is connected, its buttons appear under the card option after the word or, so the customer can pay through PayPal instead. When PayPal takes your card payments, the card option is PayPal's own card fields, for the name on the card, the card number, the expiry date and the security code, with PayPal's buttons below. When PayPal is your only way to take payments online and doesn't take cards, the page shows just the PayPal buttons.
Whichever they use, the customer's bank may ask them to confirm the payment, for example in their banking app, before it goes through.
Card Details Go Straight to the Provider
The customer types their card details into Stripe's, Square's or PayPal's own secure fields, so the details go straight to the provider. Neither you nor Work Planner ever sees them, and Work Planner never stores card numbers. When a customer saves a card, Work Planner keeps only the provider's reference to it and what is needed to show it, such as the card type, the last four digits and the expiry date.
Saving a Card for Next Time
A box sits with the card option: Save my card with [your business name] for future payments. Saving the card is entirely the customer's choice, so the box always starts unticked. If they tick it and pay by card, the card is kept for future payments they agree to, and the wording they agreed to is recorded with the card. With PayPal's card fields, the box appears once PayPal keeps payment methods for your business. When it does, a second box under PayPal's buttons reads Save my PayPal account with [your business name] for future payments, and paying with PayPal after ticking it keeps their PayPal account for future payments they agree to.
Links That Only Save a Card
A card set-up link, sent from Debts, the customer's screen or an automation approval, doesn't charge anything. When PayPal keeps payment methods for your business, PayPal's buttons are offered on it too, to save the customer's PayPal account. The page is headed Save a card with [your business name], Save a card or PayPal account with [your business name] when both can be saved, or Save your PayPal account with [your business name] when only that can. It explains that your business will be able to take payments the customer agrees to from what they save, and that they can ask you to remove it at any time.
- Agreeing to save it: Here the box has to be ticked. Without it, the page asks the customer to tick the box to agree to saving their card.
- Save card: With Stripe, this takes the customer to Stripe's page to enter the card. With Square or PayPal's card fields, they enter it on the page first. To save their PayPal account instead, the customer ticks the box under PayPal's buttons and signs in to PayPal.
- Your card has been saved: What the customer sees once the card is saved, thanking them and confirming your business can now take payments they agree to with it.
After Paying
- Payment received: Thanks the customer, confirms how much they paid to your business, and shows the card they used, such as Visa ending 4242. Opening the link again later shows the same confirmation.
- Your payment is processing: Shown when the provider is still processing the payment. The customer doesn't need to do anything else, and the link can't be used to pay again while it settles.
- We're checking your payment: Shown when no payment has been confirmed yet, for example straight after coming back from Stripe. Refreshing the page checks again, and Back to payment returns to the payment page if nothing was paid.
When a Payment Does Not Go Through
- Declined: The customer is told the card was declined, or that PayPal couldn't take the payment, and can check the details or try another card or way to pay. After five declined attempts on this page, whether to pay or to save, the link locks. Cards declined on Stripe's own checkout page don't count towards this.
- The amount to pay has changed: If what is owed changes while the page is open, for example because you recorded a payment in the meantime, the page says so and refreshes with the new amount before anything is taken.
- Already being paid: If the same link is being paid in another tab or on another device, the page asks the customer to wait a moment, so the link can't be paid twice.
- Couldn't take the payment: If the provider can't be reached, the page says nothing has been charged and asks the customer to try again in a moment.
When a Link Cannot Be Used
Instead of the ways to pay, the page shows one of these messages, along with what the link was for.
- This payment link has expired: Links work for 60 days from when they were made or last changed. An invoice's Pay now link counts from when the invoice was last emailed or printed. The customer is asked to get a new link from you.
- This payment link has been locked: It was declined five times. The customer is asked to get a new link from you.
- This payment link is no longer available: You cancelled the link. The customer is asked to get a new link from you.
- Nothing to pay: The customer owes nothing right now, for example because they have already paid another way, so the page tells them their account with you is up to date.
- Card payments aren't available: Your business can't take card payments online at the moment, for example because the provider has been disconnected or card payments are no longer on your plan. The customer is asked to contact you to pay another way.
Apart from Nothing to pay, each of these pages ends with Contact [your business name] and the telephone number, email address and website saved under Company Address in Organisation Information, so the customer can ring, email or visit your website straight from the page. Only the details you have filled in are shown.
To give a customer a new link, create one from the Card payment link popup on Debts, or send a new card set-up link.
When a Link Cannot Be Found
An address that doesn't match any link, for example because only part of it was copied, shows We couldn't find this payment link. The page asks the customer to check they have opened the whole link from their email or message, and to ask the business that sent it for a new one if it still doesn't work. It can't tell which business the link was from, so it has no logo, business name or contact details.
Related articles
- Sending a Card Payment Link: Creating, sending, changing and cancelling the link your customer opens.
- Saved Cards: What happens after a customer saves their card, and how to charge it.
- Card Payment Provider Settings: Connecting Stripe, Square or PayPal, which decides how the customer pays.
- Organisation Information Screen: Where the logo at the top of the page, and the contact details shown when a link can't be used, are saved.
- Refunding a Card Payment: Giving money back after a customer has paid by card.