Taking a Payment
How the Pay and Pay / Charge paths work from the Debts screen, including manual payments, invoice allocation, tips, and payment fees.
From Accounts > Debts, click Pay or Pay / Charge on the row you want to clear. Work Planner either opens the manual payment form straight away or, when more than one payment route is available, opens a payment-choice popup first.
The First Choice Screen
- Manual Payment: Use this when money has already been received outside Work Planner and you now need to record it properly.
- GoCardless Payment: Appears when the customer already has an active Direct Debit mandate. This starts a collection rather than logging a payment you already received, and the wider setup is covered in GoCardless Billing Request Flow.
- Set up Direct Debit or DD Pending: Use this when the customer needs a mandate setup link instead of an immediate collection. The customer-side version is covered in Billing Request and Direct Debit Setup Flow.
- Take card payment: Only in the Work Planner app on your phone, when the job's business takes card payments in person. Takes the customer's card there and then, with Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android, or your card reader. On an iPhone that takes the business's Stripe payments with Tap to Pay on iPhone, it is called Tap to Pay on iPhone and comes first. The full path is covered in Taking a Card Payment on Your Phone.
- Charge saved card: Appears when the customer has saved a card with you, and names it, such as Visa •••• 4242. The card is charged straight away, without the customer having to do anything. See Saved Cards.
- Card payment link: Sends the customer a link to pay by card online, for when they are not with you or would rather pay later. See Sending a Card Payment Link.
- Set up card payments: Appears when the customer has no saved card yet. Sends them a link to save a card, so future payments can be taken from it with Charge saved card. See Saved Cards.
- Instant Bank Pay: Sends a one-off Open Banking payment link without setting up an ongoing mandate. The full path is covered in Instant Bank Pay Flow.
- Manual-only shortcut: If the job has none of those other routes available, Work Planner skips the choice screen and opens the manual payment form immediately.
The card options only appear when card payments are part of your plan (Pro and Team include them, or add the Card Payments bolt-on), the job's business has a card provider connected on the Payment Providers screen, and your role has Take Card Payments.
Manual Payment Fields
- Date: The date the money was actually received. It defaults to today, but you should change it if the payment came in earlier.
- Amount: Starts with the remaining balance still left to collect on that job. Pending provider collections are taken into account, so you do not accidentally double-charge the same amount.
- Payment Method: Required. This defaults to the job's saved payment method when one exists. After you save, Work Planner writes the chosen method back onto the job so the same method is ready next time. When there is a separate chooser first, that step is covered in Payment Method Selector Popup.
- Allocate to Invoice (optional): Lets you attach the payment to open or sent invoices for the same customer. The payment fills them oldest first, and any invoice it fully covers moves on to paid status. Anything more than they owe is recorded against the job. The invoice choice step is covered in Invoice Selector Popup.
- Description: Defaults to Payment. Change it when the entry needs a clearer audit trail, such as card terminal, bank transfer, or part payment wording.
- Payment Reference: Use this for the bank reference, cheque number, gateway reference, or any other identifier you may need when matching the payment later.
- Tip (optional): Records gratuity separately from the main payment. Work Planner creates a separate tip entry tied back to the payment.
- Payment Fee: Read-only. This appears when the selected payment method carries fees, so you can see the charge Work Planner is about to calculate in the background.
What Happens When You Record It
- Payment ledger entry: Work Planner creates the payment entry against the job and, if selected, against the invoice as well.
- Invoice sync: Linked invoices are recalculated immediately so their outstanding balance stays accurate in Invoice Detail View and the wider invoices area.
- Fee expense: If the payment method has fixed or percentage fees, Work Planner creates the matching fee expense automatically.
- Tip entry: Any tip is saved as its own ledger item instead of being merged into the payment amount.
- Thank-you message: If you have set up the Thank a customer for a payment automation, the customer is emailed or texted a thank-you shortly after. See Creating an Automation.
When the Save Is Blocked
Manual payment will not save without a payment method or with an amount below 0.01. If you allocate to an invoice, Work Planner also checks that the invoice belongs to the same customer, is still open or sent, and is not being overpaid.
Use a Different Route Instead
Choose GoCardless Payment when you want Work Planner to collect by Direct Debit from an active mandate. Choose Set up Direct Debit when the customer still needs to authorise that mandate. Choose Instant Bank Pay when you want a single bank-payment link without setting up ongoing collections.
For card payments, choose Take card payment when the customer is with you, Charge saved card when they have saved a card with you, and Card payment link when they would rather pay online. These record the payment themselves once the provider confirms it, so there is no need to record it again as a manual payment.
Related articles
- Invoice Selector Popup: Shows how invoice choice works when more than one invoice could receive the payment.
- Payment Method Selector Popup: Covers the payment method chooser and how it links back into the form.
- Instant Bank Pay Flow: Useful when the customer needs a one-off payment link instead of a recorded payment.
- Payment Reference and Status Handling: Helpful if you need to understand how the saved payment appears later in transactions.
- Taking a Card Payment on Your Phone: Covers Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android, card readers, and what is recorded while the provider confirms the payment.
- Sending a Card Payment Link: Useful when the customer would rather pay by card online.
- Saved Cards: Explains saving a customer's card and charging it later.