Payment Providers Screen
How the Payment Providers screen shows provider availability, connection status, and upgrade options for each business, and chooses which card provider takes payments in person and online.
Open Settings > Payment Providers when you want to see which payment connections are available for a business and whether they are already connected. The business selector at the top matters because connection status is shown for the selected business only.
The provider cards are grouped under two headings: Connected for the providers already connected for the selected business, and Available for the rest, including any that need an upgrade or bolt-on first. A heading only shows when it has a card under it.
What Each Provider Card Tells You
- Provider name: shows the payment service Work Planner can connect to: GoCardless for Direct Debit, and Stripe, Square, PayPal and Zettle for card payments.
- Status line: tells you whether the provider is connected, not connected, or blocked behind an upgrade or bolt-on requirement.
- Connection date: appears inside the card header when the provider is already connected.
- Main action button: changes between Connect and Manage followed by the provider's name, such as Connect GoCardless or Manage Stripe, depending on whether the connection already exists. Manage is a solid button and Connect an outlined one.
- Standard fees: the provider's standard rates for UK payments, for each way it takes them, such as Direct Debit for GoCardless. Open the provider's screen for worked examples and a link to its pricing page.
What To Do In Each State
- Not connected: use the connect button when you are ready to set up Direct Debit collection for that business. In a web browser it goes straight to GoCardless. In the Work Planner phone app it opens the GoCardless Integration screen first, where Connect GoCardless does the rest.
- Connected: use the manage button to open the full GoCardless integration screen, where you can check verification, sync customers, or disconnect.
- Card providers: Connect Stripe, and the matching button on the Square, PayPal and Zettle cards, opens that provider's own screen, where you connect it in the phone app or a web browser. Once it is connected, Manage opens the same screen to check the account and any warnings, or to disconnect it. Card Payment Provider Settings covers that screen.
- Upgrade or Add Bolt-On: if the feature is not available on the current plan, the card shows upgrade actions instead of the connection route.
Card Payment Providers
Stripe, Square, PayPal and Zettle each have their own card on this screen. They do different jobs, and you can connect more than one:
- Stripe: Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, Bluetooth card readers, pay links, and saved cards.
- Square: Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, a Square Reader, pay links, and saved cards.
- PayPal: lets customers pay with PayPal from your pay links. Once PayPal switches them on for your account, it can also take card payments on your links and let customers save their PayPal account or card for you to charge later. It does not take payments in person.
- Zettle: card payments in person with a Zettle or PayPal card reader, and nothing online.
Card payments are included on the Pro and Team plans. On other plans these cards show Upgrade or Add Bolt-On until the Card Payments bolt-on is added.
Card Payments Section
Once any card provider is connected, PayPal included, a Card payments section appears above the provider cards. It chooses which connected provider does which job for the selected business:
- In person (Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android, and card readers): the provider used when you take a card payment on your phone, from a connected Stripe, Square or Zettle account. None turns card payments in person off for this business. Each phone is then set up on the Card reader screen.
- Online (pay links and saved cards): the provider that takes card payments through the pay links you send and keeps the cards customers save for later, from a connected Stripe, Square or PayPal account. PayPal is offered here once PayPal has switched card payments on for your account. Whichever provider takes the cards, pay links also offer paying with PayPal when it is connected.
- Add a Pay now link to invoices: invoices you email or print include a link, and a QR code to scan, that the customer can pay the balance with. They only appear while an invoice still has something to pay, and the link asks for whatever is left when the customer opens it. When your invoice template doesn't place them itself, they go in a Pay online box at the end of the invoice. Sending a Card Payment Link covers how they work.
- Saving: each choice saves for the selected business as you make it, as Organisation Information does, and a note says when it is saved. If it can't be saved, the note says why.
The in person and online choices only show once a connected provider can do that job. Under each one, the section compares the connected providers' fees on a £50 payment with a UK card, including Work Planner's fee if there is one, to help you choose.
You rarely need to set these by hand. The first provider you connect that can take payments in person becomes the in person provider, and the first that can take card payments online becomes the online provider. Connecting another provider later leaves those choices alone. If you disconnect a provider that is chosen here, its job moves to another connected provider that can do it, or to None if there is not one.
Pay links use the providers chosen here at the moment the customer opens them, so changing the online provider also changes the links you have already sent.
Why This Screen Matters Later
This page is the front door into Direct Debit setup. If a provider is not connected here, payment flows that rely on that provider cannot be finished later from debts, customers, or billing-request screens.
It is the front door into card payments too. A card provider that is not connected here cannot take payments on the phone, through pay links, or from saved cards.
It is also a quick health check. If a team member says GoCardless is not available, this is the first place to confirm whether the business is connected, disconnected, or simply missing the required feature.
Related articles
- GoCardless Integration Screen: the full connection management screen behind the card.
- Bank and Payment Details: useful if you are reviewing the business payment setup more broadly.
- Taking a Payment: shows where connected payment methods matter during real collection work.
- Card Payment Provider Settings: the Stripe, Square, PayPal and Zettle screens behind those cards.
- Card Reader Screen: setting up Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android, or a card reader, on each phone once an in person provider is chosen.
- Sending a Card Payment Link: pay links, and the Pay now link and QR code on invoices.