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Help › Invoicing

Email an invoice to your client

Updated

Open this in Talisk HQ

Send a finished invoice straight to your client from HQ:

  1. Open the invoice under Invoicing › Invoices.
  2. Click Email invoice.
  3. Check the To, Subject, and Message (leave the message blank for the default cover note), then click Send.

HQ emails the invoice with its PDF attached, marks it sent, and records the receivable. You'll need a connected mailbox and an email address on the client.

A bookkeeper you have given Full access can email your invoices too. The message goes to your customer from your connected mailbox, not from the bookkeeper's own mail. Edit and View access cannot send an invoice; they see the button and HQ refuses it.

Letting your client pay by card

Your client can pay by card through your own Stripe account or your own Square account, whichever you use. Card payments are on through one of them at a time: turning them on for one while they are on for the other says so, and nothing changes until you turn them off there first.

To take card payments through Stripe, connect your own Stripe account in Ledger › Setup: it is the same Stripe connection that brings your Stripe payouts into your books, so there is no second Stripe account to open. Then turn card payments on in the card payments section of Invoicing › Settings. HQ first checks with Stripe that the app may take payments on your account, and nothing is offered to your clients until you have turned it on. Card payments can be on for one Stripe account only: with more than one connected to the business, they stay off until you disconnect the other. Your Stripe account must pay out in your book's own currency: if Stripe pays it out in US dollars while your books are in Canadian dollars, turning card payments on says so, and nothing changes until you add a bank account in your own currency for payouts in Stripe. Each card payment is charged on your Stripe account and paid out to your bank by Stripe with your other Stripe money. HQ never holds it.

If you connected Stripe before HQ took card payments, Stripe needs you to approve the app's new permission first: turning card payments on says so, and HQ asks you to Reconnect Stripe, which shows Stripe's approval screen. Then turn card payments on again.

To take card payments through Square instead, connect your Square account in Ledger › Setup (the same connection that brings your Square payouts into your books) and turn card payments on for Square in the card payments section of Invoicing › Settings. HQ first checks with Square that it may take payments on your account and that your Square account takes payments in your book's own currency. Square cannot convert a payment, so only an invoice in your book's own currency is offered card payment through Square, at your main Square location. If you connected Square before HQ took card payments, Square needs you to approve the new permissions first: turning card payments on says so, and HQ asks you to Reconnect Square. Then turn card payments on again. Each payment is charged on your Square account and paid out to your bank by Square with your other Square money. Square's payment page also lets your client pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay, recorded the same way as a card.

Once card payments are on, an invoice that offers card payment gets three things:

  • a button to pay by card on the client's invoice page,
  • a view & pay online link in the invoice email, and
  • a QR code on the PDF that opens the same page.

The button takes your client to Stripe's or Square's own secure payment page. When the payment goes through, HQ marks the invoice paid in your books, even before Stripe or Square tells HQ about it separately. The payment waits in Ecommerce Clearing until the payout that carries it arrives; that payout records the processor's fee and clears it, and it is never counted as a sale. A Square card payment still waiting under Payments on the invoice is confirmed only once Square says it went through: Confirm says so if Square has not, and if the client never finished paying, Reject it.

An invoice in another currency, for example one in US dollars, can be paid by card through Stripe as well. The client pays in the invoice's currency and Stripe converts the payment into your book's currency before paying it out. HQ marks the invoice paid, records the payment at what Stripe says it came to in your currency, and books the difference from the invoice's exchange rate as a foreign exchange gain or loss, so the payout clears it to the cent. HQ offers card payment on such an invoice only when your Stripe account pays out in your book's currency alone: if it also pays out in another currency, Stripe might not convert the payment, so no card button is shown. HQ learns which currencies your account pays out in when you turn card payments on, and again from each Stripe payout it records. If your Stripe payouts start arriving in another currency, the card payments section of Invoicing › Settings says so, and no invoice offers card payment until they arrive in your currency again. A refund of such a payment is recorded on the invoice when the Stripe payout that carries the refund arrives, because Stripe converts a refund at that day's rate; any difference is a foreign exchange gain or loss too.

If you refund the payment in Stripe, or the client disputes it and Stripe takes the money back, HQ records it on the invoice: first against any credit that payment left the client, then against the invoice, which is open again for what was taken back. If the client no longer owes that amount (you refunded because the work changed), issue a credit note on the invoice so it does not show as owing. If the dispute is decided for you, the money is applied to the invoice again. A refund HQ cannot record (the period is locked, the invoice is written off, or more was taken back than was paid) keeps the Stripe payout that carries it waiting, with the reason on it.

A refund you make in Square is recorded on the invoice the same way, once Square says the refund went through, or when the Square payout that carries it arrives. A refund HQ cannot record keeps that Square payout waiting, with the reason on it. A Square dispute of a client's card payment is not recorded on the invoice yet: the Square payout that carries it waits for review.

You decide which invoices offer it. Offer card payment on new invoices on Invoicing › Settings is the default, and each invoice has its own Let the client pay this invoice by card online box, on the invoice form and on the invoice's page. Untick it for an invoice you want paid by e-Transfer, wire or cheque: that invoice gets no button, no link and no QR code, and a card payment for it is refused. A PDF you already sent keeps what it had.

Sending from your phone with the send invoice for job flow always adds the view & pay online link. Your client can pay through that page once they open the invoice. It asks for what is due now: if the customer is holding part of the invoice back, that holdback is not offered until you release it. A cancelled invoice still shows there, marked cancelled, with nothing to pay. A draft never shows: the portal shows an invoice or a quote only once you have sent it, even to someone who has the link.

Showing a payment QR to a client in front of you

On a sent invoice that offers card payment and still has something due, click Show payment QR (on your phone, tap it under Actions). HQ shows a large QR code of the invoice's payment page with the amount due and the invoice number. Your client scans it with their phone camera and pays there, with Apple Pay, Google Pay or a card. Copy beside the link copies the same page. The code is drawn in your browser from your client's own payment link. The button does not appear on a draft, paid, cancelled or written-off invoice, or one where you have turned card payment off.

What your client sees on the portal

The portal is your business, not ours. It shows your logo at the top with your business name under it, and it carries no HQ logo or wording anywhere.

Your logo comes from Ledger › Setup › Business: use Upload logo. How large it prints is the same size setting you tune on Invoicing › Settings next to the invoice preview, so the portal and the invoice PDF stay in step. If you have not uploaded a logo, the portal shows your business name on its own; if the business name is blank too, the page simply leads with the invoice.

Custom domains and portal colours are not offered.

Good to know: Emailing an invoice needs a connected mailbox and a client email on file, and sending it records the receivable in your books. Card payment online needs your own Stripe or Square account connected in Ledger › Setup, the same connection that brings in its payouts, turned on in Invoicing › Settings; the money is charged on that account and goes to you, never through HQ. Card payments are on through one of them at a time, never both. Your Stripe account must pay out in your book's own currency. An invoice in another currency, such as US dollars, is offered card payment through Stripe only when your Stripe account pays out in your book's currency alone, so Stripe converts the payment; invoices in Japanese yen, Korean won or Vietnamese dong are not offered it. Square cannot convert a payment, so through Square only an invoice in your book's own currency is offered card payment, and your Square account must take payments in that currency. A refund or dispute of the payment in Stripe, or a refund in Square, is recorded back on the invoice; a Square dispute keeps its payout waiting for review. When an invoice offers card payment, the email carries a pay link and the PDF a QR code; turn it off on an invoice you want paid by e-Transfer, wire or cheque. The portal carries your business logo and name, and nothing else is customisable: there are no custom domains and no theme colours.

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