Take invoice payments with Stripe on mobile

This article explains how to start accepting debit and credit card payments for your FreeAgent invoices using Stripe via the FreeAgent mobile app. It also explains how this works for your customers.

Once you’ve connected FreeAgent to Stripe, you can enable the Stripe payment option on your FreeAgent invoices.

The benefits of using Stripe include:

• allowing your customers to easily pay invoices online by sending them a payment link
• allowing your customers to pay for invoices by debit or credit card
• optimised checkout options for your customers including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Stripe 1-click checkout
• ability to customise the Stripe checkout portal with your own branding
• automatic importing and reconciling of your Stripe transactions when you set up a Stripe feed

Find out about Stripe charges. You can also collect invoice payments online using PayPal, Tyl by NatWest or GoCardless.

Taking invoice payments using Stripe

Tap the ‘☰’ (mobile app navigation menu) button and select 'Invoices'.

Tap the ‘+’ at the bottom of the screen and follow the steps for creating an invoice using the FreeAgent mobile app.

In the ‘Payments enabled’ section, make sure the Stripe has been selected. To choose Stripe, or set up Stripe as the default payment option for all future invoices you create, select 'Manage' and toggle the Stripe option.

Select ‘Create invoice & add line items’ and enter the necessary details for the invoice.

When you’re sending the invoice to your customer, toggle ‘Include online payment button’ if you’d like to add a payment button to your invoice email.

Please note that:

• the online payment link will only work if the invoice value is equal or greater to Stripe's current minimum fee.
   
• if a bank transaction is explained against the invoice before your customer makes the payment, when they select the payment link they’ll only be able to pay the remaining balance of the invoice, not the full amount.
   
• if you use Stripe’s Instant Payout feature for an invoice created in FreeAgent, you’ll need to manually explain the bank transaction as a payment for the invoice.
   
• your customer will be prompted to pay the full amount of the invoice created. It won’t be possible for them to partially pay the value of the invoice via Stripe.

How this works for your customers

This will add a button to your invoice that allows your customer to pay the invoice using a debit or credit card.

This will show them your invoice, along with the option to pay by credit card via Stripe. Any other payment options you enabled while creating your invoice, such as PayPal, will also be available to them.

Your customer will then be taken to Stripe's checkout portal which will provide them with options to pay the invoice using Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe 1-click checkout or enter their card details.

You can brand the checkout portal with your own branding via your Stripe Dashboard. Find out more about how to customise the Stripe checkout portal.

Receiving payments

Please note that your customer may need to go through 3D Secure 2 Strong Customer Authentication before they can make a payment for your invoice. As soon as a payment is made by your customer you should receive a confirmation email. This confirmation email will be sent to the email address of the registered account owner.

Invoice payments 

When your customer pays you, the invoice payment and Stripe fees will be reflected in your FreeAgent Stripe account automatically for you to approve. Payments made with Stripe can take up to two days to appear in your Stripe bank account in FreeAgent.

Please note that the Invoice Receipt will need to be approved in order to mark the invoice as paid. If you didn't enable the Stripe feed, you'll need to account for the fees manually.

If a payment made with Stripe doesn't go through from your customer's account, it can be up to five days before Stripe is notified by the bank. While payments are pending or being processed, FreeAgent will stop sending automatic email reminders.

Stripe disbursements

The payment into your business bank account from Stripe, which you can explain as a transfer from your Stripe account, may take up to seven days to appear. If you need to, you can split the bank transaction to account for any fees.

If you notice that a payment received via Stripe has not reached your main bank account on the specified date, you would need to contact Stripe to investigate this further.

Refunds

If you need to send a refund to a customer, this cannot be done from within FreeAgent. The refund would need to be generated via your Stripe account.

How to account for Stripe fees in FreeAgent if the feed isn't enabled

If you chose not to set up the Stripe feed, the fees from Stripe won’t be automatically imported into FreeAgent for you to approve. Therefore, you’ll need to manually split the bank transaction to account for fees deducted by Stripe.

For example, if you have created an invoice for £100 which has been paid by your customer via Stripe, after the fees have been deducted you would see an amount of £97 within your bank account as well as FreeAgent. To mark the invoice as fully paid, you would need to split the transaction within FreeAgent to account for the fees deducted which the above support article will walk you through.