Getting paid

An order that is paid by link is not planned onto a round until it is paid. That is the point of taking the money first: the van does not go out on a promise.

Setting up

The Stripe tile on Connections, in the sidebar. Set up with Stripe takes you to Stripe to open an account in your business’s name. Have your bank details ready and something that proves who runs the business. It takes a few minutes, and you can come back and carry on if you are interrupted.

The account is yours. Payouts go straight to your bank, statements are in your Stripe dashboard, and Stripe bills you for processing rather than us. Bottle never holds the money.

Only an owner can set this up. Anyone who runs the office can see whether it is done.

Pay first

An order paid by link is not confirmed until it is paid. Taking it sends the customer the link straight away, and nothing else. The tracking page, if they have the reference from a phone call, says it is waiting for payment and that nothing is scheduled until then.

The moment the payment lands, from Stripe’s webhook or from Mark paid in the office, the customer gets Paid, thank you: what they ordered, the days to expect, and their tracking reference. Stripe sends its own receipt for the card payment, from your business’s name.

The invoice

Taking a pay-first order raises an invoice in Bottle at once, numbered in your own sequence: INV-BTL00001, INV-BTL00002, the same run of numbers as your hire invoices. The link pays that invoice, and both are settled by the one payment. Send the link again chases with a fresh link against the same invoice, because chasing is not a second debt.

Stripe is not asked to number an invoice of its own. One debt, one number, one document, whether the customer pays by card or by bank transfer. Everything raised is on the Invoices page.

The order carries its invoice number, and clicking it opens that invoice on the Invoices page.

Change what is on the order and the invoice for it is cancelled, keeping its number, and the link is forgotten: the session Stripe is holding would take the old amount. Send the link again and a fresh invoice is raised for the new figure. An invoice says what was owed at a moment, so it is replaced rather than quietly edited.

A one-off with no customer record gets a link but no invoice, since an invoice has to be made out to somebody.

Sending a link

An order paid by link sends itself the moment it is taken: the customer gets an email with the amount including VAT and a button to pay by card or straight from their bank. If Stripe is not connected yet the order still stands, without a link, and the order page offers Send payment link once it is. The order says Awaiting payment until Stripe tells us it has been paid, and then Paid, with the date.

Send the link again any time. The newest link is the one we listen for, though an older one still pays the same order.

If the customer has no email address on their record, the link is still made and shown on the order. Copy it and send it however suits: read it down the phone, or paste it into a message. Nothing is emailed, and the order says so rather than looking as though something was sent.

A card at the door

A driver can raise a link from the drop itself, for a customer who would rather not hand over notes. It shows as a code on the driver’s phone; the customer scans it and pays on their own. See Cash for what happens to the money either way.

On account

New orders are written as Payment link or Cash at the door. Putting an order on account is no longer offered, because a business that can send a link has no reason to extend credit by accident. Orders already on account, and orders arriving from a shop, keep reading correctly and can still be edited.

Cash on delivery

The driver collects at the door, so nothing is waiting on a payment before the round is planned. These orders are scheduled and routed like any other.

What the driver took, and handing it in at the yard, is its own page. See Cash.

Money that came another way

A bank transfer that showed up, or cash in hand: Mark as paid on the order. Not paid after all takes it back, for the payment that turned out to be somebody else’s.

Planning

When a day is planned, an order paid by link that has not been paid stays in the waiting list with the reason Not paid yet. It is picked up the next time the day is planned once the money has arrived. If you know the money is coming, put it on a round by hand.

What it costs

Stripe charges per payment. A UK card is a percentage plus a few pence; a commercial card costs more; Direct Debit is one percent capped at a few pounds, which makes it the cheap way for regular account customers on larger orders. Stripe’s own pricing page has the current figures.