Bank payments

A $9,000 invoice paid by card costs you about $260 in card processing. Paid from the client’s bank account, it costs Stripe’s ACH fee, which Stripe charges to your own Stripe account — at its standard rate 0.8%, never more than $5, and $1.50 to check the account — plus SMG Tools’ same 0.25%. Bank payments puts Pay by bank beside the card on your invoices, a proposal’s deposit and your client’s own page, and the client chooses.

Turn it on

Bank payments is a tool your business adds on the Tools page. It needs a payment account connected, as paying by card does, and that account has to be able to take ACH Direct Debit, which Stripe decides. Until both are true, your invoices offer the card alone, exactly as before.

What your client sees

On the invoice page, two buttons: Pay by card and Pay by bank, each with the amount, and a tip if you ask for one. Pay by bank opens Stripe’s page, where the client signs in to their bank — or, where their bank has no sign-in, types the account and confirms two small deposits a day or two later — and authorizes the payment.

Put the bank first on large payments

On the tool’s Settings tab, set Show Pay by bank first from to an amount. On a payment at or above it, Pay by bank comes first and the page says it is your preference; below it, the card comes first. Leave it empty and the card comes first everywhere. Either way the client can choose the other.

Deposits, and several invoices at once

A proposal’s deposit can be paid by bank from the proposal’s page, under the same amount. When the deposit is required, the client authorizing the bank payment accepts the proposal, and the page reads Deposit processing until the bank settles it. If the payment then doesn’t go through, the proposal stays accepted and its job stays on your schedule: you’re told it was the deposit, and whether to hold the work until it is paid is up to you.

On their own page, a client paying several invoices in one payment can pay by bank too. Each invoice reads Payment processing for its share, and if the payment doesn’t go through, you and the client each get one email that lists every invoice in it.

An online booking’s deposit is paid by card only. It holds the time the moment it is paid, and a bank payment that came back days later would have held it for nothing.

While it is processing

A bank payment takes a few business days to arrive. Until it does, the invoice reads Payment processing to the client and to you, with the amount and the day it was started. It is not overdue, its reminders wait, and it cannot be paid a second time.

When the bank settles it, the invoice is paid on that day: the client gets their receipt, and the payment is recorded as Bank (ACH) with the bank’s name and the account’s last four digits. Stripe’s fee and SMG Tools’ are in the payment’s breakdown, as a card’s are.

When one doesn’t go through

When the bank returns the payment — not enough money in the account, the account closed, the client told their bank not to allow it — the balance is open again, and the reminders pick up where they left off. You are emailed why, in plain words, and so is the client, with the invoice to pay again by card or from another account. The invoice page says which payment failed and why.

In your books

A bank payment counts on the day the bank settles it, never the day the client started it: in your income, Getting Paid, Payments coming in and your accounting. While it is on its way, Getting Paid’s Still owed shows it on a row of its own, Bank payment on its way, and never as late; Payments coming in shows it this week, not overdue. In QuickBooks or Xero it goes to the same Stripe account a card payment does, named by the bank account’s last four digits, and it arrives in a Stripe payout like any other payment.

Refunding a bank payment

Refund it from the invoice, as you would a card payment, but only in full: Stripe can’t give back part of a bank payment. The money goes back to the client’s bank account and takes up to 3 business days to arrive. If a client paid several invoices in one bank payment from their own page, one invoice of it can’t be refunded on its own: give that amount back another way, such as a check.

When the bank returns one later

A client’s bank can return a bank payment after it has arrived, usually because there wasn’t enough money in the account or the client told their bank they didn’t authorize it. A return is final at the bank: there is no evidence to send and no deadline. The payment is voided, the invoice shows the balance owed again and its reminders pick up, and you get one email saying why. What happens next is between you and your client.