Getting set up to take payment

A business that takes payment through SMG Tools gets paid faster and chases fewer checks. This page is about getting there — the setup, and knowing for certain whether it worked before a client is looking at an invoice they cannot pay.

Decide whether you want online payment

The setup wizard asks how you handle the money, and offers to start payment onboarding there and then. Unlike the toggles beside it, saying yes is the start of a real setup rather than a switch being flipped — connecting an account takes a few details about your business.

You can also start it later from the checklist on your dashboard, which leads with it, or from your organization’s payment settings.

Nothing here is a gate

A business that takes cash and checks is a real business. Payment setup never stops you sending an invoice, creating a job or finishing setup.

Skipping it is a decision you make once, not a row you never scrolled to.

Know whether you are actually set up

This is the part worth trusting. One rule decides whether you can take a payment, and everything asks that same rule: your client’s invoice, the notice you read before sending it, the checkout page, the setup wizard and the dashboard checklist.

You are set up to take payment when, and only when, money would actually move — an account that can genuinely accept a charge, not merely a form that was started.

Before you send an invoice, you are told what your client’s copy will offer them. If you are not connected yet, you find that out while you can still do something about it, rather than from a client asking where the pay button is.

What it costs

The platform takes 0.25% of what flows through it. That fee is deducted from your side of the payment — your client is charged the invoice amount and nothing more.

Card processing is separate and also comes out of your side, as it does with any card payment anywhere.