Payments

When growing your business, there is nothing more important than being able to reach and accommodate your clients across all channels. That is especially true for accepting payments, as well. Invoice Maker offers you the opportunity to collect credit card payments externally AND directly through our platform.

Though you can still have an account and send invoices without collecting payments through Invoice Maker, linking your account to a Third-Party Processing Service Provider is a beneficial tool that takes all the legwork out of getting paid. Just send your invoice, sit back, and collect your payment without lifting a finger.

Steps to accept credit card payments:

1. Create your Invoice Maker account
2. Verify your account
3. Connect it to our 3rd Party Payment Processing Service Provider, Stripe

To verify your account to accept payments, follow the prompts below:

1. Click on the banner at the top of your dashboard where it says Verify Your Account
2. Select Merchant, Stripe, and click Next
3. Gather information needed to connect your account
4. Click Connect with Stripe 
5. Follow the prompts to continue setting up with Stripe
6. Secure account. Make sure to copy and store your emergency backup code, once Stripe issues you one
7. Add all pertinent Business and Personal Details
8. Add your Preferred Bank Account (where you'd like your payments to be sent once paid via credit card)
9. Add your Driver's License information or other Government-Issued Identification for verification
10. Submit and you're all done! Start collecting payments as soon as you send your invoices through Invoice Maker!!

All personal information entered into the Third-Party Processor, Stripe's, platform is 100% secure. Invoice Maker does not have access to any financial or personal information entered through Stripe. All payments facilitated through Invoice Maker's platform are processed externally by the Third-Party Processor directly, and any disputes regarding Third-Party platform fees must be directed to the Third-Party platform itself and will not be responded to through Invoice Maker. To read more about how your data is secure and how your information is used through Stripe, you can review their Privacy Policy HERE.

From your Invoice Maker account dashboard, you are able to manage your payments received outside the Invoice Maker system, and through our 3rd Party Payment Processors, e.g. Stripe.

Manual Payments

Definition: A manual payment is a cash, check or "other" payment that a business owner has received outside of the Invoice Maker system. The purpose is to track payments and balances when a payment has been received outside our system, either by cash, check, or "other", which could be anything such as a payment made by Paypal, cashApp, Venmo, etc.

Manual Payment Requirements:

Business Owner Input

1. User has to manually input payment type and amount
2. Payment Amount: required field
3. Payment Date: required field. The payment date defaults to the current date it is updated
4. Payment Method: Cash, Check, Other (required field)
5. Internal Payment Note: plain text field for whatever the user wants (e.g. check number, specify "other" method (not required field). "Internal Payment Note" lets the user know only they will see the note

Invoice

1. Invoice Total: Total before any payments. This is always displayed as "Invoice Total"
2. Paid to Date: The amount currently paid to date, displayed as "Paid to Date"
3. Balance Due: Invoice total - Paid to date, displayed as "Balance Due"

Status

1. An invoice remains Unpaid until the balance is paid-in-full, and there is a $0.00 balance due
2. Refund is used for invoices that have the entire balance refunded
3. Partially Refunded is used when a partial payment is refunded

Partial Payments

Definition: any payment amount entered against a balance due that is less than the total amount due

Requirements:

1. Recipient will always be presented with a payment screen that is auto-filled with the total amount due to the entire invoice
2. Recipient will always be able to enter a lower amount

• cash - amount
• check - amount - check #
• other - note field (Venmo, cashApp, Paypal, etc.)
• collect deposit
• collect partial payment
• refund deposits and partial payments

Deposits: default amount on the first payment is only the deposit amount

Refund: If a refund is not for the total amount, the status = partially refunded. If a refund is for the full amount, status = refunded

Sales Tax (USA only)

A sales tax is calculated as a percentage of goods sold and is determined by the location where the sale took place. Sales taxes are administered by each State, County, and District(s) in the USA.

• Use TaxJar to find a sales tax by zip code.

Value-Added Tax (VAT)

A value-added tax (VAT) is a tax that is calculated based on the cost of the goods or service charged. This tax is administered by most countries and usually is targeted at imported items.

• Use Avalara to find the VAT .

Are Services Taxed?

Services are taxed based on the service provider’s country. In most countries, services are taxed at the Value-Added Tax (VAT).

In the USA, only four (4) States charge taxes on general services:

• Hawaii – 4% (tax.hawaii.gov)
• New Mexico – 5% and will be 5.125% on July 21, 2021 ( www.avalara.com)
• South Dakota – 4.5% (dor.sd.gov)
• West Virginia – 6% (tax.wv.gov)

Is Shipping Taxed?

Most likely no but depends on the final destination of the product. For example, in the USA shipping is taxed in about half the States as long as the shipping charge is separate from the sale (see table below).

Maximum Late Fee | Penalties

Below are the maximum penalties that can be charged if an invoice is not paid. Any late fees must be written in the invoice at the time of sending it to a client. The late fee is calculated by the total amount owed multiplied by the interest rate (%) on a per annum basis.

By Country (Top 50)

Usury Rates by State