Accepting a payment
Your customer pays inside the same quote or invoice link, with your branding and without leaving the document.
What it is
The public link of a quote or invoice includes the payment checkout: a screen with your logo and colors where your customer pays with the methods you have active. There’s no second payment link to send: the same link is used to review, approve, pay, and check what’s left.
Requirements
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Plan | All plans. |
| Payment rail | Cord Payments active (MX, US, CA, ES, GB, DE, FR) or Mercado Pago connected (MX, BR, CO, AR, CL, PE). |
| Methods | At least one turned on in Settings › Payments › Payment methods. See Payment methods. |
| Document | An approved quote (and signed, if you required it) or an issued invoice with a balance. A test document can’t be paid online. |
| Currency | The document’s sale currency. SPEI only in MXN; bank transfer with a reference only in EUR, GBP, or USD depending on your country; SEPA debit only in EUR, ACH only in USD, Bacs only in GBP, and pre-authorized debit only in CAD. |
Without an online payment rail, the link shows your manual transfer details (if you set them up) and you record the payment once you verify it.
When the pay button appears
| Situation | What your customer sees |
|---|---|
| Approved upfront quote | The pay button, from approval onward. |
| Quote with a credit term (any Net term, from Net 7 to Net 90) | On approval, Order confirmed with Net 30 credit and “The payment of [total] is due on [date]”. Online payment opens on that date. See Credit terms. |
| Quote with a deposit | From approval, the deposit amount. The balance opens according to the term. See Upfront and balance. |
| Quote with an installment plan | The next installment that’s already due. See Installment payment plans. |
| Quote with a milestone plan | The next payable milestone: the one whose date has arrived or, if it’s due on completion, the one you marked as completed. See Milestone payment plan. |
| Recurring quote | The card authorization for the monthly retainer. See Monthly retainers. |
| Issued invoice | The full balance, with the Pay another amount option to pay part of it. An invoice can be paid as soon as it’s issued, even before it’s due. |
| Several invoices from the same customer | In their invoice portal, the ones they pick, in a single charge. |
| Invoice with a bank debit in progress | A notice that a bank debit is processing and they don’t need to pay again. The pay button doesn’t appear until the bank confirms or rejects it. |
| Paid document | The Paid status and the payment history. |
How your customer pays
- Opens the link and, if it’s a quote, approves it.
- Clicks the pay button. If you have both card and a bank transfer (SPEI or with a reference) active, they first choose how to pay; with only one, they see the form directly.
- Pays by card inside the document, follows the bank transfer instructions, authorizes the bank debit, or clicks Pay with Mercado Pago.
- Once confirmed, the link shows the payment and the document changes status.
By card
- The form lives inside the document, with no redirects to another site.
- It accepts the credit and debit cards your payments account supports. Your customer’s bank may ask for additional verification.
- If the payment fails, your customer sees a clear message with a reference they can share with you; they never see technical errors.
- Once confirmed, the document moves to Paid (or that part’s charge does, if it’s a deposit, an installment, or a partial payment).
By SPEI
On MXN quotes and invoices from businesses in Mexico.
- Cord generates instructions with a CLABE tied to that charge (on the invoice, the CLABE belongs to that invoice), bank, beneficiary, reference, and amount, with copy buttons.
- Your customer can Print or save PDF. On the quote they can also click Email these to me to receive them at the email registered on it.
- They transfer from their online banking. When the money arrives, Cord reconciles it on its own and changes the status: no receipts to cross-check. An incomplete transfer isn’t recorded until the rest arrives.
SPEI on the invoice link is a new feature; see SPEI on the invoice link.
SPEI confirmation depends on the bank’s notice and isn’t always instant. See SPEI.
By bank transfer with a reference
On quotes and invoices in EUR (businesses in Spain, Germany, and France), GBP (United Kingdom), or USD (United States) that have a linked client. It’s a new feature.
- Your customer picks Bank transfer and sees the instructions: the reference highlighted, the amount, and the details of their account (IBAN, sort code, or routing and account number), with copy buttons.
- The account is the same for all their payments; the reference is unique to each payment. In euros, the account holder is typed exactly as shown.
- When the money arrives, Cord reconciles it on its own. An incomplete transfer isn’t recorded until the rest arrives.
See Bank transfer with a reference.
By bank debit (SEPA, ACH, Bacs, or pre-authorized debit)
Only on invoice links and in the portal, in EUR (SEPA, businesses in Spain, Germany, and France), USD (ACH, United States), GBP (Bacs, United Kingdom), or CAD (pre-authorized debit, Canada), once the payment processor has activated the method in Settings › Payments › Payment methods.
- Your customer picks bank debit in the same payment form and authorizes the charge with their account details.
- The bank takes days to confirm it. Meanwhile, the link tells them the debit is processing and they don’t need to pay again (in the portal, the invoice shows Payment processing); if the bank rejects it, it goes back to unpaid.
- With Canadian pre-authorized debit, your customer first states whether they’re paying as a business or an individual, and an account verified with micro-deposits shows the Verify my account button.
See Bank debit.
With Mercado Pago
Your customer goes to Mercado Pago’s checkout, pays with the methods available in their country, and returns to your link. The payment is marked once Cord reads the approved payment in your Mercado Pago account.
After payment
- Your customer sees the payment reflected on the link. If they return from a payment still being confirmed, the link waits a few seconds for the notice and lets them refresh.
- You see the payment in Revenue › Payments, on the document timeline, and, if you set up alerts, in your notifications.
- Your integrations receive the payment event. A partial payment (deposit, installment, or partial invoice payment) doesn’t trigger the quote-paid event: that one only goes out when no balance is left.
- The money lands in your payments account balance and reaches your bank at your payout frequency.
Fees depend on the method and the currency. On MXN payments, each collected part (deposit, balance, installment, or partial payment) carries its own fee. See Cord Payments fees.
Edge cases
- The quote amount changed after the link was opened. If there are no payments yet, your customer sees a notice asking you to review the breakdown before paying.
- Your customer switched methods mid-payment. Cord checks the previous attempt before opening another and doesn’t replace it if it already received money. See Switch between bank transfer and card.
- The same charge was paid through Cord Payments and Mercado Pago. Cord notes it in the history so you can decide whether to refund one.
- The invoice balance changed while your customer was paying. Cord asks them to refresh the invoice before continuing.
Common problems
My customer doesn’t see the pay button. Check that your account is active, that a method is turned on, and that payment is already open according to the credit term.
My customer paid, but the document is still pending. If it was a bank transfer (SPEI or with a reference) or a bank debit, wait for the bank’s confirmation. If it was a card, check Recent payments on the dashboard before recording anything by hand.
The link says the document is a test. That document has no valid fiscal issue and can’t be paid online. See Invoicing by country.