How to activate online payments

To let clients pay directly from a quote link, activate Cord Payments. Funds settle directly into your bank account and the processing fee is shown before you accept the terms.

Cord Payments (payment on the link by card and, depending on your country, self-reconciling bank transfer or bank debit) is available for businesses domiciled in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. In Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru Cord Payments isn’t available yet (you’ll see that noted before you try to activate it): there you collect online by connecting your Mercado Pago account under Settings › Payments › Payment methods, or you record by hand the payments you receive elsewhere. See Get paid with Mercado Pago.

Steps to activate payments

1. In Cord, go to Settings › Payments › Account.
2. Open the Cord Payments panel and provide your business, representative, and payout bank details. The account format requested depends on your country (for example CLABE in Mexico, routing number and account number in the United States, sort code in the United Kingdom, IBAN in Spain/Germany/France).
3. Cord Payments will verify the information. This process is usually quick.
4. When the status changes to “All set, you can accept payments now!”, your clients will see the pay button on your quotes.

Available payment methods

Once your account is active, you can enable or disable these methods in Settings › Payments › Payment methods:

• Credit and debit card: Processed instantly (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) in any country where Cord Payments is available.
• Automatic SPEI transfer (Mexico only, Mexican pesos only): Cord Payments creates dedicated instructions for each quote payment and for each invoice, and reconciles the transfer automatically on the quote or the invoice. On invoices it’s a new feature being enabled: if you don’t see it on your invoice links yet, write to us.
• Bank transfer with a reference (Spain, Germany and France in EUR; United Kingdom in GBP; United States in USD): depending on your country, the switch is called Automatic SEPA transfer, Automatic bank transfer or Automatic ACH and wire. Each client gets an account of their own and each payment its reference; when the client transfers, the payment is recorded on its own. It is offered on the invoice link and on the quote’s payment page, if the document has a linked client. See Bank transfer with a reference in the documentation.
• Bank debit (SEPA in EUR, ACH in USD, Bacs in GBP and pre-authorized debit in CAD): your client authorizes the debit from their account on the invoice link or in their portal, and it takes days to confirm. See Bank debit.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay (being enabled): once active, your client will see them next to the card if their device has them, with nothing extra for you to set up and the same fee as the card.
• Manual bank transfer: Shows your regular payout account details, in your country’s format. You confirm receipt manually; this method does not pass through Cord Payments.

Bank transfer with a reference and bank debit are new and may not be enabled on your account yet. If you don’t see them, write to us.

Fees and payout times

• For payments in Mexican pesos, Cord Payments charges the published method-specific fee plus tax; review it in Settings › Payments › Fees before activation. Outside Mexican pesos, Cord charges no transaction fee of its own on any method. See Processing fees and rates.
• Payout timing depends on your account status and history. Funds are generally transferred automatically within a few business days.