Client payments

When to use this

Use this page to understand what happens after you send an invoice: the page your client lands on, the ways they can pay, and how each payment finds its way back onto the invoice. To connect a card provider or enter your bank details, follow Set up online payments.

The payment page

Every sent invoice has its own private payment page. The link goes out in the invoice email, and you can copy it from the invoice at any time: choose Review and send, then Copy the payment link for the link and a QR code. Anyone with the link can view and pay the invoice, so treat it like the invoice itself. If a link gets to the wrong person, you can replace every link on the event at once from the client hub (Studio).

The page shows the invoice as a document, next to a card with the balance due, the due date, and the ways to pay. On a phone the pay card comes first. The client can download a PDF copy at any time, before or after paying. The PDF is the same document in the same layout, so what the client prints matches what they saw on the page. If the invoice is one milestone of an accepted proposal, the page also links to View your payment schedule, which shows every milestone and what is still to come.

Once the balance is settled, the page reads Paid in full and lists the payments that were made. If the client used your own web address and branding, the page is styled as yours; see Custom branding.

Paying by card

When your card provider is connected and active, the page offers Pay <amount> online. Card details are handled by the provider and never touch BloomBoard or your studio.

• Stripe (studios outside South Africa): the card form opens right on the page.
• Yoco (South Africa): the client is taken to Yoco’s secure checkout and brought back when they are done. Yoco also offers instant EFT there.

After a successful payment the page says Confirming your payment… while the provider confirms it, then flips to the paid state. It only waits while a card payment is actually in progress, and gives up after about two minutes with a note asking the client to check for an email receipt before paying again. The payment lands on the invoice on its own, marked Paid online. Your studio gets a Payment received email, and the client gets an email receipt. The receipt goes out on the event’s email conversation, so it shows in the event’s Email tab and in your Inbox, and a reply from your client lands there too. Your email names who paid and how much, the invoice and event it landed on, whether the invoice is now paid in full or what is still outstanding, and has a View invoice button straight to the invoice. A declined or canceled payment leaves the invoice untouched; the client can try again or use bank transfer.

If you charge a card processing fee, the button quotes the full amount and the line under it says exactly what the fee is. Bank transfer never carries the fee.

Paying by bank transfer

If you have entered bank details and switched them on, the page shows a Pay by bank transfer panel: your bank, account holder, account number, branch code, and any SWIFT or routing number you added. Every row is click-to-copy. The panel also shows a reference built from your prefix and the invoice number; the client uses it exactly, so you can match the transfer to the invoice in your bank statement.

When the client has made the transfer they click I’ve made this transfer. That does not record any money. The page thanks them and says you will confirm once the money reaches your bank. It promises an email receipt only when the client has an email address.

You hear at once: a notification in BloomBoard and on your phone, and an email. Owners and admins get these. The transfer also shows in the payments panel beside the invoice, on Today and in the Documents list. Check your bank, then choose It’s in my bank on the invoice. You can change the amount and the date to what your bank shows. BloomBoard records the payment and emails the client a receipt when they have an email address. While a transfer waits, Record Payment on that invoice records the transfer the same way. Not received closes the claim without recording anything. A claim closes by itself when the invoice is paid in full another way or voided. You can also ask the assistant to confirm the transfer or mark it not received; it shows a card first.

Saved cards for the remaining payments

On Studio, you can let a client who pays by card keep that card for the payments still to come. BloomBoard then charges each later payment on its day, and always emails the client first. This works only with Stripe, so studios paid through Yoco do not get it. Only cards are saved, never a bank account.

Choose how saved cards work

Go to Business → Client payments. Saved cards for later payments has three choices, and it saves as soon as you pick one:

• Off, the default. Clients pay each invoice from its link.
• Client chooses. Under the card form, the client can tick a box to keep the card.
• Required. To pay by card, the client agrees to keep the card. Bank transfer stays open, so a client who does not want to keep a card can pay that way. If bank transfer is off, the setting tells you.

Off stops new saved cards only. A card a client already saved keeps paying its agreed payments until the client, or an owner or admin, removes it.

To choose differently for one proposal:

1. On the event’s proposal board, go to Payment schedule.
2. In Saved card, pick Studio setting, Off, Client chooses or Required.

You can change it at any time, also after the client signs, because it is not part of the signed proposal. The proposal the client signed decides for the event’s invoices. While a new version is open, a choice there applies to the signed version too. A new version keeps the choice, also a version a connected assistant starts.

The setting shows only on Studio. If your online payments account cannot keep a card, the setting says so and you cannot pick a choice. Proposals then do not show Saved card.

What your client sees

With Client chooses, the client sees one line under the card form: a tick box, Keep this card for the remaining payments. It is not ticked until the client ticks it. Under it is one short sentence with the facts, for example “Final balance £3,740.00 on 15 May 2027. We email you at least 3 days before, and you can say no or remove the card at any time.” With several payments to come, the sentence names them or sums them up.

Full terms opens the exact words the client agrees to: your studio name, each payment still to come with its amount, its card fee if you charge one, and its due date. The words also promise an email at least 3 days before each charge, and that the client can remove the card at any time. BloomBoard keeps these words, with the time the client agreed.

With Required, there is no tick box. One line under the Pay button says that by paying by card, the client agrees that your studio will charge the card for the remaining payments, with the same facts and Full terms. When the client pays by card, BloomBoard keeps the card with the same words and the time they paid.

The tick box or the line shows only when all of these are true:

• the invoice belongs to an event;
• the event has a later scheduled payment that is not paid yet;
• no card is saved for the event yet;
• the client pays by card. The tick box hides when they pick another way to pay. Under Required, the line also shows for a phone wallet, which pays with a card, and hides for a bank payment, which keeps no card.

Under Required, the card form does not offer quick checkout with card details saved in another service. A card paid that way cannot be kept for the remaining payments.

After the payment, Your saved card shows on every payment page of the event, paid ones too. It shows the card, its expiry date, and the next charge, for example “We will charge £3,740.00 on 15 May 2027.” The client can:

• Change card: save a different card for the same payments.
• Don’t charge my card: no charge for this payment. The card stays saved for the payments after it, and the client pays this invoice from its link.
• Pay now instead: on the invoice the card is about to pay. This cancels the planned charge and opens the card form.
• Remove card: nothing more is charged to the card, and every planned charge is cancelled.

Before each charge

When you issue the invoice for a later payment, BloomBoard plans a charge for it. Four days before the due date, or at once if that day has passed, the client gets a heads-up email. It names the day, the amount, the card, the payment, and the card fee if you charge one. It has two links: Change the card and Don’t charge my card. Each link opens the payment page with the card form or the question ready. Nothing changes until the client clicks.

The heads-up is BloomBoard’s own email, like a receipt. It goes on the event’s email conversation, so a reply lands in your Inbox. It is not an automation step, so you cannot switch it off by mistake, and it does not count toward the daily limit of automatic emails.

When the card is charged

The card is charged on the day the heads-up names: the due date, or a later day if the heads-up went late. It is never charged sooner than three days after the heads-up reached the client. It is charged only for the amount the heads-up named. If that amount changes, a new heads-up goes and the three days start again.

When the charge goes through, the invoice is marked paid, the client gets a receipt, and you get the Payment received email, as for any card payment.

What holds a charge

A charge on hold is not charged until the hold ends.

• The client replies to the heads-up. An out-of-office reply or a bounce notice does not count. You decide what happens next.
• The heads-up did not arrive. It bounced, or it did not arrive within 48 hours. You decide what happens next.
• The payment schedule is under review after an accepted revision. The hold ends when you select Resume reminders.
• The schedule changed since the client agreed: a new payment, a removed payment, or a different amount, date or card fee, up or down. The client gets an email that asks them to confirm the new schedule. Their payment page shows it with Confirm the new schedule. When they confirm, a new heads-up goes and the three days start again.
• The client says they paid by bank transfer. If you choose It’s in my bank, the invoice is paid and the charge is cancelled. If you choose Not received, the hold ends and a new heads-up goes.
• Your card account cannot take payments for now. The hold ends when it can.
• You leave Studio. The hold ends when you come back, and a new heads-up goes.

When the client signs a revision, the card never pays an invoice you issued before it. That invoice is not part of the new signed schedule, so its charge is cancelled and it goes back to its payment reminders. A payment the revision removed is never charged. When you issue an invoice from the new schedule, its charge is planned as usual, and the client confirms first if the schedule changed.

When the client replied or the heads-up did not arrive, Today and the morning email show Card charge on hold, and so does the invoice’s payments panel. Owners and admins choose:

• Charge as planned, after you read the client’s reply. The card is charged on the day the heads-up named, or at once if that day has passed.
• Send a new heads-up, when the heads-up did not arrive. Check the client’s email address first. The three days start again.
• Cancel the charge. The charge will not happen. The invoice goes back to its payment reminders, and the client pays from the link.

Owners and admins can also ask the assistant to charge as planned or cancel the charge. It shows a card first.

When a card is declined

• The charge fails. BloomBoard does not try again on its own.
• The client gets an email, “Your card payment did not go through”, with the link to pay.
• You get a notification in BloomBoard and on your phone, and the task “Check a card payment that did not go through”.
• Today shows Card payment failed for the invoice.

Payment reminders

While a charge is planned, Payment reminders skip the reminder seven days before the due date and the one on the due date, so the client does not get “please pay” beside a heads-up. The reminders three and ten days after the due date still go if the invoice is not paid. A charge on hold because you left Studio, or because your card account cannot take payments, does not stop any reminder.

What you see

• The invoice page. The Saved card card shows the card, when it was saved and by whom, for example “Visa ending 4242, saved 3 Mar by Priya Shah.” It also says where the charge stands, for example “Will be charged £3,740.00 on 15 May. Heads-up sent 11 May, delivered.”
• The event’s Finances. In Billing, a payment the card will cover reads “Card ending 4242 on 15 May”, Card charge on hold or Paid by saved card.
• The event’s Client history. The card’s story: kept, changed, removed, each heads-up, each hold and the charge.

Remove a card for a client

If a client asks you to delete their card:

1. Open an invoice of the event.
2. In Saved card, choose Remove card.
3. Choose Remove the card.

Every planned charge is canceled, and the card account forgets the card. Only owners and admins see Remove card. They can also ask the assistant to remove the card when the client asked; it shows a card first, and it cannot be undone.

Limits

• Off until you choose otherwise.
• Cards through Stripe only. Not for studios paid through Yoco.
• One saved card per event.
• An invoice is charged only for a scheduled payment the client agreed to. An invoice you made by hand, or one in another currency, is never charged.
• If you charge a card processing fee, the charge adds it, and the words the client agrees to name it.
• After you leave Studio, your client can still see and remove the card, and pay each invoice from its link. They cannot change the card.

What you see on the invoice

The invoice page shows the invoice exactly as your client gets it, with a payments panel beside it. Below 1100 px of screen width the panel moves above the invoice. The panel shows only what has something to say:

• The balance. What is due and when (Due in 9 days, Due today or 5 days late), how much is paid, Record a payment and Remind, and how your client can pay. With no way to pay online set up, it says so and links to Set up payments (owners and admins).
• Anything that needs you. A bank transfer your client reported, a card payment that failed, or a saved-card charge on hold.
• Saved card. The client’s saved card and where its charge stands. See Saved cards for the remaining payments.
• Payments. Each payment with its date, method, reference and receipt: Receipt sent with the date, Sending receipt, or Receipt failed with Try again. The ⋯ menu offers Send receipt or Resend receipt (to the client’s current email), Refund for payments made online, and Delete for payments you recorded.
• Reminders. Every reminder sent, skipped or waiting, and the next one. When no automatic reminders go for the invoice, the card says why. Either they are switched off for your studio in Automations, or they are not running for this invoice. Not running gives the reason: they are still starting, someone paused or stopped them, the event was canceled, or the invoice was sent before they were switched on. A paused one links to the event, where you resume it. For an invoice sent before they were on, use Remind to send one yourself.
• Payment plan. The scheduled payments this invoice belongs to. The next payment with no invoice yet, and the remaining balance, have Create invoice: it opens the event’s Billing card with that payment picked. The link shows only while every invoice on the event, apart from void ones, has its currency set to the same currency. Otherwise Billing cannot work out a scheduled payment.

A few more things to know:

• Payments made online read Paid online. They cannot be deleted; the way to return money is Refund, which goes back through the provider and reopens the balance once it completes. The client’s page and PDF then mark that payment Refunded for a full refund, or show the amount refunded for a partial refund, in their payment history. See Bill and get paid on an event for how refunds and part-refunds are shown.
• Confirmed bank transfers are recorded as Bank transfer payments, with the reference the client was given.
• When you record a payment yourself, Email a receipt is ticked. The client gets a receipt that shows how they paid and the balance still due. Untick it to send none. If the client has no email address, the dialog says so instead.
• Reminders sent from the event’s Finances view or the Finances area link the client straight back to their payment page.

In your Stripe account

Each card payment a client makes through Stripe names the invoice it paid. In your Stripe Dashboard, the payment’s description reads like this:

Invoice INV-0042 · Sarah Jones · Smith Wedding

• The invoice number, the client name printed on the invoice, and the event name. A part that is blank is left out.
• The payment’s Metadata section lists the same details one per line: invoice_number, client_name, event_name and event_date, plus source set to BloomBoard.
• Stripe copies the description to the payment’s line in its balance and payout reports, so your accountant can match each payout to an invoice.
• If you switch on Stripe’s own email receipts, your client sees the description on them. It never names BloomBoard.

Card payments taken before this update show Stripe’s own payment ID instead. Find their invoice by date and amount under Payments on the invoice page in BloomBoard. Yoco payments show in your Yoco account as before.

Fees

BloomBoard adds no fee of its own to online payments. You pay only your provider’s processing fee, and payouts arrive from the provider on their schedule; both are managed in your Stripe or Yoco account. If you would rather the card fee did not come out of your flowers, switch on the card processing fee under Business; it is quoted to the client before they pay.

Related pages

• Set up online payments
• Bill and get paid on an event
• Why can my client not pay online?
• Proposals and invoices