Invoices (Advanced): Pay on client's behalf or accept payments made outside TaxDome

There are situations where your clients can't or don't want to pay in the client portal. In this case, we got you covered. Whether you're using a client’s credit card or recording a payment made via cash, check, or bank transfer, these methods ensure that invoices are handled efficiently and flexibly. This guide covers how to pay on behalf of your clients and how to record various types of payments.

Accept cash payments and transfers

Offline payments, explained

A firm owner, admin or team member with access rights to manage payments can issue offline payments. 

Offline payments can be used in the following ways:

• They can be added to the client account as credits. Then, they can be used to pay invoices in the future. This option is more commonly used to add promotional credits.
• You can also settle the existing invoices while adding the offline payment. This option is more suitable for charging clients who don't pay in the client portal.

Record offline payments

Follow these steps to manually record a payment made outside of TaxDome (cash, check, Square, Venmo, Wire transfer, etc.):

1. Create an offline payment using one of the following ways:

• If you just want to pay without an invoice or settle multiple invoices – click New at the top left of your screen, select Offline payment, and then choose the client account.
• If you want to settle a particular invoice quickly – go to Billing > Invoices, click three dots to the far right of the invoice you want to settle and select Record offline payment.

2. Make sure the Payments used for revenue calculations option is selected and enter the payment amount. You can autofill it with the unpaid invoice amount by selecting them below. 

3. Select the payment source.

4. Add a description outlining what the payment is for.

5. That’s it! Click Save to make the offline payment. Credits are added to the client account or used to settle existing invoices.

Tip! If you make a mistake in the Amount field and notice it only after you add the payment, issue a refund. However, be careful because if your clients receive notifications, they will be notified about all payments and refunds you make. It's better to tell them what you are doing so that they are not confused.

Here's a bit more on other options for offline payments:

1. Link to jobs: Link your offline payment to an existing job to make it immediately available in your workflow when needed. Click Link to Jobs, then select the jobs. Once linked, the Jobs section is displayed at the bottom. You can see the job title and the pipeline it’s in (here's more on linking payments to jobs).

2.  Date: This is when the client made the payment. By default, you’ll see the current date.

3.  Send client email notification: Select this if you want an email about the offline payment to go out to the client.

4.  Sync payment to QuickBooks Online: Select this option if you want to sync this payment with QuickBooks (this could lead to duplicating payments). Here's more on syncing payments with QuickBooks.

5. Settle invoices paid outside of TaxDome: You’ll see the list of invoices issued for the selected account. The sum of the selected invoices will autofill the payment amount. You can settle only the full invoice amount. The workaround for adding a partial offline payment is described here.

What clients see when you add offline payments

Your clients see their credits in the Home section of their portal and can use them to pay for their invoices.

To see TaxDome from the client’s side, access a read-only view.

Pay on client's behalf

Before you start

Your clients can pay invoices in full or partially. But when paying on behalf of a client, you can only pay the invoice (or the rest of the total amount) in full. 

There are two options: 

• Paying by payment method. Payment is made by specifying a client's credit or debit card or entering bank account details.
• Paying by credits. If the available credits are more than or equal to the invoice, the invoice will be marked as paid. If the available credit is less than the invoice, the available credit is deducted from the invoice, and the difference will need to be paid by providing the client's credit or debit card details.

Note! For scheduled invoices, the following options are only available once the invoices have been issued: Send invoice by email, Pay invoice and Copy payment link.

Pay invoice with credits

If a client has available credits in their account, you can pay an invoice for them when creating it or anytime after.

• When you create an invoice and the invoice is equal to or less than the client’s available credits, you can select the Pay invoice using client credits checkbox. If that is the case and you issue the invoice, it will automatically be marked as paid.

• To pay an existing invoice with available credits, go to either your firm’s Invoices page or the Invoices tab of the client’s profile, click the three-dots icon next to it and select Pay invoice.

If you make a payment on a client's profile Invoices page, you can select multiple invoices for payment (but you cannot select Partially paid in bulk).

Once the invoice is marked as paid, you’ll receive a notification about the payment in your Inbox+.

Pay recurring invoice with credits

You can apply credits to a single invoice generated by a recurring invoice the same way it works for one-time invoices:

• If the recurring invoice is set up with manual payment authorization.
• If the recurring invoice is set up with automatic payment authorization, but the automatic payment fails.

However, you cannot apply credits if the recurring invoice is set up with automatic payment authorization and the payment attempt is successful.

Pay invoice by processing payment method

To pay an invoice for a client with their credit or debit card or by entering their bank account details:

1. Go to either your firm’s Invoices page or the Invoices tab of the client’s profile.

2. Click the three-dots icon next to the invoice, then select Pay invoice.

You can also select one or more invoices from the list and click  Pay invoice.

3. Enter the bank account or credit card details, then proceed with the payment.

The invoice will then be marked as paid, and you’ll receive a notification about the payment in your Inbox+.