Taking cards online with Stripe

DoneWell uses Stripe for online payments. Connecting it puts a Pay now button on every invoice link you send; the money goes to your own Stripe account and from there to your bank.

Connecting

Open Settings → Payments and click Connect Stripe. You are taken to Stripe to sign in or create an account and confirm your business details; when you return, the card shows Connected. Until Stripe has finished checking the account, clients see a Contact us to pay note instead of the button.

Everything in DoneWell works without Stripe — invoices still send, payments are still recorded by hand. The prompts to connect can be switched off by DoneWell support if you never intend to take cards online.

What clients can pay

• Invoices — from the link in the email or text, on their phone or computer.
• Deposits — when a quote asks for one, the client pays it as they approve.
• Card on file — a client can save a card at approval so the invoice is charged later without asking again.

Online payments appear in Payments the moment they succeed, with the receipt sent automatically.

Interac e-Transfer

Canadian clients can also pay by Interac e-Transfer — straight from their bank to yours, with no processing fee and no chargebacks. DoneWell never handles the transfer: the payment link shows the client your e-Transfer address, the exact amount and a message to paste into their bank's memo field, and you record the payment in Payments once it arrives.

Open Settings → Payments and switch on Offer e-Transfer on the payment link in the Interac e-Transfer card. Enter the e-mail address your bank has Interac registered to, an optional note for the client, and whose name the client's bank should show as the recipient (the company legal name, or one you type). A preview underneath shows the client's panel exactly as it will appear. Until the address is filled in, clients are not offered e-Transfer.

One thing to do in your online banking, not in DoneWell: turn on Autodeposit for that address. Without it an Interac notification only means the transfer was sent — the money is not in your account until someone answers the security question.

When both card and e-Transfer are on, the Online payment section below lets you pick which one opens first on the payment page; the other stays one click away. Interac e-Transfer is included in every paid plan.

The same instructions go out with the invoice: the invoice e-mail carries a Pay by Interac e-Transfer block (address, amount, message, account holder) and the invoice text message adds them on one line. Both templates in Settings → Message Templates have an e-Transfer instructions variable you can move around; if you leave it out, the block is still added at the end, and it is left out entirely for clients who are not offered e-Transfer.

Letting DoneWell see the transfers arrive

Once the address is saved, a Bank notifications section appears under the card with four steps. Follow them once and every Interac "you received money" e-mail reaches DoneWell, where it is matched to the open invoice and, when the match is certain, recorded as a payment for you — the rest wait in the e-Transfers tab of Payments for a click.

1. Autodeposit in your online banking (see above) — press Mark as done once it is on.
2. Forward Interac's e-mails. Copy the forwarding address shown in the step, add it as a forwarding destination in the mailbox that receives Interac notifications, then create a rule that forwards mail from notify@payments.interac.ca to it. The step spells out the clicks for Gmail and Outlook.
3. Confirm the address. Gmail e-mails a confirmation code to the new address the moment you add it — and that mailbox is DoneWell's, so the code appears in this step within a minute, with a Copy code button. Paste it into Gmail's prompt. Outlook and most banks ask for no code; skip to step 4.
4. Send yourself a test transfer of one cent. When its notification arrives, the step turns green and the section reads Bank notifications connected, with the date of the last notification.

DoneWell keeps watching after that: if clients are still offered e-Transfer but no bank notification has arrived for a week, the company owners get an e-Transfer notifications stopped notification — the usual cause is a forwarding rule that was switched off — and the section shows how long it has been quiet.

Once the client has sent the money they can press I sent the transfer on the payment page. That does not record a payment — it marks the invoice with the time of the claim, sends everyone who can see payments an e-Transfer reported notification, and shows Client reported an e-Transfer sent on … in the invoice's Online payment card. Check your bank, then record the payment as usual; pressing the button again changes nothing.

Payouts and refunds

Stripe pays out to your bank on its own schedule; each payout is listed in Payments with the payments it contains. A refund of a card payment is issued from the payment page and goes back to the client's card through Stripe.

Disconnecting

Disconnect on the same settings card stops new online payments. Payments already made and their payouts are unaffected.