Invoices

Create and send an invoice

1. 1Go to Accept Payments → Invoices and click New invoice.
2. 2Under Bill To, pick an existing customer from the dropdown, or type a new name and email. Turn on Save as new customer to keep them in your directory.
3. 3Add line items: a description, quantity, and unit price for each. Pull from your saved catalog to auto-fill the price, or type a one-off line. You can add a per-line discount (dollar or percent).
4. 4Tax is handled for you: each line has a Taxable checkbox (a catalog item brings its own setting, so a non-taxable service stays untaxed). The rate comes from the customer's state using your tax settings, and it's applied only to the taxable lines. Enter a per-line percentage only if you need to override the rate on a specific line.
5. 5Set the invoice and due dates, and your notes. Customer notes print on the invoice; internal notes stay private to your team. The invoice number is assigned for you.
6. 6Click Save draft, or Save & send to email a branded invoice with a PDF and a secure pay link.

Sales tax – rates, location, and taxable items

Merchant360 works out sales tax for you on invoices and checkout, so you don't type a tax rate every time. Two things drive it: the rates you set once, and whether each item is taxable. You control both.

The rate follows your customer's location. You set a default rate plus any state-specific rates under Accept Payments → Tax rates. When you make an invoice, Merchant360 looks at the customer's Bill To state and applies the matching rate (or your default if there's no specific one). If you don't sell into a state, don't add a rate for it and nothing is charged there.

Whether tax applies is per item. Every inventory item has a Taxable yes/no setting. Physical goods are usually taxable; services, fees, and shipping often aren't. When you add an item to an invoice, it brings its own taxable setting with it, and the rate is applied only to the taxable lines – a non-taxable item is never taxed, even on an otherwise-taxable order. You can also flip a single line's Taxable checkbox on the invoice if you need to.

1. 1Set your rates: go to Accept Payments → Tax rates. Add a default rate, and a row for each state where you collect tax (with that state's rate).
2. 2Mark your items: in Accept Payments → Inventory, open an item and set Taxable on or off. Do this once per item and it carries everywhere.
3. 3Make an invoice as normal. Fill in the customer's state under Bill To – that's what picks the rate. Tax shows automatically on the taxable lines only.
4. 4Need an exception on one invoice? Use the per-line Taxable checkbox, or type a one-off percentage in the header to override the rate for that invoice.

Choose how it gets paid

The How will this be paid section on the builder lets you decide up front. There are four modes.

1. 1Send: email the customer a pay link and let them pay themselves. This is the default.
2. 2Charge now: charge a card the customer already has on file immediately (or on a future date). This marks the invoice paid and emails a receipt.
3. 3Recurring: bill this amount on a repeating schedule (see the Recurring chapter).
4. 4Installments: split the balance into equal payments spaced a set number of days apart.

How your customer pays

Customers pay on a secure hosted page with no account and no login – the emailed invoice's Pay button (or the link you copy/text) opens it directly. The page shows who the invoice is from, what it's for line by line, what's already been paid, and the balance due, so there's never a question about what they're paying.

They pay by card, and if your account has bank payments turned on, by bank too – the page calls it "Pay by bank (ACH)" so customers recognize it. If your account runs a surcharge program, a credit card shows the surcharge itemized before they confirm (debit cards are never surcharged); with dual pricing they see the card and cash prices per your program. Where gift cards are enabled, they can apply one first and pay any remainder by card.

The moment the payment goes through: the invoice flips to Paid (or Partial), the payment posts against it automatically, both of you get a receipt by email, and the transaction shows in Money → Transactions like any other sale. Nothing to reconcile by hand.

The pay page can also take a coupon code, offer Split into payments if you've enabled installments, and let the customer enroll in autopay so future invoices charge their saved card automatically. Partial payments (when you allow them) let the customer pay part of the balance now – the invoice tracks the remainder.

Customers don't even need the emailed link: with the Pay Widget on your website they can look the invoice up themselves by invoice number + email and pay it there (see the WordPress chapter). And if you collected money another way – cash, or a check in the mail – open the invoice and Record a payment to mark it paid or partial.

Text a pay link (text-to-pay)

Email isn't the only way to send an invoice. Open the invoice and find the Share this invoice card. Alongside the pay link and Copy button is Text the link.

1. 1Click Text the link. The customer's mobile number fills in if you have it.
2. 2Click Send text. The customer gets an SMS from your business with the invoice number, the balance, and a tap-to-pay link.
3. 3Texting a draft invoice sends it and moves it to Open.

Track what's outstanding

The invoice list opens with four counters: Open (with the total balance outstanding), Overdue, Paid, and All-time. Each invoice carries a status: Draft, Open, Partial, Paid, or Void. Overdue is a flag on open invoices past their due date.

Open an invoice for its full detail and controls: send or re-send a pay link, Record a payment, Send reminder, issue a credit memo, Duplicate it into a fresh draft, or Void it. A live activity timeline shows everything that happened, down to the paying card's last four.

Automatic payment reminders

Turn on automatic reminders under Accept Payments → Billing Settings and open invoices are chased for you at five points: a week before the due date, on the due date, and at 7, 30, and 60 days past due. Each email shows the balance with a pay-now button, and paid invoices are never chased.

You can also send a one-off reminder any time from the invoice's page, whether or not automatic reminders are on. Manual reminders are limited to one per invoice per day.

Next to reminders lives Automatic monthly statements: turn it on and, on the 1st of each month, every customer with an open balance gets a statement of account by email – their open invoices, an aging summary, and one link that pays everything at once. One statement per customer per month, and customers who owe nothing get nothing. It's the same statement the Email statement button on a customer's profile sends, just on a schedule.

Partial payments & deposits

When you send or share a pay link, tick Allow the customer to choose a partial amount and the pay page gains an Amount field. The customer can pay anything from $1 up to the balance, and the invoice tracks as Partial until it's paid in full. This is ideal for deposits.

You can also set an amount on the pay link yourself to collect a specific deposit.

Split into payments (installments)

Let customers pay a larger invoice over time on their card, automatically. First turn it on under Accept Payments → Billing Settings in the Split into payments card: enable it, set a minimum balance, the maximum number of payments (2, 3, 4, 6, or 12), and the cadence (weekly, biweekly, or monthly).

On qualifying invoices, the pay page then offers Pay in full or a split. The customer picks a plan and sees the schedule: the first payment today, then the rest charged automatically on the cadence to the same card, until the invoice is paid in full.

Track it on the invoice's Payment plan card: how many payments are made, the amount each, the next charge date, and a Cancel plan button. Cancelling stops future charges; anything already collected stays applied.

Autopay: save a card, auto-pay future invoices

Autopay lets a good repeat customer stop thinking about invoices. On the pay page, the customer can tick Save this card and automatically pay future invoices on their due dates (there's a bank / ACH version too where enabled).

Once enrolled, each new invoice for that customer is charged automatically on its due date, not the moment you send it, so they always have until the due date. You'll see and manage the enrollment on the customer's profile under the Autopay card, where you can turn it off any time.

Coupons & promo codes

Create codes under Billing Settings → Coupons (dollar off or percent off, with optional expiry and usage limits). The customer enters the code on the pay page, sees the discount instantly, and pays the reduced balance. The discount books automatically as a credit memo so your receivables stay accurate.

Credit memos vs refunds

A credit memo adjusts what a customer owes without moving money: use one to write off a balance, correct a bill, or record a dispute. Issue it from the invoice's page (Adjustment, Write-off, or Chargeback), and it books cleanly instead of editing history.

A credit memo does not send money back to a card. To return money to a card, use Money → Transactions and refund the original sale (see the Virtual terminal chapter).

Find anything, export everything

The invoice and estimate lists search by number, customer, or email with full pagination, so nothing hides. Export CSV pulls your invoice data (respecting your current search) for the accountant, and every invoice page keeps its full activity timeline: created, sent, reminded, paid, duplicated, and voided.