Overview
By the end of this article you can guide a customer through paying their invoice online, including adding a tip for the crew, and know where that tip lands in SmartMoving afterward. Online invoice payment lets a customer pay a SmartMoving invoice by credit card or E-Check from a link you send, without calling the office.
Before You Start
Enable online payments in your send invoice template. Until that is done, the invoice email carries no payment link.
Changing payment settings requires an admin role.
To accept E-Check payments, complete your E-Check setup first.
No extra permission or setup is needed for the crew tip option. It is part of the online payment flow.
How a Customer Pays an Invoice Online by Credit Card
If a customer needs help paying an invoice online by credit card, guide them through the following steps:
Click the invoice link provided by email. The invoice page opens with the Services Performed panel and the amount due.
Make sure the payment amount is correct. To change it, click Edit, enter the new amount, then click Save. The Amount Due figure updates.
Note: The payment amount cannot be greater than the amount due.
Enter the name, street address, and postal code for the card.
Accept the payment authorization terms, then click Next. The Add a tip for your crew? step opens.
Choose a tip percentage tile, choose No tip, or type an amount in Tip Amount, then click Continue to Payment. The card page opens.
Enter the credit card information.
Click Pay Now. The card is charged the payment amount plus any tip, and the confirmation screen shows the payment with a Crew Tip row when a tip was added.
Adding a Tip for the Crew When Paying an Invoice Online
Can a customer add a tip when paying an invoice online? Yes.
The "Add a tip for your crew?" step appears during the online payment flow, and the tip is charged with the payment and recorded on the invoice as a crew tip.
Where the tip step appears
Credit card: after the customer clicks Next on the payment form, before the card page.
E-Check entered during payment: after the bank details screen, before the confirmation screen. The advance button reads Next while the tip step is still to come.
Saved E-Check account: the tip step is the first screen, because there are no bank details to enter.
What the tip step shows
The heading Add a tip for your crew? and the line Tips are optional and go to the crew from your move.
Three percentage tiles, 20%, 15%, and 10%, each showing the dollar amount it works out to. On a phone the tiles stack two across.
A No tip tile.
A Tip Amount field that is always available, so a customer can type any amount.
A running summary showing Payment Amount, Crew Tip, and Total.
Back and Continue to Payment buttons.
How the tip percentages are calculated
The three tiles are a percentage of the invoice's remaining balance, sales tax included. They are not a percentage of the amount the customer is paying on this transaction.
Worked example: an invoice with a $1,080.00 remaining balance shows tiles of $216.00 for 20%, $162.00 for 15%, and $108.00 for 10%.
The tip is for the whole job, so a customer paying part of the balance still sees tiles based on the full remaining balance.
Typing a tip amount
A customer can enter any amount from $0.00 upward, with up to two decimal places.
There is no upper limit on the tip, and the tip is allowed to be larger than the payment amount.
Typing over a percentage tile clears that tile's highlight.
An entry that is negative or has more than two decimal places shows Please enter a valid tip amount. and Continue to Payment stays inactive until it is corrected.
What the customer sees update as they choose
The Crew Tip, Total, and Amount Due figures in the Services Performed panel move as the customer picks a tip.
On a phone, the amount in the banner at the top of the page updates too.
On a credit card payment, the processing fee is calculated on the payment amount plus the tip, so the fee shown matches what the card is charged. The tip step states which fee applies and at what rate.
E-Check has no card processing fee, so no fee note appears on the E-Check tip step. The bank account is debited the payment amount plus the tip.
Using the Add Tip and Edit Tip Link on the Invoice Summary
The Services Performed panel carries a link next to the Crew Tip row that returns the customer to the tip step.
The link reads Add Tip before a tip is chosen, and Edit Tip once a tip is chosen but not yet paid.
The link appears only while a payment form is open and can reach the tip step. It is not offered on the payment options list, on the card processor's own screen, or on a failed transaction screen.
The link is not offered on an invoice that already carries a recorded tip, because an invoice holds one tip.
When a Tip Cannot Be Added to an Online Invoice Payment
The tip step is skipped in these cases. This is by design, not an error.
The invoice already carries a tip. A tip is set once per invoice, including a tip the crew collected in person. No tip option is offered.
The customer is paying a deposit. A deposit is taken before the work is done, so there is nothing to tip for.
The customer is paying with a card on file. The card-on-file payment path has no tip step.
The customer is paying a self storage invoice from the Storage page. Storage payments have no tip option. A residential job that carries a Storage In Bound or Storage Out Bound service is tipped like any other job.
Other things worth knowing:
If a tip is added to the invoice from another place while the customer is partway through paying, the payment is refused with the message This invoice already includes a tip. and nothing is charged.
Changing the payment amount after choosing a tip sends the customer back through the tip step, with the earlier choice still filled in.
No tip is recorded if the customer abandons the payment or the payment is declined.
How the Crew Tip Appears After the Payment
The tip is recorded on the invoice's job as a crew tip once the payment clears, the same way a tip the crew collects in person is recorded.
The confirmation screen shows a Crew Tip row for both card and E-Check payments.
The opportunity's activity log records the entry Customer added a tip of $X on job [job number] while paying the invoice online. The change is attributed to the customer.
The invoice document is built from what has been billed, so it does not include the tip until the payment clears. While a tip is selected, a note under the invoice buttons reads This invoice does not include the tip you selected. It will be added after you pay.
An E-Check that clears and later bounces or is voided reverses the money but leaves the recorded tip on the invoice. A card chargeback behaves the same way. Adjust the tip on the job if the payment is reversed.
The job's crew wages are marked out of date, because the tip changes what the crew is owed. See Finding Jobs With Out-of-Date Crew Wages for how to catch these before you run payroll.
QuickBooks and crew tips
For companies synced to QuickBooks, a tip on a finalized job queues the QuickBooks invoice for regeneration so the Tips line reaches it.
A QuickBooks item must be mapped for Tips. Without that mapping the tip is left off the QuickBooks invoice, and the payment does not apply because it is larger than the invoice.
💡 SmartTip: Map a QuickBooks item for Tips before you turn customers loose on online payments. It takes a minute and it prevents a stuck payment on every tipped invoice.
Multiple Payments
If the customer makes multiple payments, some fields reflect only the last payment made and others reflect all payments made.
The invoice amount shows the amount due before any payments were made.
The payments show all previous payments.
The credit card fee includes the fee for the last payment made only.
The balance shows the invoice amount minus the amount paid and the credit card fee.
A tip is set once per invoice, so a customer who pays in instalments is offered the tip step on the first payment and not on later ones.
Best Practices
Map a QuickBooks item for Tips before your first tipped online payment, so tipped invoices sync cleanly.
Check the Crew Wages Out of Date filter on the Accounting Jobs list before you close a payroll period, so a customer tip reaches the crew.
Tell your crews that a customer can tip at the online payment step, so they do not ask for a second tip on a job that already carries one.
Review the opportunity activity log when a tip amount is questioned. It records who added the tip and when.
Adjust the tip on the job by hand if an E-Check bounces or a card payment is charged back, since the recorded tip stays on the invoice.
Troubleshooting
The tip step does not appear when the customer pays online. Check whether the invoice already carries a tip, whether the customer is paying a deposit, whether they are paying with a card on file, and whether this is a self storage invoice paid from the Storage page. A tip step is skipped in all four cases.
The customer sees the message "This invoice already includes a tip." and nothing is charged. A tip reached the invoice from another place while the customer was partway through paying. Reload the invoice page and take the payment again. The tip already on the invoice stands.
The invoice PDF does not show the tip the customer selected. The invoice document is built from what has been billed. The tip is added once the payment clears, so regenerate or reopen the invoice after that point.
A tipped invoice will not sync to QuickBooks, or the payment will not apply. No QuickBooks item is mapped for Tips, so the tip is left off the QuickBooks invoice and the payment is larger than the invoice total. Map a QuickBooks item for Tips, then resync the invoice.
The crew was paid without the customer's tip. The job's crew wages went out of date when the tip landed. Reopen the payroll period, recalculate that job's crew wages, and pay the difference. Use the Crew Wages Out of Date filter on the Accounting Jobs list to find affected jobs.
Want to learn more?
Create & Send Invoices