Collecting payment

Clients can pay you by card, either from a link you send or when they book online. The money goes straight to your own Stripe account and on to your bank; AfterInspect never holds it. This article is for Canadian accounts, and amounts are in Canadian dollars. Accounts registered on the US site cannot take client payments yet, and their Payments page says "Client payments are not available for your account yet."

Before you start

Taking payments needs a Stripe account, set up once by the account owner or an admin. Everything after that, such as payouts, bank details, refunds and disputes, is handled on Stripe's own pages.

Connect Stripe

1. Open Account, then Payments. The page is headed Client payments.
2. It shows one of four states: Not set up yet, Setup in progress, Ready to take payments or Needs attention, with a line saying what it means.
3. Tap Set up payments. You are taken to Stripe to confirm your identity and bank details. When you come back, the page asks Stripe and shows the new state.
4. If you stop part way, the button reads Continue setup. If Stripe has paused your account, the state is Needs attention and Open Stripe dashboard shows what it needs. That button appears once you have started, and opens Stripe in a new tab.

The Fees section at the bottom of the page states Stripe's card fee and that AfterInspect adds no fee of its own. Stripe sets its own rate and can change it, so read the current figure there, and for AfterInspect's own prices see the Pricing page on the website.

Until the state is Ready to take payments, the options below are switched off or tell you to set up payments first.

The pictures in this article of a connected account, a waiting payment link and a paid payment are illustrations made on a test site with invented amounts. Your own screen shows your real account and payments.

Ask a client to pay

1. Open the inspection and find the Payment box. If payments are not ready it says "Set up payments before asking this client to pay." with a link.
2. In Amount to request, type an amount, or leave it blank for "the full amount still owed". If the inspection came from a booking with a service price, the amount cannot go above what is still owed. If it has no priced service, you must type an amount.
3. Tap Create payment link. The payment appears in a list under the box.
4. Tap Copy payment link and send it to your client yourself, by text or email. Creating the link does not email anyone.

Each row shows the amount, its status and a date. The statuses are Waiting for payment, Paid, Partly refunded, Refunded, Failed and Disputed.

What the client sees

The client opens the link and is sent on to a payment page hosted by Stripe, titled "Home inspection" with the property address. They pay by card there, and AfterInspect does not handle their card details. When it goes through they are brought back to a page that says "Thank you. Your payment went through." and a receipt is emailed to them, "Receipt:" with the amount. You get an email too, "Payment received:" with the amount.

If a client opens a link twice, the newest page replaces the older one, so two tabs cannot both be paid. If the link has already been paid, the page says "This payment has already been made". If your Stripe account is not ready, it says "Payment isn't available right now" and asks them to contact you.

Remind a client

• Tap Send reminder on a waiting payment, in the Payment box or in the Waiting for payment list. It emails the client the link again, "Reminder:" with the amount. It needs a client email on the inspection, and it will not send twice in a day: the Waiting for payment list greys the button, and the Payment box says "A reminder was sent for this payment in the last day."
• Or switch on automatic reminders under Account, Client emails: "Email a client up to two reminders, three days apart, if they have not paid their payment link". That tick box only appears once payments are on. See Client emails and automations.

Ask for a deposit when a client books

Under Availability, in the Limits box, Payment when a client books online can be Don't ask for payment, Ask for a deposit or Ask for the full price. For a deposit, set Deposit (% of the service price) from 1 to 99.

1. Give every service you offer a price first. Saving is refused with "Give every service you offer a price before asking clients to pay at booking." otherwise.
2. Choose the option. Saving is also refused with "Finish setting up payments under Account > Payments before asking clients to pay at booking." if Stripe is not ready.
3. Tap Save availability.

A client who is booked at once then sees a Pay now button next to the booking confirmation. A client whose booking is only a request is not asked to pay; you send them a payment link after you accept it. See Online booking and availability and Booking requests.

Hold the report until the client has paid

Tick Hold the report until the client has paid in the same box. The tick box is available once Stripe is ready. When the client then opens the share link for a report, they see "Your report is ready" and "Pay to view your report" instead, and the report opens as soon as the payments cover the service price. The hold only applies to an inspection that has a service with a price, which in practice means one that came through your booking page; an inspection with no priced service is never held. Your own preview of the report, the report email and the share state are not affected. If your Stripe account stops being ready, clients are let in rather than locked out. See Share the link and email the client.

See who has paid

• Badges. A small label beside an inspection's address in your Inspections list and Coming up box shows Unpaid, Partly paid, Paid, Refunded or Disputed. An inspection with no payment link shows nothing.
• Waiting for payment. On the Payments page, one row per inspection with an unpaid link: the address, amount, client, "sent (date)" and "last reminded (date)", with Copy payment link and Send reminder.
• Paid by clients. On a contact's page, a tile adds up card payments received, less refunds. See Contacts.

Refund a payment

1. In the Payment box, tap Refund on a paid payment. Only the account owner or an admin sees it.
2. In Refund amount, type an amount, or leave it blank to refund everything that has not been refunded. The box's hint shows what is left to refund.
3. Tap Refund.

Stripe makes the refund and tells AfterInspect when it is done, so the row can take a moment to show Partly refunded or Refunded. If Stripe refuses, the app shows its message.

Export payments

On the Payments page, Export payments gives you a spreadsheet for your bookkeeping and GST filing. Only the owner or an admin sees it.

1. Choose From and To. They start as the first of this month and today. The range can be up to a year.
2. Tap Download CSV. The file is named "payments-(from)-to-(to).csv".

It has one row for each payment that was paid between those dates, in your account's time zone, with the columns Paid date, Property, Client, Inspection date, Amount, Refunded, Net, Platform fee, Currency, Status, Payment ID and Stripe payment ID. Refunded is what has been refunded so far, whenever the refund was made, and Net is Amount less Refunded. Platform fee is AfterInspect's own fee on the payment; it is 0.00 while AfterInspect adds no fee. A name or address that starts with a character a spreadsheet would run as a formula is saved with a leading apostrophe so it stays plain text.

If something goes wrong

• The Payments page says "Client payments are not available for your account yet." Payments are not offered to your account.
• "Could not open Stripe. Try again in a moment." The link to Stripe did not open. Tap the button again.
• "Ask the account owner or an admin to finish this setup." Only owners and admins can start Stripe setup.
• "Finish setting up payments under Account > Payments before asking a client to pay." The state is not Ready to take payments yet.
• "This inspection is already paid in full." There is nothing left to request.
• "The amount must be more than zero and no more than what is still owed." Lower the amount.
• "Enter the amount to charge; this inspection has no service price." Type an amount.
• "Could not send the reminder." The email did not send, or the client has no email on the inspection. The app may give a more specific reason, such as "The reminder email could not be sent. Try again in a moment."
• "Could not export the payments. Check the dates (a year at most) and try again." Shorten the range.
• The client cannot open the link. Make sure you copied the whole link. If the page says it is not available, create a new one.