Accept card payments
Let clients pay sent invoices by card through Stripe Checkout, with payments recorded automatically and invoices flipped to Paid.
Once Stripe is live, your sent invoices carry a Pay button. Clients pay by card through Stripe Checkout on your connected account, and Hoursmith records the payment for you.
- Plan
- Studio
- Role
- OwnerAdminManager
Online payments must be enabled on your Hoursmith instance, you need a Studio or Agency plan, and Stripe must be connected with Charges enabled: Yes.
When the Pay button appears
The Pay button shows on the public invoice page
(/i/[token]) and in the client portal when all of
these are true:
- the invoice is Sent,
- payments are enabled and Stripe Charges enabled is Yes, and
- the invoice has a positive balance still due.
How a card payment flows
Send the invoice
Send the invoice so it moves to Sent. The client gets an email with a link to the public invoice page.
The client clicks Pay
On the public invoice page or in the client portal, the client clicks Pay and is taken to Stripe Checkout running on your connected account.
Stripe confirms the payment
After the client pays, a webhook tells Hoursmith. Hoursmith records the payment, adds it to the amount paid on the invoice, and — once the full balance is covered — flips the invoice to Paid.
Card payments record themselves through Stripe's webhook, so you don't need to mark anything by hand. Partial card payments accumulate until the balance reaches zero.
Where clients pay
The same public page (/i/[token]) is reachable three ways:
- the invoice email link,
- the public invoice link you copy and share, and
- the client portal (Studio+), where signed-in contacts see their invoices.
Clients never need a Hoursmith account to pay — the public link is enough.
Offering card alongside bank transfer
You can decide, per invoice, whether clients pay by card, bank transfer, or both, and optionally add a card processing fee. See Payment methods.
Troubleshooting
- No Pay button on a sent invoice. Confirm Stripe is connected with Charges enabled: Yes and the invoice still has a balance due. See Connect Stripe.
- The client reports an error at checkout. See Client can't pay.
- The link won't open. See Invoice link broken.