Creating a Payment Link

A payment link lets a buyer pay a deal from their own phone or computer — a down payment, a deposit, or the whole balance. Because it is created inside the deal jacket, what they pay lands against that deal and the balance updates itself. For a payment that belongs to no deal, or for taking a card in person, see Taking Payment From a Customer.

Before you start

You need a payment account set up first — Taking Payment From a Customer covers that once-only step.

The deal jacket also needs a vehicle and a buyer saved on it, and something still owed. Without those the button refuses and says which one is missing. See Creating a Deal Jacket.

What it costs

Card and bank payments carry a processing fee, and the Fees step is where you decide who pays it. Left off, you absorb it and receive less than the amount charged. Switched on, it is added to what the customer pays and you receive the full amount.

The review screen shows both figures — Customer pays and Net to dealer — before anything is created, so you never have to work it out yourself. If you pass the fee on, the same step offers to record it as a charge on the deal so the jacket balances.

Rates depend on which payment methods you offer, and the Fees step shows the floor for the set you have selected.

Step by step

1. Open the deal’s Pricing section

Open the deal jacket from Deal Jackets, then click Pricing in its section bar. The Payments block is at the bottom of it, listing everything already paid on this deal.

Payments

2

Name	Type	Amount
Cash down	Cash
Card payment	Card

Total received

Record a paymentAdd templateCharge a card

IllustrationThe Payments block lists what has been paid on the deal, with its actions on a bar along the bottom that stays put however long the list gets. Record a payment is for money already in hand; Charge a card is the one that makes a link.

2. Start the payment

Click Charge a card. (The button beside it, Record a payment, is for money you already have in hand — cash, a check, a card you ran elsewhere. It does not create a link.)

3. Answer the wizard

Step	What it settles
Mode	A one-time payment, or a recurring schedule. If the deal already has buy-here-pay-here or lease terms, Apply BHPH Setup / Apply Lease Setup fills the schedule in from them.
Channel	Online (a link the customer opens) or a card reader in front of you.
Amount	What you want to receive, and a description the customer sees on their receipt.
Methods	Which payment methods to offer. Cards and wallets start on; Bank debit and Buy now, pay later start off until you switch them on. Some are unavailable on a payment plan, and some have amount limits — the step grays those out and says why.
Fees	Who pays the processing fee, and whether to record it on the deal.
Balance	Appears only when there is a fee to add to the deal jacket.
Review	Customer pays, net to dealer, and the resulting balance.

Finish with Create Payment Link.

4. Send it

The Share Payment Link window opens on its own. It offers:

• a QR code the buyer can scan from your screen,
• copy the link, or open it in a new tab,
• Send via Email to the buyer’s address, pre-filled from the deal jacket,
• Send via WhatsApp, where that is available for your dealership.

You can re-open this window later from the payment’s own menu.

Share Payment Link

Choose how to share the payment link with your customer

Amount Due

Scan QR code to pay

Payment Link

pay.mydealerjacket.com/p/8fK2wQ

Or send directly

Email

maria@example.com

Send via Email

Phone

(305) 555-0142

Send via WhatsApp

Customer can pay using any of these methods. Confirmation will appear here automatically.

Close

IllustrationThe share window puts the amount and a QR code on one side and every way of sending the link on the other — the link itself with copy and open buttons, then an email field and a phone field, each with its own send button. The QR is generated from the same URL, so a customer at the desk and one reading an email land on the same page.

What the customer sees

A single page showing the amount due, your dealership’s name, their name and the vehicle, with the payment form beside it. They pick from the methods you enabled. Nothing else about the deal is visible to them.

When they pay, the payment appears as paid on the deal jacket without you doing anything.

Managing it afterwards

Each payment is a row in the Payments block, and in Payments → Payment Tracker.

• Open the payment to see its status, the method used, the fee taken, and to issue a refund — full or partial.
• Cancel a payment that has not been paid. The link stops working and the customer sees a notice saying so.
• Share it again from the same menu.

Caution

Once a payment has been paid or refunded, Send Email and Send WhatsApp will not send it again — use copy or the QR code to pass on the receipt link instead. The customer is emailed a receipt automatically when they pay, provided we had an address for them.

If it will not let you continue

What it says	Why
Please select a vehicle	The deal jacket has no vehicle on it yet
Please select a buyer	The deal jacket has no buyer on it yet
No payment due	The deal’s balance is already zero — nothing to charge
Please save changes before creating a payment link	There are unsaved edits on the deal; save first so the amount is real
At least one payment method must be enabled	Every method on the Methods step is switched off, or all of them are blocked by the amount
Charge a card is missing	Your user cannot edit this deal jacket — an account admin changes it in Settings → Users
Create Payment Link is refused at the last step	Your user can edit the deal but does not have permission to create payments. An account admin turns on Create payments — and Create payment plans as well, for a recurring schedule — in Settings → Users

After you finish

If this deal is one you are carrying yourself, the installments that follow are tracked in Collections and Payment Schedules. Every payment you take, on any deal, also lands in the daily money report — see Reports.