RoasterPay: How to Send a Payment Request
A payment request emails your customer a link that takes them straight to a specific invoice in the Billing Portal, where they can pay with a saved payment method or add a new one. It's the fastest way to nudge a customer to pay a single invoice without picking up the phone.
Note: Payment requests are only available for accounts processing payments through RoasterPay
When to Send a Payment Request
Payment requests are useful when you want the customer to take action on one specific invoice:
- An invoice is past its due date and you want to give the customer a direct path to pay
- A customer is on Terms and doesn't have a payment method on file for you to charge
- A customer asked for a link so they can pay from their phone or forward it to their bookkeeper
- You collected a deposit and want the customer to pay the remaining balance
If instead you want to charge a customer yourself using a card or bank account already on file, you don't need a payment request — see RoasterPay: How to Process Payments.
Before You Start
A few settings need to be in place for a payment request to work:
-
Portal enabled for the customer — customers need portal access to log in and pay. You can turn this on from the Customer page. See RoasterPay: Wholesale Billing Portal.
Note: they do not need the billing portal enabled, just the ordering portal.
- Payment methods enabled for the customer — your customer can only pay with the methods you've allowed. Check under Customers > Search > Edit > Payment Methods.
- The invoice total is final — make sure shipping and tax are set before you send.
How to Send a Payment Request
- Go to Orders and click into the order you want to collect on. The Payment Due Today and Payment Overdue tabs are good places to start.
- Scroll to the payment section of the order.
- Click Request Payment.
- The customer receives an email with a link directly to that invoice in the portal
The customer needs to have the portal enabled and a login to view and make a payment
Video walkthrough: see how to send payment request links here — https://share.cleanshot.com/nDQhJTCw
(NOTE: sending the invoice does not include the link to pay yet)
What Your Customer Sees
The payment request email contains a link to the specific invoice you sent it from. When the customer clicks it:
- They will need to log into the portal to complete the payment.
- Their default payment method is pre-selected, and they can switch methods or add a new one — limited to the payment types you've enabled for them.
- From that invoice they can select back to invoices to see their full list of open and paid invoices.
If Payment Confirmations are turned on for your account, the customer will also get an automatic receipt email once the payment processes. See RoasterPay: Automatic Payment Notifications.
Payment Request vs. Email Invoice
These two emails look similar but do different jobs:
| Payment Request | Email Invoice | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Get the customer to pay now | Give the customer their invoice for records |
| Includes a pay link | Yes — links straight to the invoice in the Billing Portal | No |
| PDF attached | No | Yes — Invoice-[order number].pdf |
| Can send in bulk | One order at a time | Yes — Batch Actions > Email Invoices |
| Requires RoasterPay | Yes | No |
Many roasters send the invoice first, then follow up with a payment request when the due date arrives. For more on invoice emails, see Invoices: How to send and Track Invoice Emails.
Tips & FAQs
Q: Does the payment request include a PDF of the invoice?
A: No. PDF attachments are only included when you use Email Invoice. Your customer can download a current PDF themselves from the Billing Portal.
Q: Can my customer pay without logging in?
A: No. The link takes them to the invoice, but they'll need to log into the portal to complete payment. Make sure the portal is enabled for that customer before you send.
Q: Can I send payment requests for several orders at once?
A: Not currently — payment requests are sent one order at a time. If you need to collect on many orders, use Batch Actions > Create Payment to charge saved payment methods instead. See RoasterPay: How to Process Payments.
Q: Can I resend a payment request?
A: Yes. Send it again from the same order at any time.
Q: My customer says the link doesn't work.
A: Check that the portal is enabled for that customer and that they have at least one allowed payment method. If it still isn't working, reach out to support@roastertools.com.