In this article you will learn about the:

What is an Invoice?


An invoice is a document that you send to your client after the purchase of goods or services from you, both as a means of recording the sale and requesting payment from them. 

 

What is the difference between a "Receipt" and an "Invoice"?


Invoices are issued before the customer sends the payment, whereas a receipt is issued after the payment has been received. The invoice acts as a request for payment, on the other hand, the receipt acts as proof of payment.

For more information, please check the difference between a receipt and an invoice solution article.

What is the difference between a "Payment page" and an "Invoice"?

Invoice: 

  • The URL includes the word "Invoice".
  • It will show the invoice details and customer details.
  • It includes the "PAY NOW" button to redirect the customer to the payment page.
  • The page will expire based on the expiration date that you selected once you created the invoice, or it will be accessible forever if you did not setup the expiration date until it's paid.



Payment Page:

  • The URL includes the word "payment/page".
  • There is an option to view the invoice. 
  • The page will expire within 20 minutes only once it's opened by the customer, and a new page can be generated once you click on the "Pay now" again.


PayTabs Invoices Features


PayTabs provides you with several features through her invoice service, that can help you to manage your business more professionally.


Digital Invoices

PayTabs Invoice is an electronic invoicing system designed to help you manage, send, and receive payments digitally.



Accept Instant Payments

This means that you can Send, Receive, and Share invoices via QR code, Email, SMS, or social media channels.


Customize and itemize your invoice

 You can customize your invoice theme and fields. Also, there is a multi-currency option that supports your invoices as per your product listing.



Recurring Invoices

With PayTabs, you can set up a recurring process to settle payments daily, weekly, monthly, or even annually.


The recurring feature is only available with our APIs, SDKs, and Plugins integration methods. It cannot be done from the dashboard.


Invoice Payment Workflow:

  1. The merchant creates an invoice.
  2. Then he sends the invoice link to the customer.
  3. Once the invoice activation date comes and before the expiration date, the customer will be able to pay the invoice.
  4. The customer opens the invoice link and clicks on “Pay Now”

    Note that if the date is before the activation date or after the expiration date, the invoice payment will be disabled.

  5. The Payment Page will be opened, customer walk through the payment till the payment is done.

    Once the invoice is paid, the link to the invoice will redirect to the "the invoice is paid" page

  6. Merchants can view all invoices via the Merchant Dashboard.

 

Dealing with Invoices on Merchant Dashboard


Without any integration required, merchants can issue invoices from the dashboard by simply filling out the standard form which includes some main information. Also, it provides you the option to save the invoice for later, you can save and send it by the email provided or even send it by SMS. 


Get to know all the details of How to manage Invoices on PayTabs Dashboard? via this article

Dealing with Invoices via PayTabs Transactional APIs


Invoice APIs enable you to create, cancel, or query any invoice you want via APIs endpoints. Only using Invoices APIs enables you to recurring payments via creating an invoice with tokenization.



Know more by checking this article: Invoices APIs | Initiating the Payment Request