Getting paid online

BayDocket can text a customer a secure pay link for an invoice, take the card payment on a Stripe-hosted page, and record the payment on the invoice by itself. If your shop charges cards on the Square app instead, BayDocket can spot those charges and suggest them against the matching invoice, so recording one is a single click.

Both features live in Settings → Payments & plan, and both assume you already know how invoices work — see Invoices and payments first if you don’t.

Set up card payments (Stripe)

Card payments run on your shop’s own Stripe account. Your shop is the merchant of record: your shop’s name appears on the customer’s card statement, and payouts go straight to your bank. Stripe’s standard processing fee comes out of your payout — BayDocket adds no fee of its own on top.

1. Open Settings and choose Payments & plan.
2. In the Getting paid group, on the Card payments row, click Enable card payments.
3. You are sent to Stripe to enter your business and bank details. Stripe handles identity checks and compliance — BayDocket never sees your banking information.
4. When you finish, you land back on Settings. Once Stripe verifies the account, the row shows Active and a Stripe dashboard link replaces the button.

The Getting paid group in Settings. The Card payments row connects Stripe; the Square row below it connects Square.

Tip: if the row still says Not connected after you return from Stripe, click Enable card payments again — it resumes an unfinished onboarding, or re-checks a finished one.

Role note: only the Owner can connect Stripe or Square — a payment account is shop identity. Owners and Advisors can both send pay links and record payments once it’s connected.

Text a pay link

Pay links are sent from the invoice screen. You need:

• an invoice with a balance still owed (the link always charges the current remaining balance — no partial or custom amounts),
• card payments showing Active in Settings,
• a customer with a phone number on file that can receive texts, who hasn’t opted out (see Text messaging).

To send one:

1. Open the repair order and view its invoice.
2. Click Text pay link. The customer gets a text with a link to a payment page for this invoice, and a note under the button confirms the number it went to.
3. Need to send it again? The button now reads Resend pay link. Each send creates a fresh link and cancels the previous one — only the newest link works.

Note: a pay link stays valid for 14 days. It also dies naturally if the invoice stops being payable — reopening the repair order voids the invoice and kills the link, and a link opened after the balance hits zero shows a paid receipt instead of a pay button.

What the customer sees

The link opens a simple page with your shop’s name, address, and phone at the top, the invoice number, the total, any amount already paid, and the Balance due. The customer taps Pay now and enters their card on a Stripe-hosted checkout page — card details never touch BayDocket.

The customer’s view of a pay link: shop letterhead, invoice number, balance due, and one button.

When the charge goes through, BayDocket records the payment on the invoice automatically, with the Stripe reference attached. If it covers the full balance, the repair order moves to Paid on its own — no one at the counter has to do anything. The customer sees a paid-in-full receipt on the same page (if they return to it a moment before the payment finishes recording, it shows a brief processing message instead).

The amount charged is always the balance at the moment the customer pays. If they hand you cash for part of it after you sent the link, the link charges only what’s left.

Record Square payments automatically

If your shop taps cards on the Square app, keep doing exactly that — Square still charges the card. Connecting Square just lets BayDocket see completed Square payments so you don’t have to type them into the invoice a second time.

To connect: in Settings → Payments & plan, on the Square row, click Connect Square, sign in to Square, and approve access. The row shows Connected when it’s done.

From then on, when you open an invoice that still has a balance, BayDocket checks for recent Square payments that match it and shows each one as a banner above the payment form — the amount, the card brand and last four digits, and when it was taken.

A matching Square charge suggested on the invoice. One click on Record payment books it.

Click Record payment on the banner and the payment lands on the invoice with the Square reference attached, recorded under your name. If it covers the balance, the repair order moves to Paid.

A few things worth knowing about matching:

• A payment is suggested only when its amount — not counting any tip — equals the invoice balance exactly, and it was taken within the last 7 days. A tip never blocks a match; Square reports it separately.
• A Square charge for a different amount (a partial payment, or two tickets rung up together) is never suggested. Record it manually with the regular payment form — that path is unchanged.
• BayDocket only sees payments taken after you connect. There is no backfill of older Square history.
• The banner loads when you open the invoice. If the customer taps their card while you’re already looking at it, refresh the page.

Note: nothing is ever recorded without your click. BayDocket suggests; a person confirms.

Refunds

Refunds always start where the charge happened: in your Stripe dashboard for pay-link payments, or in Square for Square charges. After refunding the customer there, open the invoice in BayDocket and click Reverse on that payment row so the books match — a reversal is a permanent full-amount entry, covered in Invoices and payments.

Note: a reversed Square payment isn’t suggested a second time. If you need to book that money again later, enter it manually.