Getting paid on time is the key to healthy cash flow. Making it simple for your customers to pay your bills means getting paid faster. Properly and professionally established systems can help reduce the number of “When am I going to get paid?” phone calls and dramatically improve your cashflow.

With IntegraPay set up with your Xero account, when you send your customer an online invoice and direct them to use the ‘Pay Now’ button, IntegraPay secure payment page gives the customer the option to pay their invoice by bank account, credit card or debit card right then and there. Customers simply select the preferred option, enter the account or card details and select Process Payment. Voila, the payment has been made and the invoice is recorded as paid in Xero.

Moreover, if you elect to use the ‘Clearing Account method’ for automatically reconciling your bank transactions you get a ‘real’ real time picture of your Accounts Receivables and cash on hand. The advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed at the end of the article.

This article will walk you through the steps required to start accepting Xero Online Invoice payments via IntegraPay, which automatically create payments back to Xero and reconcile them in your Xero file.

Creating Clearing Account in Xero

When you are in your Xero file, go ahead to Settings, then to Chart of Accounts

Click Add Account

Create new Current Asset account. Clearly name it so you can identify it later on. We have used: IntegraPay Clearing Acct in this example. The default tax setting is BAS Excluded. Tick Show in the Dashboard Watchlist so you can keep track of it. Remember, the purpose of a clearing account is to clear transactions, not let them sit there!

IntegraPay Configuration

Login into your IntegraPay Console and select Xero in the main menu. Then click Authorise Your Xero Account.

The page will divert to the Xero login page. Login to your Xero account as normal. Select the appropriate organisation and click Authorise.

The page will then return to the Xero page within the IntegraPay console.

NOTE: If at this stage you are getting an Authorisation error, it is very easy to fix, please have a look at our article: “Easy Fix: Authorisation failed for IntegraPay & Xero“.

In the IntegraPay console under Xero go to the heading Config Settings.

Select the account that you want IntegraPay payments to be processed into, in our case it is 161 – IntegraPay Clearing Acct.

To choose your account сlick Change Account and select your preferred account, then click Save Account.

Xero Configuration

To set IntegraPay up as a Payment Service, open a new browser tab and login to XERO

1. Click on Settings / General Settings in the main menu
2. Click on Invoice Settings

Within the Invoice Settings page click on the Payment Services button, click +Add Payment Service, click on Custom Payment URL in the menu list.

In the Add Custom URL dialog box, type IntegraPay into the Name field. Return to the IntegraPay Console tab, navigate to the Configuration Setting section, copy the Custom URL and paste it into Xero (it is quite long).

Upon save, the Active Payment Services page will appear, displaying IntegraPay as an Active Payment Service. Click Manage themes.

Apply IntegraPay payment method to appropriate themes. Our recommendation is to create a separate theme for Single Invoicing.

WARNING: If you are running recurring Direct Debit for your payments, do not apply this payment method to this invoices. As practise shows, Pay Now online payments are so convenient that people will accidentally pay you twice in a lot of cases. We’re not even joking!

When the customer clicks the ‘Pay Now’ button, they will be directed to a secure and customised page where they can make payment using their preferred credit / debit card or bank account.

NOTE: the payment page can be customised to include your company’s logo and the relevant card or account surcharges, if you have elected to pass these on to your customer.

Once your customer has completed the payment page and clicked Process Payment, a successful payment will return the following notification and the customer will automatically receive an email confirming their payment.

Payments made by credit / debit card will be updated in Xero as soon as a successful payment has been processed.

If the customer has elected to pay by bank account, the invoice will be automatically updated in Xero, upon settlement of the payment from IntegraPay to your business.

Pros and Cons

Advantages:

• Faster collection of payments from your customers = reduced average debtor days
• Ability to see real time updated Accounts Receivables without extra manual reconciliations.

Disadvantages:

• This method does not take into account one off transactions made via virtual terminal in your IntegraPay console and BPay payments. You will need to balance them out manually.

http://www.avers.com.au/Bookkeeping/Blog/Online-Invoice-Payments-with-IntegraPay-and-Xero/

Lloyd Priddle

Lloyd has had a very successful career as an accountant, director and author for almost 40 years. Holding post-graduate qualifications in Business, Lloyd has specialised in Business Development, and worked with the Queensland Government and local councils on numerous occasions through association with AusIndustry and the SBAS Natural Disaster Assistance Program. He is also board member of a number of commercial and not-for-profit entities.