How to accept online payments on invoices (and get paid faster)

In short: Add a “pay now” link to your invoice so the client can pay by card in a click, instead of copying your IBAN into their banking app. With Tally Crow you accept online payments on invoices through an optional pay-now link powered by Stripe, and you are the merchant of record, so the money is yours. You pay a small application fee (2% on Free, 1% on Basic, 0.5% on Pro) plus Stripe’s own card-processing fee on top.

The fastest way to get paid late is to make paying you a chore. If a client has to open their banking app, type in your IBAN and BIC, get the reference right, and remember to actually press send, some of them just won’t get to it today. Letting them pay the invoice online removes every one of those steps. This guide explains why that gets you paid faster, how online payment works in Tally Crow, and exactly what it costs, fees included.

Why does online payment get you paid faster?

Because it turns paying you into a single click while the invoice is still in front of them.

A manual bank transfer asks the client to do the work: switch apps, copy your details, double-check the reference, and confirm. Every one of those steps is a chance to put it off. An online pay link does the opposite. The client opens the invoice, taps “pay now”, enters their card, and it’s done. No IBAN to mistype, no reference to forget.

That matters most in the first day or two after you send, when the invoice is fresh and the client is thinking about you. Make it easy to pay right then and more people simply do. For more on the timing and the follow-up, see how to get clients to pay on time.

How does pay-now work in Tally Crow?

It’s an optional pay link on the invoice, powered by Stripe. You switch it on, the client gets a “pay now” button, and the money lands in your account.

Here’s the shape of it:

1. You connect Stripe once. Tally Crow uses Stripe to handle the card payment. You set this up from inside the app, and it only needs doing the first time.
2. You add a pay-now link to an invoice. It’s optional and per-invoice, so you decide which invoices carry a pay button and which are bank-transfer only.
3. The client pays by card in a click. They open the invoice, choose “pay now”, and enter their card details on a secure Stripe payment page.
4. The money is yours. You are the merchant of record, so the payment goes to you through your own Stripe account, not into Tally Crow and back out again.

That last point is the important one. Because you are the merchant of record, this is your money reaching your account. Tally Crow isn’t a middleman holding your funds. It’s your invoice, your Stripe account, your payment.

What does online payment cost?

This is where honesty matters, so here it is plainly. There are two separate fees on an online payment, and they are not the same thing.

• Tally Crow’s application fee. A small percentage of the payment, and it depends on your plan: 2% on Free, 1% on Basic, and 0.5% on Pro.
• Stripe’s own card-processing fee. Stripe charges its own separate fee for handling the card payment, on top of Tally Crow’s application fee. That fee is Stripe’s, set by Stripe, and it applies whichever plan you’re on.

So the total cost of taking a card payment is Tally Crow’s application fee plus Stripe’s processing fee. Neither replaces the other. When you’re deciding whether the convenience is worth it, weigh both against the value of being paid days sooner rather than chasing a transfer.

The pay-now fee is one reason people upgrade

Because the application fee drops as you move up a plan (2% to 1% to 0.5%), a freelancer taking a lot of card payments can save more on fees than the plan costs. It’s one of the practical reasons people move from Free to Basic or Pro, alongside the higher invoice and client limits. You can compare the plans on the pricing page.

Which currencies can clients pay in online?

Bank transfer works for any invoice currency. The online pay button covers the currencies Stripe supports.

You can raise an invoice in any currency in Tally Crow, and you can always be paid by bank transfer whatever that currency is. The online pay-now button is the part that depends on Stripe: it’s available for the currencies Stripe handles. For euros and the major currencies, that means the pay button is there out of the box.

If you happen to invoice in a currency Stripe doesn’t support, nothing breaks. The invoice still sends and the client still pays, just by bank transfer rather than the one-click online button. So it’s worth being precise: this isn’t “get paid online in any currency”, it’s “get paid online in the currencies Stripe supports, and by bank transfer in the rest.”

Is it safe, and who holds the money?

You do. The payment goes to you, through your own Stripe account, because you are the merchant of record.

Stripe is one of the most widely used card-payment providers in the world, and the card details are entered on Stripe’s own secure payment page, not stored by Tally Crow. Your client is paying through infrastructure that handles this for a large share of online businesses.

And because you’re the merchant of record, there’s no arrangement where Tally Crow holds your funds and pays them out later. The money is yours from the moment the client pays. For the full picture of what’s included, see the features page.

Accept online payments on invoices and get paid sooner

If you’re already invoicing in Tally Crow, adding a pay-now link is a small step that can make a real difference to how quickly you’re paid. Connect Stripe once, switch on the pay link for an invoice, and let the client pay in a click. You stay the merchant of record, the money is yours, and the only cost is Tally Crow’s small application fee plus Stripe’s own processing fee.

New to it? You can start free (2 invoices a month, no credit card), and online payments are included on every plan. If you’re still getting the basics down, our guide on how to invoice a client as a freelancer walks through the whole invoice first.

Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about the product and billing.