Billing methods

Requires.

• Billing Methods with View on the customer's location to see the list.
• Billing Methods with Modify to create or edit a billing method.
• Billing Methods with Delete to delete a billing method.
• Credit Card Details - Full Control or Bank Account Details - Full Control to view full card or bank numbers.
• View PAN (user-level flag) to reveal the full credit card number on an existing method.

On a lead, the Lead section's Billing Methods permission governs the same actions.

Billing methods are the payment methods on file for a customer — credit cards, bank accounts, or manual billing entries. You manage them from the Accounting area of a customer record. Each customer can have multiple billing methods, and one can be flagged as the default.

Billing methods are available on both customer and lead records. On a lead, the Billing Methods tab and New Billing Method button appear when you hold the Lead section's Billing Methods permission.

Navigation: Home > Customers > [Customer Name] > Accounting > Billing

Sub-customers don't carry their own billing method

If this customer is a linked sub-customer of a parent, you can't add a billing method here — the parent's default billing method is what gets charged for the whole family. Add or update the card or bank account on the parent instead, and it covers every sub-customer that bills through it.

A purple banner at the top of the page names the parent and links straight to their accounting pages.

Heads up. A sub-customer that already had a billing method before it was linked keeps it, and you can still edit it — but nothing charges it. The nightly combined charge always uses the parent's default method.

The parent's default method also sets the family's bill day: every rolled-up invoice comes due on that day of the month, which is what lets several sub-customers consolidate into a single charge. Changing which method is the parent's default therefore changes what gets charged and, if the new method has a different day of the month, when.

Bill day is optional on the form, but not optional for a rollup family. Leave Billing Date blank on a parent's default method and there is no day to pull the invoices onto, so they never consolidate — each one is charged separately on its own due date, with no pre-charge statement. The parent and every sub-customer show a warning in the red box at the top of the record until it is set.

What you see

The billing list is a card-based view of all active billing methods for the customer. Each card shows:

• An ID badge.
• The billing method name (payment type + masked last four digits, e.g. "Visa ****1234").
• A nickname in parentheses, if one has been set.
• A Default badge if this is the customer's default billing method.
• A note/comment, if one exists.

A New Billing Method button appears in the top-right corner when you have modify permission.

Create a billing method

1. Click New Billing Method on the billing list page.
2. Optionally check Default to make this the customer's default billing method.
3. Enter an optional Nickname and Note.
4. Select one or more billing Uses (e.g. Monitoring, Install) from the multi-select pillbox.
5. Set a billing address:
   • Check Same as primary address to use the customer's address (the customer address appears as placeholder text — you can still override individual fields).
   • Or enter a separate billing address: Address 1, Address 2, City, State, Zip.
6. Set the Billing Cycle, Billing Start Date, and Billing Date (day of month).
7. Optionally check ACH if applicable.
8. Under Payment Details, choose a payment type:
   • Credit Card — fill in Card Type (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Other), Name on Card, Card Number, and Card Expiration (4-digit MMYY format).
   • Bank Account — fill in Account Type (Savings, Checking, Other), Bank Name, Bank Institution ID, Account Number, and Routing Number.
   • Manual — no additional fields required.
9. Click Save.

The create/edit form separates general billing-method information from payment details. The top section contains the default flag, nickname, note, uses, billing address, cycle, start date, billing date, and the ACH flag. Payment Details appears as its own section below that and holds the payment type selector; when you choose Credit Card or Bank Account, the related fields appear directly under it.

Edit a billing method

1. Click the billing method name on a card in the list.
2. Make your changes.
3. Click Save.

Heads up. If this billing method already has payments recorded against it, the payment type and sensitive fields (card number, account number, routing number, bank institution ID) are locked and cannot be changed. Create a new billing method if you need different payment details.

Delete a billing method

1. Open the billing method you want to delete.
2. Click Delete (bottom-left of the form).
3. If the billing method is linked to recurring invoices, a modal lists the affected invoices and asks you to select a replacement billing method (or leave it empty to unlink them). Choose a replacement and click Replace and Delete.
4. If no recurring invoices are linked, a simple confirmation dialog appears. Click Delete to confirm.

Note. The Delete button only appears when the billing method is deletable (no active dependencies preventing deletion) and you have the delete permission.

View the full credit card number

When editing a credit card billing method, a View Full Number button appears below the card fields. Clicking it opens a read-only modal showing the unmasked card number.

Requires. The View PAN permission on your user account.

Duplicate detection

If your company has duplicate billing method prevention enabled, SecurityTrax checks whether the credit card or bank account already exists on another customer when you save. If a duplicate is found:

• An error notification appears.
• If you have Duplicates Restriction - Can Override, an Override Duplicate Billing checkbox appears so you can proceed despite the duplicate.

Form fields

Tips

• When deleting a billing method that has recurring invoices, always choose a replacement to avoid disrupting automatic billing.
• Nicknames and notes are validated to prevent accidentally pasting credit card numbers into text fields.
• On some companies the available Billing Date options are restricted by an administrator. If you don't see all 31 days, that's by design.

Related

• Accounting — Transactions — the landing page for the customer's accounting area.
• Invoices — recurring invoices use billing methods for auto-pay.
• Payments — payments recorded against a billing method charge it automatically.