Please note: Karbon Payments is only available for firms in the following regions: US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand.
Index
What is Karbon Payments
Once you have sent invoices to your clients using Karbon Billing, Karbon Payments handles the payment collection process for you.
Setting up a Karbon Payments account allows your clients to securely pay the invoices they receive, seamlessly via card or ACH direct debit (US).
Security of Karbon Payments
Karbon Payments is powered by Stripe Connect to securely collect your payments in Karbon. Stripe is a large financial provider that is a PCI Service Provider Level 1. This means they take care of all of the compliance to run payments. See further details here: https://stripe.com/docs/security
Pricing
By adding a payment account you agree to the transaction fees. You can find an overview of fees on our pricing page.
Set up Karbon Payments
Ensure you have access to Karbon Payments
In order to access Karbon Payments, users will need to have "Billing Access", as well as the "Manage Karbon Payments accounts" permission under their user permissions in their profile. This will then allow them to be able to create or maintain Karbon Payments accounts.
Add a Karbon Payments account
First, you will need to add a Karbon Payments account under Settings > Billing > Karbon Payments > Add Payment Account.
Please note: The account currency is based on the firm's currency and region found under Settings > Account Settings, accessible to users with admin permissions. If you do not have admin permissions in Karbon, an info message will inform you to contact an admin user for access.
When you click on Add Payment Account, it will prompt you to ensure you have the following details on hand for the next steps.
Karbon partners with Stripe to securely collect your payments in Karbon. When you click Continue, this will take you to the Stripe onboarding form. Please proceed to complete the onboarding form with the requested details to finalize the set up of your Karbon Payments account.
Manage your Karbon Payments Accounts
Setting your primary Payments account
When you have more than one account, you can use the 3 dot menu to change the account that's nominated as your primary account under Settings > Billing. This is the account where the firm's payouts will be delivered. Payments are processed by whichever account is primary at the time of processing.
Updating an Incomplete Payments Account
If a Payment account's details are incomplete, only the account owner can update the details of their account. You can see the account owner on the right side of the table.
To the right of the account you would like to update, click on the 3 dot menu (...) > Update Account. You'll need to go through the form and find any missing requirements. Please let support know if you need help with this.
Receiving Karbon Payments
When a client pays an invoice using Karbon Payments and it is successfully processed, the invoice will automatically move to the Paid section in Invoices, as well as be reflected in the Payments and Payouts Report.
You’ll receive payouts on business days. Due to verification, your first payout will take slightly longer to arrive in your bank account, typically about a week. Following this, payouts should arrive 2 business days after the card payment. ACH direct debit payments (US only) take a little longer - usually several days.
Your client's experience of paying an invoice
With your Karbon payments active:
when your client receives their invoice via email, they will see a Review and Pay button to make payment.
After clicking Review and Pay, it will take your client via a secure magic link to the Client Portal to access the invoice. In the top-left corner, they will see a Pay Invoice button to proceed to the payment screen after they have reviewed.
The payment screen in the Client Portal will allow them to securely input their card payment details. Once entered, they will complete the payment by clicking the Pay now button at the bottom of the screen.
Finally, your client will see "Invoice Paid" at the top of the page when the payment has been completed successfully.
ACH direct debit (for US only)
For US-based clients, ACH direct debit payments are also available as a payment method, which provides an affordable and automated payment collection option.
When you issue invoices to your clients, they can securely connect their bank account and save their payment details for automatic future payments.
Auto-Pay
Anyone with a Karbon Payments account will be offering Auto-Pay as an option to their clients. Auto-Pay helps save time for both your client and your firm. Your client avoids having to input payment details on every invoice, and this helps your firm avoid chasing debt.
How Auto-Pay Works:
When the client sends an invoice, there will be a handy 'Pay Now' link.
After clicking the link, the client will see the option to enter and then save their details. This saving of details is what we call Auto-Pay. Their next invoice will automatically be paid on the due date — regardless of amount or work type — using the saved details.
For cards, clients must opt-in to Auto-Pay (they need to check a tick box).
For Direct Debit, clients must opt-out (the tick box is already ticked to save payment details, but they can untick it if desired).
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