You can easily send invoices to your patients so that they can pay online, using a variety of payment methods! While we have an overview to how to set up online payments right here (you will need to have a Stripe account connected first), this guide will walk you through the basics of how to handle and process online payments right within your Cliniko account. We'll cover:
Read on for more information on all things online payments!
Setting up online payments
First things first, you'll want to set up online payments. This guide covers all the basics. Once you've done that and connected to your Stripe account, you'll be able to customise the online payment settings.
Customise online payment settings
After you've connected to Stripe, you'll be able to customise your online payment settings. This can be done by going to Settings, and then Integrations:
Scroll down to Stripe Payments. You may see an alert that suggests adding online payment links to your invoice email templates—this will show up if you don't have online payment placeholders set up. Head over here to learn how to do that!
Further down on that page, you'll notice a number of options you can customise: automatically email receipt, payment type, show QR code on invoices, default deposit amount, and show "Powered by Stripe" badge:
We'll walk you through what each of these mean!
Automatically email receipt: if Cliniko invoice, Cliniko receipt, or Stripe receipt is selected it means that when the patient pays online, they will automatically receive a receipt upon payment. We have some more information on how to set this up here!
Payment type: any payments taken via the online bookings page will be recorded (in Cliniko) as the payment type you select here. This can be something that already exists (such as "Credit card"). Or you can create a new payment type called "Online payments", or whatever makes sense to you. Just remember: every payment entered via online bookings will be lumped into this category. So if you want an easy way to get an "at-a-glance" view of online payments, it might be worthwhile to create a brand new payment type for the occasion!
Show QR code on invoices: if this is enabled, an online payment QR code will be shown on invoices when they're printed or emailed. Patients can scan this QR code with their mobile device and be brought to an online payment link so that they can pay.
Default deposit amount: the amount that you would require as a deposit for each appointment type, but that can be changed within each appointment type's settings. More information about this setting can be found here.
Show "Powered by Stripe" badge: if enabled, this will display a small badge that says "Powered by Stripe" on the patient-facing payment page. We have more information about it here.
There are more details on setting up your payment types over in this guide. Once you have those set up (along with making sure you have online payment placeholders set up) you’ll be able to send invoices with payment links to your patients!
Sending invoices with payment links to your patients
When it comes time to send the invoices to your patients, there will be a few ways to do so. First things first, the invoice will have to be created. Once that's done, you'll be able to find the invoice on the Invoices page, and under Actions, there will be an option to Send:
When you press Send, a window will pop up that will give you some options of either emailing the invoice, sending an SMS link, or sharing the link (this will also include the QR code). Below is a quick video demo of what this will look like:
We'll go through each of these options:
If you email the invoice, it will include a PDF of the invoice as an attachment, and the body of the email will include whatever you've set up in the template (which should include the online payment placeholder!).
If you send as an SMS, the patient will receive the online payment link to the mobile number they have on file. (Please note that sending a payment link as an SMS will require that you purchase SMS credits.)
If you share the link, you can either copy the payment link and share it however you see fit (such as a separate email or a personalised text message), or copy the QR code and send it to the patient.
The other way to send invoices is directly from the invoice page itself! If you go into the invoice, you'll see an option to Send at the top:
Selecting that will give you the exact same options that were listed above—email, send an SMS, or share the link.
So, how does it work? How will the patient know how to pay when they get the link?
When the patient gets the email (or SMS, or directly shared link) and clicks on the payment link, they'll be asked to input their payment information into a secure online payment screen!
Once they pay, you'll be able to see the payment in your account, and it will look just like any other payment—for the most part. If you take a look at the invoice, you'll see how and when it was paid. For example, here we have an online payment that was paid via credit card:
If you view the payment, you'll note a field at the bottom: "Online payments'" This indicates the patient's payment, as well as the Stripe fee, the net payment amount, and the date it was paid.
Finally, the last thing will be to ensure you add online payment links to your invoices—check out those instructions below!
Add online payment links to invoices
You'll need to be sure to add online payment "placeholders" to your invoice email templates—this will ensure that patients are sent the proper link for payment!
First, head to Settings, and then Invoices:
On the next page, scroll down to where it says Emailing invoices. If you don't have online payment placeholders set up already, you'll see an alert that says "Stripe payments is activated, but you haven't added the OnlinePayment placeholder to any of your emails":
In all of the invoice and payment templates, there will be a box with INVOICE listed under Email content. This is what you will want to select first:
From there, you will then want to select the OnlinePaymentLink "placeholder" from the list:
Selecting that will "drop" the placeholder into your email template (note that you will want to place your cursor in the ideal spot before selecting the placeholder—for example, you may wish to write something like "You can pay here" or "Below is your payment link", and then the placeholder can be put next to/underneath that:
If you then select the View sample button, you can see an example of what this email will look like. It's just an example, and represents what your patients might see, but each email client and browser will display the end result a bit differently! The sample should give you a good idea, though:
To ensure the online payment link is included in all relevant emails, you will need to add the placeholder to whatever email templates you want to include it in. It won't automatically show up in all the different templates.
After you've added the placeholder to your templates, be sure to hit the Save invoice settings button at the bottom of the page:
That's it! 🎉 Now, when you email invoices or any other documents created from the templates on this page, they will include the online payment link—as long as the placeholder has been added!
What do patients see?
When a patient clicks on the online payment link, they will be directed to a secure payment page that looks like this:
They will be able to submit payment via that page, and a record of the payment will be saved in Cliniko, making it easy for you to see that the invoice has been paid!
For more information on all things online payments, head over here!