When you connect your AR Automation account to BlueSnap, you enable customers to make payments through AR Automation, while keeping your accounting/ERP system in sync. Online payments let you create automatic payment schedules and let your customers take immediate action on invoices.

This page covers all the ways to collect payments from customers, such as Payment Link and Pay Balance Link, as well as how to reconcile payments, and configure the various payment settings available.

Payment pages are designed so anyone with a link can pay, while account details stay private. Every payment page shows the amount due and accepts payment from anyone holding the link — no sign-in needed. Account details, such as invoice PDFs and saved payment methods, appear only after the viewer verifies an email address on the account.

Email Verification on Payment Pages

Payment pages keep your customers' account details private. Anyone holding a payment link can open the page, see the amount due, and pay with a card or bank account they enter on the spot — no verification, no sign-in, no extra steps.

Account details require a quick email check. Before verifying, the page hides:

• Customer name
• Account number
• Invoice PDFs
• Saved payment methods
• Invoice-by-invoice breakdown on pay balance link

How your customer verifies

1. Select Verify Email on the payment page
2. Enter an email address that is a contact on the AR Automation Customer Record
3. A 6-digit code is sent to the verified email
4. Enter the code, and the page unlocks in place.

Who can unlock account details

Access is determined entirely by the contacts on the customer record. If an email address is a contact on the account, it can verify and unlock that account's details. If it is not, it cannot.

If the contact has the Customer Portal flag enabled, the verification email includes two things: the 6-digit code that unlocks the payment page, and a link that signs them directly in to the Customer Portal, no code entry needed. Contacts without portal access receive the code only, and verify and unlock the payment page the same way.

If the customer portal is disabled on your account (the Disable Customer Portal preference), verification emails contain the code only — no portal sign-in link is included.

Code rules

Codes are valid for 10 minutes and allow three attempts. A new code can be requested after one minute.

How long verification lasts

The verification lasts while you're on that browser tab if you open the page in a new tab, or close the browser, means you need to verify again.

Privacy

The email step behaves identically whether or not the address is on the account. The page never reveals who is or is not a contact.

Visibility for your team

Verification activity appears on the customer timeline, so you can see when a customer verified their email.

Verification applies to Invoice Payment Links and Pay Balance Links.

Customers never need to verify to pay

If a customer reports being "locked out" of a payment, they can pay without any verification at all.

Linking from your own system or portal

A Customer Portal SSO option is available to bypass that step — contact [email protected] to have it enabled.

Payment Interfaces

AR Automation offers the following ways to collect payments and payment information from your customers.

• Payment Link: View and pay an invoice online.
• Pay Balance Link: View and pay all open invoices at once.
• Direct Payment Links: Build an invoice or pay balance link yourself from an invoice number or account number.
• Payment Method Link: Add or update payment details to be securely stored for future payments.
• Virtual Terminal: Securely store a payment method or pay an open invoice on a customer's behalf.
• Customer Portal: Secure, password-protected area for customers to view their invoices, account statements, and more.
• Generic Payment Link: Process a payment link with or without an invoice.
• Pay by Text: Accept payments by text message and send automatic follow-ups, confirmations, receipts, and payment reminders.

Payment Link

Payment Link provides an online version of an invoice that can be viewed and paid securely online. In Cadences, Payment Link is embedded when the Invoice Button placeholder is used.

To access Payment Link for a specific invoice, follow the steps below.

1. In your AR Automation account, go to Customers > Invoices.
2. Next to the desired invoice, expand the action menu, and click Payment Link.

On this page, you have the option to print, download, or pay the invoice.

Payment Link Example

Pay Balance Link

Pay Balance Link provides a link where a customer can view their open invoices and choose to pay all, or a portion, at once. Pay Balance Link can be included in cadence messages by using the Pay Balance placeholder.

To access the Pay Balance link for a specific customer, follow the steps below.

1. In your AR Automation account, go to Customers > Customer Records.
2. Next to the customer, expand the action menu, and click Pay Balance Link.

On this page, you can view the customer's open invoices, as well as select which invoices should be paid at the same time.

The pay balance page shows the customer's total outstanding balance to anyone with the link, ready to pay. The invoice-by-invoice breakdown — and selecting specific invoices to pay — appears after email verification.

A pay balance page can also be reached by building the URL yourself from the customer's account number. See Direct Payment Links.

Pay Balance Link Example

Direct Payment Links

Direct payment links let you send a customer to their invoice payment page or pay balance page using only the invoice number or account number — no need to generate a link in AR Automation first. This is useful for adding payment links to invoice PDFs, email templates, or customer communications produced by another system.

Find your publishable key

In your AR Automation account, go to Account > Payments. Your publishable key is listed there and starts with pk_. It is safe to include your links and templates.

Build the URL

Combine your payment page address, your publishable key, and either an invoice number or an account number.

Replace {subdomain} with your own AR Automation subdomain, find your subdomain under Settings -> Company Profile

Invoice Payment Page Example

https://yoursubdomain.armatic.com/pay?pkey=pk_afea36850750575c6e07c5995c93147c&invoice=INV-629179

Pay Balance Page Example

https://yoursubdomain.armatic.com/pay?pkey=pk_afea36850750575c6e07c5995c93147c&customer=ACCT-1042

Direct Payment Links open the same pages as links generated inside AR Automation, and behave the same way so anyone with the link can see the amount due, pay, and the account details appear after email verification.

Note: In a mail merge or invoice template, the publishable key stays the same for every customer — only the invoice number or account number changes.

Payment Method Link

Payment Method Link provides customers the ability to add a payment method or update an existing payment method to be securely stored for future payments. Storing their payment method details allows them to have their future invoices automatically charged if desired. Payment Method Link can be included in Cadence messages by using the Payment Method Link placeholder.

To access the Payment Method Link for a specific customer, follow the steps below.

1. In your AR Automation account, go to Customers > Customer Records.
2. Next to the customer, expand the action menu, and click Pay Method Link.

On this page, you can select which payment method to store and then enter the payment method details.

Payment Method Link Example

Virtual Terminal

Virtual Terminal provides a secure way for an AR Automation user to enter payment details on a customer's behalf, useful for saving the payment method for future payments, or for paying an open invoice. This feature is especially useful for entering payment details received via phone or encrypted email.

Note: Please contact Merchant Support to have the Virtual Terminal enabled for your account.

Save a customer's payment method

To save a payment method to a customer using Virtual Terminal, follow these steps.

1. In your AR Automation account, got to Customers > Customer Records.
2. Click on the customer to view their customer detail page.
3. Expand the action menu at the top right of the screen and click Virtual Terminal.
4. Enter the customer's details in the secure form, such as their name, card number, and more.
5. Click Save.

Now that the customer's payment method has been saved, it can be used to pay open invoices.

Pay an invoice on a customer's behalf

To pay an open invoice on a customer's behalf using Virtual Terminal, follow these steps.

1. In your AR Automation account, go to Customers > Invoices.
2. Next to the invoice, expand the action menu and click Virtual Terminal.
3. Enter the customer's details in the secure form, such as their name and card details. Note: To save the customer's card for future payments, select Save Card.
4. Click Save.

The customer's invoice has been successfully paid. If the Save Card setting was selected, their card details will be saved to their account for future payments.

Customer Portal

The Customer Portal is a secure area where customers can view their open and paid invoices, view account statements generated by AR Automation, access shared files, make payments, and update their billing information.

No invitation needed. Customers no longer need to be invited to the portal, and there are no portal passwords. If the Customer Portal flag is enabled, your customer simply signs in with their email address — there is nothing to set up on their end and nothing for you to send.

To sign in to the Customer Portal, your customer follows these steps.

1. Enter your email address on the portal sign-in page.
2. Enter the 6-digit code sent to that email address.
3. You're in — no password, no invitation.

There are no passwords, password resets, or password changes, and no portal invitations or "Request Access" form. Contacts who belong to more than one account choose which account to open after signing in.

Who can sign in: portal access is controlled per contact, using the Customer Portal setting on the contact record. Contacts set as the default billing contact have portal access automatically, keeping portal permissions consistent with your billing setup. To grant or remove access for any other contact, update the Customer Portal setting on their contact record.

Existing portal access is unchanged. Contacts who can sign in today can still sign in after the update.

Bypassing verification from your own portal:

If you link customers to AR Automation from your own system, or customer portal, a Customer Portal SSO option is available so they don't need to verify their email again. Contact [email protected] to have it enabled.

To direct a customer to their Customer Portal, you can use the Customer Portal placeholder in a Cadence or provide them with their Customer Portal URL.

Customer Portal Example

Generic Payment Link

A Generic Payment Link is a permanent payment link that allows you to accept payments with or without an invoice. Customers directed to this page are prompted to enter a payment amount, payment method details, and an invoice number (optional) or an account number and notes (optional).

Note: Credit Cards, ACH, SEPA, BECs Direct Debit, and PAD Direct Debit are available payment methods on the Generic Payment Link.

When a customer attempts a payment by entering a value for the invoice/account number fields, we try to match the payment to the corresponding customer and/or invoice once the payment is processed. Successful payment data is synchronized back to the AR system and the connected accounting system.

If a customer attempts a payment and the account/invoice number is not submitted, the payment will be processed but appear in the AR system as Unapplied (has no connection with customer and invoice data). This payment either stays unsynchronized in AR or you need to manually apply it to the customer and invoice to have it synchronized with your accounting system.

The screenshot below shows what an unapplied payment looks like in your AR account.

To apply the payment manually, please navigate to the Payment Details page by clicking on the Action menu button > Details. Once you are on the details page you can click the Apply Payment button and select the invoice you wish to apply for the payment.

Generic Payment Link Structure

You can navigate to Account > Payments to find your unique Generic Payment Link. The Generic Payment Link is a hosted payment page built off your customer portal subdomain i.e., subdomain.armatic.com/payment

The link can be pasted or embedded anywhere. For example you can add it to your website and the same payment link can be shared with many customers.

Link Example

https://bluesnaptest8f.armatic.com/payment

Note: If you update the customer portal subdomain on your Company Preferences pages, the Payment Link subdomain will be automatically updated.

Prefill Fields Using Query Parameters

You can prefill fields on the Generic Payment Link by appending query parameters to the URL. When a customer opens a link with supported parameters, the payment page will load with those fields pre-populated.

Supported Parameters

• amount: Prefills the payment amount (e.g., 75.00)
• account_number: Prefills the account number
• invoice_number: Prefills the invoice number

Prefill Link Example

This example opens the payment page with the Amount, Account Number, and Invoice Number fields prefilled:

https://bluesnaptest8f.armatic.com/payment?amount=75.00&account_number=ACC-010&invoice_number=INV-050

Payment Settings

You can adjust your payment settings in your AR Automation account by going to Settings > Preferences > the Payments tab. For example, you can choose whether partial payments are enabled.

Partial Payments

Partial payments allow customers to specify how much an invoice they would like to pay. They can enter their payment amount, up to the total invoice amount. This feature is available when a customer pays a single invoice, not when paying multiple invoices via the Pay Balance Link.

Payment Methods

AR Automation supports multiple payment methods for processing payments through AR Automation directly:

• ACH/ECP
• Apple Pay
• BECS Direct Debit
• Credit/Debit Cards
• Google Pay
• PayPal
• Pre-Authorized Debit
• SEPA

You can manage the payment methods available to your customers by navigating to Settings > Preferences > the Payments tab > Available Payment Methods setting. The selected payment methods are displayed on Payment Links for your customers.

Payment Status

Our payment statuses provide an overview of the current status of your payments. Understanding these statuses is important for tracking any issues during the payment process. Following is a list of payment statuses:

• Initiated: This is the initial status for advance payments and offline payments for PayPal. This status indicates that the payment has been initiated but has not been processed yet.
• Scheduled: This status is for auto-payments that are scheduled for processing at a future date. When a payment is scheduled, it is automatically processed on the specified date.
• Pending: This status is the initial status for ACH/SEPA payments. When a payment is in pending status, it means that the payment has been sent to the bank for processing, but there is no response yet.
• Succeeded: This status indicates that the payment has been successfully processed.
• Failed: This status indicates that the payment failed to be processed. If you hover your cursor over the Failed status, you can view the reason for the failure.
• Cancelled: This status indicates that a payment with a status of Initiated or Scheduled was cancelled, either automatically or manually. If you hover your cursor over the Cancelled status, you can view the reason for the cancellation.
• Refunded: This status indicates that a payment has been fully refunded.
• Partially Refunded: This status indicates that a payment has been partially refunded.

Payment Reconciliation

Payments made through AR Automation are immediately synced with your accounting/ERP systems, marking the invoice as paid or partially paid. For example, if your AR Automation account is connected to QuickBooks, the payment can be viewed by selecting Undeposited Funds under Payment Account. The payment is also recorded in your AR Automation account in Account > Accounting.