Getting paid

Pay by text

The invoice text link opens the invoice on the customer's phone. After signing, Pay now opens a secure payment form right on the invoice. With CarSignal Payments the customer can pay by card, Apple Pay (on Apple devices), or bank transfer: either typing their routing and account number, or logging in to their bank so the account is verified on the spot. Shops Rainforest has enabled for PayPal also see PayPal, Venmo and Pay Later buttons. Cards go through the bank's extra verification (3D Secure) when the bank asks for it, which shifts fraud liability off you. Shops connected to Stripe see Stripe checkout instead. Card money deposits to your bank by ACH the next banking day.

The pay button carries the balance due. There is no field for the customer to type a different amount; the only smaller figure a customer ever sees is a deposit you requested (below). If a stale page sends any other amount, the server refuses it and the page re-reads the bill.

On a first online payment of $1,000 or more from a customer who has never paid you online before, the card's bank may ask them to confirm the payment (3-D Secure) before it goes through. Smaller and repeat payments skip that step.

After paying, the customer sees the processor receipt on the invoice (card brand, last four, amount, authorization) and also gets it by text or email. That receipt shows the card network's own status, which reads Processing until the payment settles (usually the next business day); the invoice itself is paid the moment the card is approved, and the receipt sheet says so. You can open the same receipt from Payment history on the invoice, and resend it from Resend on the paid invoice or from the payment's sheet in Financials, Payments. The resend sheet shows what is really on file for this customer: no email means the Email choice is off with an Add email door beside it, and Text needs a phone number and texting set up. Send to another person: add a phone or email for this send (up to five) and each one gets the same receipt and link; it is not saved on the customer.

Bank transfers are pending until they clear. A card payment is yours the moment it is approved. A bank transfer is a request to the customer's bank that can still bounce for about four business days, so CarSignal does not mark the invoice paid yet: the customer sees "Bank payment started, expected by <date>", you get a "Bank payment pending" notice with the same date, the vehicle page shows the same line under the balance (and in Payment history) with Bank transfer pending in place of Record payment, the invoice stays open with its balance, and bill edits and other payments wait until it clears. When it clears, the invoice flips to paid and the receipt goes out. If the bank refuses it, you get "Bank payment failed" and the invoice is exactly as before, so you can collect another way. Releasing the car on a pending bank payment is your call; the invoice tells you plainly that the money is not in yet.

Setting up CarSignal Payments

Settings, Payments, Set up CarSignal Payments. The application is prefilled with what CarSignal already knows about your shop; you add the business type, an owner, your EIN and the bank account for deposits, by logging in to your bank (the account is verified instantly) or by typing the routing and account numbers. It takes about five minutes. Approval usually takes an hour to two business days, and the Payments card shows where the application stands: submitted, more information needed, under review, or on. Once it is on, every invoice link takes card and bank transfer payments. Shops already connected to Stripe keep using Stripe.

Many customers pay from the "your car is ready" text before they even arrive, which means no line at the counter.

On bigger bills the customer can pay over time. When your connected Stripe account has Affirm or Klarna turned on and the amount is inside their limits (Affirm from $50, Klarna up to $10,000), the invoice page says Pay over time with Affirm or Klarna under the pay button and Stripe Checkout offers them next to the card. You are paid in full by Stripe like any card payment; the financing is between the customer and Affirm or Klarna. Turn the methods on in your Stripe dashboard under Payment methods.

Rates

The Payments card shows the rates before you set anything up. The same table is the Payment Processing Agreement you accept during setup; fees come out of deposits, and there is nothing else to pay.

These are base rates. Doing real volume? Ask us for a better rate. Compare them with your current statement. Once CarSignal Payments is on, the Payments card shows your rates in one line with a door to the full table.

In person

At the counter, Record payment on the invoice records money you already collected, with a method picker (cash, card, check, other). If your shop lists its own ways to get paid (Venmo, Zelle, outside financing, a warranty write-off) in Settings, Payments, Payment methods, choosing Other asks which one, and that name follows the payment onto the receipt, into Financials and into QuickBooks. It opens on the right side of the invoice window, so the bill stays in view while you type the amount. A signature is never required to record it. If the invoice is not signed yet you have three ways, and none of them blocks the payment: send the invoice for signature and record the payment whenever the money arrives, have the customer sign right there on your screen (Sign on the invoice in the payment panel scrolls the invoice preview to its signature line so the customer signs on the bill itself; or open the customer's invoice link), or just take the payment. An unsigned final payment is recorded as taken without a signature, with who recorded it, when, the amount and the exact invoice version, and the receipt says no signature was collected. This records the payment, not customer approval of the work. Online balance payments still require the customer to sign.

The signature note and reviewed invoice version stay with a saved payment retry. They cannot be changed while its outcome is unknown. If an older app asks you to update before a payment or refund, update CarSignal or use the current web app. Don't start another payment to work around an unconfirmed result.

If a car comes back for a new visit while an older bill still has a balance, that bill does not disappear and it does not merge into the new visit. The vehicle page shows it in its own Previous visit balance block under the money rail, with what is still owed, View invoice, and Record payment. Record payment opens the usual invoice window for that older bill, with the same payment panel you use on the current one. The mobile app shows the same block above Past visits, and the client page lists any owed bill under Awaiting payment with its own Record payment. Recording a payment there follows the same rules as any other payment.

Taking less than the full balance records a partial payment: the invoice flips to Partial, shows what's left, and keeps its Record payment button, including after the car is picked up, until the balance hits zero. That's the whole flow for deposits and payment plans: record each installment as it comes in, and the one that clears the balance closes the invoice and sends the receipt. When you send a deposit request, the customer is asked exactly the amount you typed: their invoice page shows two buttons, Pay deposit for your figure and Pay full balance, and nothing in between. Once the deposit is paid, the remaining balance is the only amount. Money they already put down never shrinks a new ask; only payments made after the request count toward it.

Send payment link (the second tab of Record payment in the invoice window) asks for an amount by text or email; it is how you request a deposit. A payment link needs online payments set up (CarSignal Payments or Stripe), a way to reach the customer, your shop name and at least one job on the bill, so you can request a deposit before the car comes in or before the odometer and plate are on file. The customer can pay whenever; the signature line on their invoice stays closed until you issue the invoice, so nobody signs a bill that is not finished. It asks for an additional amount, even when earlier payments or refunds are on the bill. Web, mobile and the customer link show what's still requested, not the cumulative payment target. Online deposits start at $5. Asking for the whole balance uses the normal balance payment and its signature requirement; a remaining request below $5 also falls back to the balance payment. When the customer has store credit, the tab shows the same Store credit · $35.00 available · Use it row as Record payment, in the same state; used, it reads Store credit · $35.00 applied with Remove. On, the credit is applied to the bill the moment you send (a real Store credit payment, exactly as Record payment writes it), the link asks for the rest, the customer's message says both ("$35.00 store credit applied, $317.70 to pay online"), and the credit stays applied even if the link is never paid. A deposit takes the credit first; the amount you type is what the link asks for.

If recording a payment loses its connection, reopen Record payment and retry the saved payment. Its original amount, method, reference and receipt choice stay together until the result is confirmed, even if the refreshed balance is already zero. On mobile, the vehicle's invoice history keeps Retry original payment available for that saved attempt after payment closes the active bill. Don't enter a different payment to work around an unconfirmed result. A confirmed rejection lets you correct the details; a confirmed success lets you record the next installment.

For an unfinished payment from an older web version, the original amount, method and reference are restored. If that version did not save your receipt choice, choose it before retrying. The original payment request is reused.

Older mobile builds: if the app asks you to use the latest version when recording money, use the vehicle page on the web. The mobile payment-safety update is being prepared, not yet published. It checks the server's payment format before sending and preserves unfinished attempts. An unconfirmed refund from an older server needs a payment-history review before another refund, not a blind retry after updating.

A $0 invoice (membership plans, goodwill work) can be marked paid too. CarSignal asks you to confirm, since nothing is collected, and closes the invoice without recording a payment.

Forgot the check number? Open Payment details on the paid invoice (or Edit details on the payment's sheet in Financials, Payments) to add it later: reference, payment method, and the fleet's PO/authorization number stay editable after close-out. Amounts and dates never change there; every edit is recorded in the invoice's audit trail with who made it.

Tap to Pay on a phone

With CarSignal Payments on, any phone on the shop can take cards in person. Set it up once from the app: Me, Tap to Pay, Set up this phone. Then two ways to charge:

• From the app: open the invoice, Collect payment, Tap to Pay, Charge. A phone that is set up takes the tap itself; a phone that is not set up shows the shop's registered phones so you can send the charge to one of them. The customer taps their card, Apple Pay or Google Pay on the phone.
• From the web: the invoice window has Tap to Pay on iPhone next to Record payment. Pick the phone and the tech's app lights up with the amount to tap. The window shows "Waiting for the tap" and the result the moment it lands; Cancel pulls it back if the card has not been tapped yet.

Only one tap waits on an invoice at a time. If the app or the window is reopened while one is still waiting (say the app closed mid-tap), it shows the same "Waiting for the tap" line with Cancel; cancel it, then Charge again. Trying to start another says so plainly: "A tap is already waiting on this invoice (started 2 min ago). Cancel it to start again.", naming the phone when it is a different one. A tap that could not open on the phone (no session, Tap to Pay refused) is canceled on the spot, so the invoice is never held by a tap nobody saw.

A tap is card-present money at the lower in-person rate (2.5% + $0.30), recorded on the invoice like any card payment and listed in Payment history as "tap to pay". Declines and cancellations free the invoice right away. Settings, Payments lists every phone on the shop; an admin can remove one. Each person has one phone on the list: setting up again (a new phone, a reinstall) replaces that entry instead of adding a second one.

What the phone needs. Tap to Pay on iPhone runs on an iPhone XS or newer on iOS 17.4 or later, with a passcode, Face ID or Touch ID set and location allowed for CarSignal (Apple checks the region before each tap). The first time a phone charges, the app asks to allow Location while using it; if Location was ever declined, the red line under the charge offers Open Settings (Settings > CarSignal > Location). A test phone on the sandbox also needs iCloud signed in with a sandbox Apple ID (the Developer menu's sandbox account slot does not count), with a passcode set, or Apple will not start the card reader. The first tap on a phone shows Apple's Tap to Pay terms once. A phone that cannot tap (older iPhone, older iOS, an app build without Tap to Pay yet, or Android for now) still shows the Tap to Pay choice when another phone on the shop can take the card: pick that phone and the charge lights up there. The Collect payment sheet says in one line why this phone cannot tap and where to set one up.

One payment for several invoices

A fleet or a regular who comes in with one check for three bills does not need three Record payment screens. On the client page, the billing block's Awaiting payment list has Pay open invoices whenever two or more bills are owed. Pick the invoices, enter the amount received and the method (cash, card, check, other), and the amount is applied oldest first. Every per-invoice amount is editable; the rest reflows. Record payment writes all of it at once or none of it: each invoice gets its own payment line for its share, so the invoice window, Financials, the P&L, QuickBooks and the mobile app see each bill's paid and balance exactly as if it had been paid on its own. A share that clears a bill closes it; a smaller share leaves it Partially paid. Refunds stay per invoice, from that invoice's Payment details. One payment never sends one receipt per invoice; send the statement instead and the customer sees every bill with what is left.

An unsigned bill settled this way is recorded as taken without a signature, with who recorded it and the exact invoice version, the same note a single unsigned payment carries.

Account statements

Statement on the same block builds the account statement: every open invoice with its date, number, RO, PO and unit number when you track them, total, paid and balance, aged as Current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90 and over 90 days, and one total due. Due dates come from the account's payment terms; without terms a bill is due on receipt and ages from the day it was sent. Print opens it on paper. Send by email or Send by text delivers it from your shop's own sender with one link; Copy pay link gives you that link to paste anywhere. The link is stable per customer and always shows today's balances, so a customer who opens it next week sees what is still owed then. It expires 60 days after the last send. Print gives you a clean document, not the screen: your letterhead, the invoice table, the aging row and page numbers; the customer's copy prints the same way from their statement link.

On the statement page the customer pays the whole total with one card payment (a connected Stripe account is required; the minimum is $5). The money lands on your account once and is split across the invoices oldest first, each bill getting its own payment line, so nothing on the invoice side changes shape. If a bill was paid some other way between the statement and the card payment, the share it no longer needs is left unapplied and you get a notification to refund it from Stripe. A card refund of a statement payment issued from the Stripe dashboard is announced to the shop but not split for you: record it on the invoices it belongs to.

What happens on payment

Automatically, on either path:

• The invoice flips to paid, and the vehicle moves to its Paid stage.
• The customer's live status page updates, and a receipt goes out by text and email. The Send receipt picker in Record payment narrows it to one channel or none (for a printed copy) and remembers your last choice. Online card payments always send one.
• A review ask is queued.
• If QuickBooks is connected, the invoice and payment sync over.
• The payment appears in Financials, Payments, with its fee and net once it settles, and the deposit it rides in under Deposits.

Payment state follows the processor, not the browser: a customer closing the tab at the wrong moment cannot produce a wrong status, and delayed bank payments and refunds reconcile themselves.

Repeat confirmations of an already-recorded online payment or refund leave an otherwise unchanged invoice alone. You do not need to restart signing or payment just because the processor retries a notification. New payments, refunds and bill edits still update the balance.

Refunds

How a refund is recorded depends on how the money was taken:

• CarSignal Payments (card or bank transfer). Use Record refund on the invoice. Type one amount; the panel shows where it goes back: to the online payment (the card or bank account the customer paid with) and, when some money was taken at the counter, a second row for cash or check you hand back. The two rows are filled in for you, online first, and you can change the split. Partial refunds work. A card payment that has not settled yet is voided instead. Bank transfers can be refunded about four business days after the payment; if a bank payment is returned later, CarSignal records the reversal and reopens the balance. The refund receipt goes out by text and email, and the refund syncs to QuickBooks.
• Stripe (card) payments. Refund the charge in Stripe. CarSignal picks it up automatically within seconds: the invoice updates, your team gets a "Refund issued" notification, and a refund receipt syncs to QuickBooks. You don't record anything by hand, and partial refunds work the same way.
• Cash, check, or in-person card. Use Record refund. As you type, the dialog shows what the customer gets back and where the balance lands. The customer gets a refund receipt by text and email; the picker on the Refund button narrows it to one channel or none.
• Store credit. A bill paid partly or wholly with store credit refunds by leg: the panel lists each leg of the bill (Store credit, Cash or Check or Card, an online payment) with its own amount, each capped at what that leg paid, under one Confirm. The store credit leg goes back onto the customer's store credit (the ledger on their Balances tab reads "Refunded from INV-3124" and opens the invoice); the other legs refund as above. The receipt, the shop notification and the Live feed name every leg of the refund in one line.
• Two ways back. A refund handed back partly in cash and partly on a card records as two refunds, one per method, so the cash drawer counts the cash and the receipt names both. Amounts are accepted to the cent, up to $999,999.99 per payment or refund; anything else is refused with the reason, never rounded.

A split payment is one event everywhere: Live reads "Michael recorded $352.70 on INV-3124: $35.00 store credit + $317.70 cash", the notification says the same, and the receipt's received line names both legs and the total they add to. The customer's store credit ledger names the bill ("Applied to INV-3124") and opens it.

• Mixed (an online deposit plus cash at the counter). Each portion on its own rail: Record refund handles the hand-collected portion (it caps there automatically), and the online portion refunds through CarSignal Payments or in Stripe. The same dollar can never be refunded twice.

Disputes (chargebacks)

When a cardholder disputes a CarSignal Payments charge you get a notice with the deadline and a link to the dispute. Every dispute, with its deadline and state in words (Action required by a date, Evidence submitted, Won, Lost, Accepted), is listed in Financials, Payments, Show: Disputes, and the Needs attention row at the top of that page counts the open ones; the disputed payment itself reads Disputed in the list, and its sheet carries Respond.

The dispute page starts with what you already hold: the invoice PDF with the customer's signature, an Authorization record PDF (who approved what, when, how, from which IP, with the drawn signature and the approval snapshots recorded at the time), the customer's text thread as a PDF, and the job photos and invoice attachments. Untick anything you do not want the bank to see and press Attach to the dispute. CarSignal places each file in the evidence slot the bank asked for and writes the words too: the Receipt gets the payment facts (invoice, total, date paid, card, who signed), the Rebuttal gets a plain narrative built from your records and ordered for the cardholder's reason (service not received leads with check-in, approval, signature and pickup; fraud leads with who approved from which device; duplicate or credit claims lead with every payment and refund on the invoice), and the Authorization slot gets the approval record. Only facts on file are used; nothing is guessed, and words you already typed on a slot are kept. Then press Respond on the dispute card to read it over, edit anything, and Submit Dispute. If the charge really was wrong, Accept instead: accepting a $250 dispute costs the $250 plus the $20 dispute fee. Afterwards the page and the Disputes list read "Evidence submitted" with the date and the number of files.

During an inquiry no money moves. Once it becomes a formal dispute, the amount and the $20 dispute fee are held out of your next deposit while the bank decides. If you win, the money comes back in a later deposit. If you lose, the amount is recorded as a reversal on the invoice so your books match your bank. Disputes are answered on the web today; the app shows the notice and the state.

Where to record one

• Days or weeks later (the usual case): Financials, Payments: click the payment in the list and Record refund is on its sheet; for a CarSignal Payments invoice it opens the online refund directly. To find an older invoice by number, customer, plate or VIN, More, Customer payments, Find an invoice has the same action.
• While the car is still on the board: the paid invoice card on the vehicle page has the same action.
• On the mobile app: the customer's invoice history and the vehicle's paid-invoice row both offer Record refund.

If a refund response is interrupted, reopen Record refund and use Retry original refund. It checks the same saved request, even if nothing remains refundable. Mobile keeps the retry in the vehicle's invoice history when a refund changes the bill's status; Review saved refund in customer history takes you there. If another window already confirmed it, refresh instead of retrying from the old dialog. A retry must not become a second refund.

How refunds hit your numbers

Every refund, online or manual, full or partial, is written to a refund ledger stamped with the day it happened. That date is what makes the money views correct: a refund always lands in the period it occurred, even when it's for a sale from an earlier month.

Refunds are netted out everywhere: Financials revenue and profit run on money kept (net of refunds), "Collected" shows net of refunds, the end-of-day close shows them as a drawer contra, and sales tax to remit is reduced by the tax you refunded. If you refund more tax than you collected in a period, the report shows the credit you're owed rather than hiding it.

Refunding an online deposit before the bill settles works the same way: the original payment stays on record in the period you collected it, the refund lands in the refund column on the day you gave it back, and the balance owed goes back up. Revenue and profit skip it (that money was never earned yet), and it doesn't post to QuickBooks, which only sees a bill's money once it settles.