Trackops offers a native Stripe integration which allows customers to accept credit card payments on invoices. Getting started is easy, just follow the steps below to begin accepting credit card payments in Trackops via Stripe.
Step 1: Create a Stripe Account
In order to get started, you must already have a Stripe payment processor account. Once you've signed up and have an active account. you'll need to locate your Stripe API Credentials. There are two credentials required in order to connect to your stripe account:
- Publishable API Key - Used to capture and send credit card information directly to Stripe (Trackops does not obtain or store this information).
- Secret API Key - Used to process Stripe transactions and charge the submitted credit card information.
Note: If your Stripe account is in Test mode, you can use test credentials inside Trackops to test the integration before going live. Please note, while stripe will not charge credit cards in test mode, Trackops will record an invoice payment just like any other payment. You should delete test payments from your Trackops invoices after testing the integration.
Step 2: Enable the Trackops Stripe Add-on
To enable Stripe payments in Trackops, head over to Settings > Addons & Integrations > Stripe. From here, fill out the required fields:
- Enabled - Turns on/off the stripe payments integration. When the integration is disabled, you cannot receive payments through Stripe via Trackops.
- Publishable API Key - The Publishable API Key you obtained in step 1 above.
- Secret API Key - The Secret API Key you obtained in step 1 above.
- Payment Method - The Trackops payment method to link Stripe payments to inside Trackops. If you accept more than one kind of payment through Stripe, it is recommended to create a payment method for Stripe which will make it easier to report on down the road.
Step 4 (optional): Include Payment Links in your Invoice Emails
If you'd like customers to be able to pay online without having to provide you with their credit card information, it is a good idea to include a payment link in your invoice email template. This way when the customer receives a new invoice by email they can click the link to pay online.
To do this, head over to Settings > Email Settings & Templates. From here, locate the Invoice Email template and click Edit next to the template name.
Place your cursor in the spot in the template where you'd like link to appear and then select the [Invoice] Public Link variable from the variable dropdown list.
After saving the template, new invoices sent via Trackops will now include a link to pay online.
Note: If desired, you may also include public links to your overdue invoice notice templates as well.
Step 5: Receive Credit Card Payments on your Invoices
To receive a payment from inside the system, head over to an outstanding invoice. From here, click Enter Payment > Pay with Stripe.
Note: Stripe will generate a new Incomplete transaction inside the Stripe Dashboard as soon as you begin to enter a new payment.
If you wish to change the amount of the payment, click the Edit link next to the Payment Amount at the top of the screen.
Fill in the credit card details and submit the payment. If there are issues with the credit card, or the charge is declined, and error message will appear on the screen.
After a successful payment, Trackops will record the payment using your chosen payment method (from step 2) and include the Stripe payment ID in the reference number field. You can look up Stripe payments inside the Stripe Dashboard using the payment ID.
Troubleshooting Stripe Payments
The customer appears as Guest inside Stripe
If the customer shows up as Guest, it means we could not create a customer using the information provided in Trackops. Most notably, make sure there is a billing email address associated with the client contact, client location, or client profile. At least one email address must exist to create/lookup a client in Stripe.
The customer name is incorrect or associated with the wrong person inside Stripe
The customer in Stripe is derived from the billing email address associated with the invoice. It may happen that the billing email is associated with the parent client (organization) but the name inside Stripe appears as the contact (person) associated with the first invoice. If this happens, you can change the name inside Stripe to match and future invoices will reflect the correct name moving forward.
The ability to pay online does not appear for my invoice with a total of less than $1.00
In order to pay online using a payment processor in Trackops, the outstanding balance of your invoice must be at least one dollar ($1 USD). If the outstanding balance of an invoice is less than a dollar, you cannot receive a credit card payment for this invoice.