Payments

Everything about how you get paid lives in one place: Settings › Getting paid. It feeds your invoices, what clients pay when they book online, and the prices they see. Change what you need, then press Save changes in the bar at the bottom. Connecting or disconnecting Stripe is the exception: it happens as soon as you do it.

Two ways to get paid

• Bank transfer. Add your account name, sort code and account number. They are printed on every invoice under Payment details, with the invoice number as the payment reference. No fees and nothing else to set up.
• Card payments through Stripe. Optional. Clients can pay by card when they book, and pay invoices by card from their client portal. The money goes straight into your own Stripe account; Barclo never holds it.

You can use both. Plenty of businesses start with bank transfer and connect Stripe later.

Adding your bank details

1. 1

   Open Getting paid

   Go to Settings › Getting paid.

2. 2

   Fill in Bank details

   Enter the Account name, Sort code (six digits, like 12-34-56) and Account number.

3. 3

   Save

   Press Save changes. Every invoice from now on shows them.

Connecting Stripe

In the Card payments card, press Connect with Stripe. You set up or link your Stripe account on Stripe's own secure pages, then come back to Barclo. It is free to set up; Stripe takes a fee only when a card payment goes through (1.5% + 20p per UK card, a little more for overseas cards), straight from that payment.

Once connected, the card shows your status: Connected, or Action required if Stripe needs more information, in which case press Continue Stripe setup. When connected you also get Open Stripe Dashboard, and Disconnect if you want to stop taking cards.

When clients pay

This is for bookings clients make online. Pick one:

Pay on booking and deposit on booking are greyed out until Stripe is connected, and also if you have chosen I'll handle bookings myself under Settings › Bookings, because then clients cannot book online at all.

Requests you approve: the card is held, not charged

If clients ask and you approve (Clients ask, I approve in Settings › Bookings), Barclo does not charge a card for a booking you might turn down. Instead it places a hold on the card for the amount due when the client sends the request:

• You approve: the held amount is taken.
• You decline: the hold is released and nothing is charged.
• You take too long: a hold lasts about six days. Barclo reminds you two days before it runs out. If it does run out, the hold is released, but the request stays waiting for you; approve it and the client pays by invoice instead.

If clients book themselves (Clients book themselves), the card is charged when they book.

Invoices

The Invoices card decides when Barclo creates invoices for you. Under Create invoices:

• Manual: you create every invoice yourself. This is the default.
• On completion: an invoice is made as soon as you mark a booking as done.
• Daily, Weekly or Monthly: Barclo gathers what needs billing and makes the invoices in the evening, every day, on the weekday you choose (Monday to Friday), or on the day of the month you choose (1 to 28).

Switch on Email invoices to clients automatically to send each one as soon as it is made. Leave it off and they wait as drafts for you to check and send. Days until due sets the due date on new invoices (0 to 90 days; 7 to start with). See Invoices for the rest.

VAT

Most solo businesses are not VAT registered. If you are not, leave I'm VAT registered off and nothing changes.

If you are, switch it on and fill in:

• VAT number, shown on your invoices.
• Rate, usually 20%.
• Registered for VAT from, the date on your HMRC certificate. Leave it blank and Barclo uses the day you switch VAT on. A booking paid in full before this date is not billed VAT. If you switch VAT off and on again, enter the date again.

Not sure whether you need to register? The VAT threshold card in Reports shows how close your Barclo turnover is to the threshold. It is a guide, not tax advice, so check with your accountant.