Send payment receipts automatically and allow tips

Have Nova email or text a receipt after every payment or refund, choose which channel it uses, and let customers add a tip when they pay an invoice online.

In the sidebar, open Settings, then choose Nova Payments under Sales & Billing. The page address is /settings/org/billing/payments. Once payments have been launched, these settings are on the Receipts & tips tab (/settings/org/billing/payments?tab=receipts), in two sections: Receipts and payment notices and Customer tipping. Before launch, only three of them are shown, on the Payment options step of setup, as Payment receipts, Refund notifications and Ask customers to update a card that keeps failing; a choice made there carries over. The other settings, tips included, appear after launch.

Before you start

• Your role needs the permission to manage payment settings.
• Automatic receipts follow Automatic notice channel. With Prefer email, the setting you start with, they go by email, or by text when the customer's billing contact has only a mobile number. With Prefer SMS (consent required) they go by text, or by email when there is no mobile number; a text still needs the customer's text consent. Best available uses the email, or a text when there is no email. A customer Nova cannot reach gets nothing, and staff can still send a receipt by hand.

Steps

To send receipts automatically:

1. Leave Send payment receipts automatically on; it is on from the start. Customers who pay online through Nova get a receipt. For a payment staff record by hand, the person recording it decides with the Automatically send a payment receipt switch.
2. Leave Send refund receipts automatically on so the customer hears when a refund goes through. It is on from the start, so a refund you record tells the customer their money is on its way with no action from you; turn it off only if you tell customers about refunds yourself.
3. Leave Ask customers to update a card that keeps failing on so a customer hears when their automatic payment could not go through. When a scheduled or automatic charge fails for good and only the customer can fix it (the card expired, was declined, or their bank wants them to confirm the payment), Nova emails them once for that failed charge, with a link to the saved cards on their customer portal. It is on from the start; turn it off if you would rather contact those customers yourself. You are told about the failed payment either way.
4. Let staff skip a receipt for manual payments is on from the start, so the person recording a cash, cheque or e-transfer payment decides whether a receipt goes out. Turn it off if every payment recorded by hand should get a receipt.
5. Switch on Send a receipt by default when collecting an invoice payment if the receipt choice should start on when staff collect an invoice payment.
6. Under Automatic notice channel, choose Best available, Prefer email or Prefer SMS (consent required). Prefer email is the setting you start with (see "Before you start" for who each one reaches).
7. Type any wording you want at the bottom of every receipt in Payment notice footer.
8. Press Save notice settings.

To allow tips:

1. Turn on Allow customer tips.
2. Choose Default tip mode: Percentage or Fixed amount. Under Allowed tip modes, press each mode customers may use so it is selected. The default mode has to be one of them; if it is not, Nova switches the default to an allowed mode when you save.
3. Under Applicability, choose Service-style invoices only or All receivable invoices.
4. Type the choices customers see in Preset percentages and Preset fixed amounts, separated by commas (for example 15, 20, 25 and 5, 10, 20). Set Smallest tip and Largest tip if you want limits; leave Largest tip empty for no limit.
5. Turn on Allow custom tip amounts if customers may type their own amount instead of picking a preset.
6. Press Save tip settings.

What you see

• Each section shows a badge such as Automatic receipts on or Tips enabled, and reads Unsaved changes until you press the section's save button.
• Under the receipt switches, Nova says in plain words what will happen: for example, that receipts go out automatically when a billing contact is available, or that staff send them by hand.
• Tip amounts are in your organization's currency, the way you would say them: 5 means $5.00.
• An entry in Preset fixed amounts that is not an amount is named under the field, and so is a Largest tip below the Smallest tip. Save tip settings stays greyed out until it is fixed.

If something looks different

• The switches are greyed out: your role cannot manage payment settings.
• The Receipts & tips tab is missing: payments are not launched yet (see Set up Nova Payments), your role cannot view payment settings, or your plan does not include them.
• You are looking for Let customers pay over time (Affirm, Klarna): it is on the Payment options tab. See Check on Nova Payments after launch.
• You leave the page and Nova warns about unsaved receipt or tip settings: press the section's save button first, or discard the changes.
• A customer did not get a receipt even though receipts are on: check their billing contact. They need an email, or a mobile number with text consent.
• A customer got a refund notice you did not expect: Send refund receipts automatically is on from the start. Turn it off here, or on the Payment options step before launch, and press Save notice settings.
• A customer asks about an email telling them to update their card: an automatic payment from their card failed and only they can fix it. The email only goes out while Ask customers to update a card that keeps failing is on, and never to a customer whose message settings are Text only or who opted out of Invoice reminders.

Open Nova Payments