Payment methods: cards, bank debits and Google Pay

The more ways a client can pay, the faster you get paid. Handl supports cards, direct bank debits and digital wallets like Google Pay through Stripe, plus plain bank transfer and cheque for agencies that would rather not use Stripe at all. You choose what each client is offered.

The three ways to get paid

Go to Settings → Money → Plan & billing and find How you get paid. It shows three equal tiles. Use any one, or all three, and change them whenever you like.

Card payments with Stripe — clients pay by card or bank debit on a Handl pay page, and the invoice is marked paid for you. This is the only option that needs a Stripe account. See "Connect Stripe and get paid".
Bank transfer — clients pay into your own bank account using your details and the invoice number. You record the payment when the money arrives. Select Add bank details (or Edit bank details) to open the Bank transfer tab under Settings → Money → Payment options.
Cheque (shown as Check for US agencies) — clients mail a cheque to the address you give. Select Add cheque details and enter who it is Payable to, the mailing address, and an optional note for the client. You record the payment when it arrives.

Bank transfer and cheque payments don't go through Stripe, so there is no Stripe fee and no Handl platform fee on them.

Choose what each client is offered

You decide per client, so one client can pay by card while another is cheque-only.

Open the client and select the Payments tab.
Under Payment collection, tick the options under How does this client pay?: Card / online payments (Stripe), Bank transfer, Cheque. Tick one, two or all three.
If you tick Bank transfer, pick the Bank account this client sees. The default, Match the invoice currency, shows the account whose currency matches each invoice.
Select Save.

To set what new clients start with, go to Settings → Money → Plan & billing → How you get paid and use Default for new clients. Leave all three unticked to offer whatever you have set up.

Changing a client's methods later

When you save a different set of payment methods on a client's Payments tab, Handl updates that client's open sent invoices to match, and tells you how many it updated. Paid, voided and draft invoices are left alone, and PDFs you already sent don't change. If the new setup would leave an open invoice with nothing the client can pay with, that invoice keeps its current options and Handl tells you so.

An invoice that was ever offered bank transfer or cheque stays off auto-pay, even if you later switch the client back to card only.

If you change your own bank or cheque details under Settings, Handl lists the unpaid invoices still showing your old details and offers Resend with new details, which emails each client the invoice again with your current details.

What the client sees

The pay page, the invoice email and the PDF show only the methods that client is offered.
Bank transfer shows your account details and the invoice number to quote. Cheque shows who to make it payable to and where to mail it.
Below those details the client can tell you they've paid or mailed a cheque. See "How clients view and pay invoices".

Cards, bank debits and Google Pay (Stripe)

Go to Settings → Money → Payment options to choose which Stripe payment methods your agency accepts and in what order they're shown.
When a client opens an invoice to pay, they're shown the methods available to them for that invoice's currency and their location.
Cards are available everywhere your Stripe account supports them, including digital wallets like Google Pay, which appear automatically as a one-tap option on supported devices.
Bank debits — PayTo and BECS for Australian agencies and clients, or ACH for US agencies and clients — are offered for domestic payments in the invoice's home currency.

Good to know

You can't send an invoice the client has no way to pay. If a client has no payment method that works, Handl tells you and links to the client so you can fix it.
Auto-pay only charges saved cards. A client who has Bank transfer or Cheque ticked is never charged automatically, so while both card and bank transfer are offered auto-pay is turned off for that client.
Bank debit options only appear when both your agency and the client are in the same country, and the invoice is in the matching currency (AUD for PayTo/BECS, USD for ACH). Cross-border payments default to card.
Digital wallets like Google Pay aren't a separate setting to turn on — they appear automatically as part of the card payment option, on devices and browsers that support them.
If a Stripe payment method isn't fully active on your connected account yet, it's simply left out of what the client sees, rather than showing a broken option.
Cheque only appears for a client once you have saved cheque details. If you tick Cheque before that, the client page reminds you to add them under Settings → Money → Payment options.

FAQs

Do I need Stripe?
No. Bank transfer and cheque work without it. You'll record those payments yourself when they arrive.

Can I choose which payment methods to offer?
Yes — per client, from the client's Payments tab, with agency-wide defaults under Settings → Money → Plan & billing.

Can a client be cheque-only, or have no card option?
Yes. Untick Card / online payments (Stripe) on their Payments tab and tick Bank transfer, Cheque or both. This works even if your agency has Stripe connected.

Will my client always see a bank debit option?
Only for domestic payments in a matching currency — otherwise they'll be offered a card instead.

Does Google Pay cost extra to enable?
No — it's part of the standard card payment flow, with the same processing costs as any other card payment.