How clients view and pay invoices

Clients can review every invoice you've sent them and pay it from their portal or from the pay link in the invoice email. What they're offered depends on how you've set that client up: a card, a bank transfer, a cheque, or a mix.

Steps

The client opens their Invoices tab (in the portal, or from their project page) to see every invoice you've sent — drafts you haven't sent yet are never visible to them.
Opening an invoice shows the line items, total, due date, current status, and how to pay.
If you've attached any files to the invoice — receipts, quotes, contracts — they appear in an Attachments section with the file name, size and a download link. This works the same whether the client is logged into their portal or opened the invoice from a shared payment link.
If card is offered, they click Pay, which takes them to a secure Stripe checkout page. After paying, they're returned to the invoice, now showing as Paid.
If bank transfer is offered, they see Pay by bank transfer with your account details, each with a copy button, and the invoice number to quote. If you've set up more than one currency, they see the account that matches the invoice.
If cheque is offered, they see who to make it payable to and the address to mail it to.
They can Download PDF or Share the invoice with a colleague at any time.

Telling you they've paid

Bank transfers and cheques aren't confirmed automatically, so clients can let you know once they've acted. On an open invoice they see:

I've paid this invoice for a bank transfer.
I've mailed a cheque (I've mailed a check for US agencies), with an optional cheque number and the date it was sent.

When a client does this:

Handl shows them a confirmation and tells you straight away: owners and admins get a notification and an email.
Automatic payment reminders pause for that invoice — 3 days after "I've paid", 10 days after "I've mailed a cheque" — so the client isn't chased for money that's on its way.
When you open Record payment on the invoice, the method, reference and date are pre-filled from what the client told you. You can change them before saving.
If 7 days pass and no payment has been recorded, Handl emails the account owners once to say so. Check your bank, then record the payment or send the client a reminder.

A notice is only the client's word. It never marks an invoice as paid — you do that by recording the payment. If you send a reminder by hand while a notice is open, Handl asks you to confirm first. If a cheque bounces, use Cheque bounced on that payment: the invoice reopens and payment reminders resume.

Statuses a client will see

Sent / Viewed — awaiting payment, not yet opened or opened but unpaid.
Overdue — past the due date and still unpaid.
Partially paid — some, but not all, of the invoice has been paid.
Paid — settled in full.

Setting up auto-pay

Clients who pay by card can save a card and turn on auto-pay from Settings → Money → Payment options in their portal, choosing:

Which saved card to use.
A maximum amount, so auto-pay never charges more than they're comfortable with.
Whether to pay exactly on the due date, or a set number of days before it.
Whether to be notified before and/or after each automatic charge.

Auto-pay never applies to a client who is offered bank transfer or cheque, including a client offered both card and bank transfer.

Good to know

Clients only ever see invoices you've sent — anything still in draft on your side stays invisible to them.
The methods a client sees are set on their Payments tab. If you change them later, the client's open sent invoices follow, so the pay page shows the new options.
An invoice can carry up to 10 attached files (PDFs, images, Word/Excel documents, CSV or plain text). Download links are generated fresh each time and are scoped to that specific invoice, so they work safely from a shared pay link as well as from inside the portal.
Some projects require a client to add a payment card before they can even accept the project invitation.
Any deliverables tied to an invoice appear alongside it, locked until that invoice is paid in full (see "Deliverables held until payment").

FAQs

What payment methods can clients use? Whichever you've offered that client: card through Stripe's secure checkout, bank transfer, cheque, or a combination. See "Payment methods: cards, bank debits and Google Pay".

Does "I've paid" mark the invoice as paid? No. It tells you, pauses reminders and pre-fills Record payment. The invoice stays open until you record the payment.

Can I tell if a client has looked at an invoice? Yes — it moves to a Viewed status once they open it.

What happens with a partial payment? The invoice shows Partially paid until the remaining balance is settled.

Can I download files the agency attached to my invoice? Yes — they appear in an Attachments section on the invoice with a direct download link, whether you're viewing it in your portal or from a shared payment link.