https://tradeyoke.net/blog/tag/payments Pay links, cards, Direct Debit, late payers and the morning 'who owes me' email. en-gb https://tradeyoke.net/blog/automatic-invoicing-and-pay-now-links https://tradeyoke.net/blog/automatic-invoicing-and-pay-now-links Wed, 23 Sep 2026 01:33:16 GMT TradeYoke can now raise and send a window cleaning, gardening or scaffolding invoice the moment the job's marked done, and every invoice carries a Pay now button — on the email, the PDF and the customer's own account page. 💷 Late payment costs UK small businesses real money in time and cash flow — HMRC's Making Tax Digital rules aside, an invoice that isn't raised on the day it's earned is an invoice that takes longer to collect. The fix that works, for every trade we've watched, is the same: shorten the gap between the job finishing and the ask to pay. ### What you can do about it today, TradeYoke or not Quick answer: raise the invoice the same day, put a way to pay by card on it, and stop sending an invoice that just states a total with no button to act on. ### Five habits that get you paid faster, whatever you use - ✓ Invoice same-day, not same-week — The longer the gap between the job and the invoice, the less the customer remembers why they're paying — and the easier it is for you to forget to send it at all. - ✓ Put a way to pay ON the invoice — A PDF with a bank sort code buried in the footer asks the customer to do the work of paying. A button that already knows the amount does not. - ✓ Make the link work more than once — A pay link that dies after a day just means a second, more awkward, message a week later. - ✓ Decide your default, and stick to it — Card payments by default with a manual option for the regulars who prefer bank transfer beats deciding case by case, tired, at 9pm. - ✓ Keep a debt book, even a rough one — Knowing who owes what and for how long is the difference between chasing early and chasing embarrassingly late. ### How TradeYoke does it: the job invoices itself Quick answer: turn on automatic invoicing for window cleaning, gardening or scaffolding and a job raises and emails its own invoice the moment it's marked done — off by default, with a per-customer override. TradeYoke's invoicing sits on an immutable ledger, so every invoice, payment and adjustment is a permanent entry rather than a field someone can quietly edit. On top of that ledger, a completed job can now raise its own invoice and send it — for window cleaning, gardening and scaffolding — the moment it's marked done. It's off by default for the whole business, so nothing changes until you decide it should, and it's off (or on) per customer too, for the accounts where a blanket rule is the wrong call — the regular who's always invoiced monthly, say, or the landlord who wants one statement for six properties. [Image: An invoice raised from a completed job, with the Pay now link already attached] ### Pay now, wherever the customer is looking Quick answer: a Pay now button now appears on the invoice email, on the PDF itself, and on the customer's own portal page — always for exactly what's still owed, and the link stays live. Getting the invoice out is only half of it; the other half is not making the customer hunt for a way to pay it. TradeYoke now puts a Pay now button in three places a customer is actually likely to be looking: the email the invoice arrives in, the PDF document itself (so it still works if they've saved or forwarded it), and their own portal page if you've set one up. Whichever one they tap, it charges exactly what's still owed — not the original total if part of it's already been paid — and a copied link keeps working, rather than quietly expiring after a day. You can turn Pay now off tenant-wide, or set an individual customer to always or never see it, for the accounts you'd rather handled by bank transfer. ### A Stripe set-up that doesn't need a technical co-founder Quick answer: Connect with Stripe now asks for one thing at a time and needs only your secret key to get going — no webhook key hunting required to start taking card payments. Card payments run through your own Stripe account — TradeYoke never holds your money — and the connection screen has been simplified so it shows only the next thing you actually need to do, with everything else ticked off or tucked away. If the connection ever gets into a stuck, technical-looking state, TradeYoke now clears it automatically and invites you to reconnect with a plain message instead of showing you a raw error. **Whose Stripe account is it?** Yours. You connect your own Stripe account in settings, and payouts go straight to your bank on Stripe's normal schedule — TradeYoke is never in the middle of your money. **Which jobs can invoice themselves?** Window cleaning, gardening and scaffolding today. It's off by default for the whole business and can be switched on — or overridden for one customer — in settings. **Does Pay now work without an online account?** Yes. Neither the pay link nor the customer portal need the customer to create a login or download anything. **Can I still take bank transfer or cash?** Yes — manual payments are recorded against the invoice the same way as card payments, and the ledger treats them the same for your reports. Related: Invoicing & payments · Customer portal · Getting paid · The who-owes-me morning report ### Stop chasing your own invoices 30 days of Essentials free, no card required. Import your customers and see the next invoice send itself. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Payments Guides Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/best-invoicing-software-for-uk-tradespeople https://tradeyoke.net/blog/best-invoicing-software-for-uk-tradespeople Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:33:16 GMT Every invoicing tool claims to be the answer. Here's what actually matters for a UK trade business — branded PDFs, a pay link, an accounting sync you can trust — what the current crop of tools gets right and leaves out, and where TradeYoke fits, gaps included. Carl Randall Payments Accounting Guides https://tradeyoke.net/blog/direct-debit-for-window-cleaners https://tradeyoke.net/blog/direct-debit-for-window-cleaners Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:15:11 GMT Around 1% on a £12 clean, no Friday-evening collections, and money that arrives whether the customer was in or not. How Direct Debit changes a window cleaning round, and how to move customers onto it. ✅ Direct Debit is protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee, which customers know from their utilities. Say so when you offer it. It answers the "what if you take too much?" question before it is asked. ### What uptake looks like on a real round Do not expect everyone to switch. A realistic round ends up with a large majority on Direct Debit, a few on card pay links, and a handful of older customers who will always want to leave cash under the pot. That is fine. The point is not a perfect round; it is a round where collecting is the exception rather than the Friday. New customers are the easy win. Offer Direct Debit as the normal way to pay when you quote, with cash as the alternative rather than the default, and most say yes without a second thought. Existing customers move over in waves: when you raise prices, when you send the first tidy invoice, and when they miss a payment and get a polite reminder with a mandate link in it. [Image: Invoices on the phone: each clean becomes a numbered invoice, and a Direct Debit collection settles it automatically.] ### How it works inside the app In TradeYoke you connect GoCardless once from the Payments settings and it is switched on for the window cleaning module. When you mark a clean done, the invoice is generated and a payment is requested against the customer's mandate. When GoCardless confirms the collection, a webhook settles the invoice in the ledger. There is nothing to reconcile by hand and nothing to re-type into Xero, because the bookkeeping sync pushes both the invoice and the payment. Customers who do not want a mandate get a pay link by text or email, and a customer portal where they can see everything they owe and pay it. Taking payments online is a Premium feature and the customer portal comes with Ultimate on the pricing page; a round of 200 houses recovers the difference on the first Friday it does not spend collecting. There is a fuller picture of the payments side on the platform page. ### Moving a round across without a fight ### The switch, step by step - ✓ Connect GoCardless — Once, from Payments settings. Switch it on for window cleaning. - ✓ Offer it to every new customer — As the normal way to pay. Cash is the alternative, not the default. - ✓ Send one message to the round — Two sentences: you now offer Direct Debit, it is protected by the Guarantee, here is the link. - ✓ Add the link to reminders — The day-before text carries the mandate link for anyone not yet set up. - ✓ Ride the price rise — When you next raise prices, invite everyone to switch at the same time. - ✓ Let the reminders do the rest — Anyone who misses a payment gets a polite nudge with the link in it. Give it three months. By then the mandate link has been in front of every customer four or five times in the normal course of the round, and the ones who were going to switch have switched. The morning who owes me email shows you the ones who have not, and a personal word at the door usually does the rest. > Clean on Tuesday, paid by Friday, without driving back. That is what Direct Debit buys a round. — TradeYoke ### Questions people ask **Do customers have to pay a fixed monthly amount?** No. The mandate authorises you to collect; each collection is for that visit's price. If you skip a clean, nothing is collected. If you raise a price, the new amount applies from the next collection. **What if a Direct Debit fails?** The app records the failure against the invoice and the customer stays on the owed list, so a reminder goes out and you can try again or take a card payment by link. It is treated exactly like an unpaid invoice. **Is Direct Debit worth it on a £10 clean?** At around 1% the fee is 10p. The alternative is a return visit or an unpaid clean, so for regular work it pays for itself many times over. The maths is set out in how to price a window cleaning round. **Can I use both cards and Direct Debit?** Yes. Stripe handles cards for one-off work and pay links; GoCardless handles the regular round. Both settle against the same invoices in the same ledger. ### End the Friday collections Connect GoCardless, offer it to the round, and watch the owed list shrink. Start with 30 days of Essentials, no card; online payments unlock on Premium. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Window cleaning Payments https://tradeyoke.net/blog/get-paid-same-day https://tradeyoke.net/blog/get-paid-same-day Sat, 18 Jul 2026 10:15:11 GMT A pay link by text, a card on the doorstep, a Direct Debit for the regulars. The three ways UK trades get paid the same day, and when to use each. ✅ Every payment method ends in the same place: the invoice marked paid, the ledger updated, and the bookkeeping sync pushing the payment to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent. You choose the method per customer; the paperwork is identical. ### Which method for which work | Method | Best for | Customer effort | Cost model | |---|---|---|---| | Pay link (card) | One-off jobs, reactive callouts | Tap the link, enter a card | Per transaction (Stripe) | | Card on the doorstep | Jobs where the customer is home | Tap or insert | Per transaction (Stripe) | | Direct Debit | Rounds and monthly contracts | Authorise once, never again | Around 1% per collection (GoCardless) | | Customer portal | Customers with several invoices | One page, one button | Whichever method they choose | | Cash | Customers who insist | Hand it over | Free, but record it on the phone | ### What it costs and what you need Online payments and the bookkeeping sync are in TradeYoke Premium at £39 a month, and the customer portal comes with Ultimate at £55; see the pricing page for what sits in Essentials. Stripe and GoCardless are your own accounts with their own per-transaction fees, connected from the Payments tab in Settings. The 30-day trial is Essentials with no card; online payments unlock when you choose Premium or Ultimate. If you want to see what the money looks like once it starts arriving on time, the morning who-owes-me email is the other half of this story. ### Questions people ask **Do my customers need an app to pay a link?** No. The pay link opens a normal web page in their phone's browser. They enter a card and the invoice marks itself paid. The customer portal works the same way and shows every invoice they owe on one page. **Which is cheaper, card or Direct Debit?** For small regular amounts Direct Debit is usually cheaper: GoCardless charges around 1% on a £12 clean. For a one-off £400 job a card fee is simpler and the customer expects it. Both providers publish their fees; TradeYoke connects to your own accounts and adds no per-transaction fee of its own. **What happens to cash payments?** Record them on the phone against the invoice. Cash settles against the ledger exactly like a card or Direct Debit payment, so the customer's balance, your reports and your accountant file all agree. **Does a payment need re-typing into Xero or QuickBooks?** No. With the bookkeeping sync connected, invoices and their payments push to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent and TradeYoke reads them back to confirm they landed. An event journal shows what went where. ### Get paid while the job is still fresh Connect Stripe or GoCardless in a few minutes on the free trial and send your first pay link today. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> Carl Randall Payments https://tradeyoke.net/blog/chasing-late-payments-the-polite-way https://tradeyoke.net/blog/chasing-late-payments-the-polite-way Mon, 13 Jul 2026 12:15:11 GMT A reminder ladder that keeps customers, the automation that gets you paid weeks sooner, and exactly what the Late Payment Act lets you charge when a business ignores you. Polite is not the same as soft. The ladder is polite every step and clear about the last one. — TradeYoke ### Automate the ladder and get paid weeks sooner The ladder only works if it actually runs, and on a busy week it will not run from memory. Automated reminders send each step on schedule, and Xero's research on UK late payments found that businesses using automated reminders get paid up to 54 days sooner than those chasing by hand. In TradeYoke the message wizard sends email or SMS now or at a scheduled time, and owing notices go to customers with an outstanding balance. Replies land in the customer's thread, so "I've paid this morning" and "the gate was locked so I disputed it" both arrive where you will see them. The morning who-owes-me email tells you each day which customers are on which rung. [Xero UK: late payments guidance](https://www.xero.com/uk/): Xero's UK small-business guides on late payment, including the finding that automated reminders get businesses paid up to 54 days sooner. [Image: The customer list shows owing and overdue balances at a glance, so the ladder starts from a list rather than a memory.] ### When polite fails: your rights against a business customer If the customer is a business, a letting agent, a landlord trading as a company, a main contractor, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 applies whether or not your terms mention it. Once a debt is late you are entitled to: Statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, calculated daily from the day after the due date. A fixed sum of £40, £70 or £100 per invoice as compensation for recovery costs, depending on the size of the debt. Reasonable recovery costs beyond the fixed sum, if you can show them. If no payment date was agreed, the debt is late 30 days after the invoice or the delivery of the work, whichever is later. You do not have to charge interest, but knowing you can changes the final-notice conversation. ### Fixed compensation under the Late Payment Act | Size of the debt | Fixed sum you can claim | |---|---| | Up to £999.99 | £40 | | £1,000 to £9,999.99 | £70 | | £10,000 or more | £100 | [Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery](https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery): The official rules on statutory interest, fixed compensation and when a commercial debt becomes late. > ⚠️ The Act covers business-to-business debts only. A householder who has not paid for their window clean is a consumer, and statutory interest does not apply. This post is general information, not legal advice; check gov.uk or a solicitor before charging interest. ### When polite fails: a domestic customer For a householder the route is different. Send a letter before action: a plain letter stating the debt, the invoice, what you have already sent, and a date (usually 14 days) after which you will make a claim. Most domestic debts are paid at this point, because the letter makes it real. After that, small claims through the courts service online handles debts up to £10,000. The fees are modest and you do not need a solicitor. Whether it is worth it for a £15 clean is your call; it usually is not, and the better answer for regulars is Direct Debit, which we cover in Direct Debit for window cleaners. ### Keep the record, because the record wins Every step of the ladder should be visible on the customer's record: the invoice, the date it was sent, each reminder, each reply. If a dispute ever reaches a letter before action, the record is your case. If it never does, the record is what tells you which customers to move to Direct Debit and which to let go. TradeYoke keeps messages, invoices and payments on one customer record across every trade you run, and the ledger behind it cannot be edited after the fact. See the platform overview for how the pieces fit, and the pricing page for which plan includes owing notices and online payments. The same tools work for any of the trades TradeYoke supports. See also: how automatic invoicing and Pay now links cut the chasing further ### Questions people ask **How soon should I send the first reminder?** On the due date. A friendly note with the pay link on the day it is due catches most forgotten invoices before they become awkward. The first firmer message comes a week later. **Can I charge interest on a late invoice?** Against a business customer, yes: the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 allows 8% over the Bank of England base rate plus a fixed sum of £40, £70 or £100 depending on the debt. It does not apply to domestic customers. Check gov.uk before you rely on it. **Do automated reminders annoy customers?** Not when they are polite, spaced out and carry the link. What annoys customers is a sudden angry message after weeks of silence. A steady, predictable ladder reads as professional. **What if the customer disputes the work?** Stop the ladder and talk. A dispute is a service question, not a payment question. Photos and notes on the job record usually settle it; once it is resolved, the reminders resume from where they stopped. ### Let the ladder run itself Owing notices, scheduled reminders and pay links are on from day one of the free trial. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Payments https://tradeyoke.net/blog/who-owes-me-morning-report https://tradeyoke.net/blog/who-owes-me-morning-report Wed, 08 Jul 2026 07:15:11 GMT One email before the first job: every customer who owes you, how overdue, and a link they can pay from. Why it works and what changes after a week of it. 💡 Send the owing notice to the three oldest balances first, not the three largest. Old debts get harder every week; a large invoice from last Friday will usually pay itself. [Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery](https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery): When a commercial debt becomes late and what you can charge a business customer once it is. [GoCardless pricing](https://gocardless.com/pricing/): Per-transaction Direct Debit pricing, the usual answer for a customer who is always a month behind. ### From report to reminder in one tap Reading the list is half the job. From the owed-money page in the app you send an owing notice to a customer by email or SMS with the portal link already in it, or schedule it for 6 pm when they are home. Replies come back into the customer's thread. If they pay from the portal, the balance drops and the next morning's email no longer lists them. For contract customers who are always a month behind, the report is also the nudge to move them onto Direct Debit. One conversation, and that name never appears in the email again. [Image: Reports answer how am I doing: earned, collected, expenses and profit for any period, alongside the round's value.] ### What changes after a week The first morning is uncomfortable, because the number is bigger than you thought. By day three you have sent six notices and four have paid. By the end of the week the list is shorter, the two names left on it are the two you already suspected, and you have stopped guessing. Over a month the second effect appears: invoices go out faster, because you know an invoice not sent is money not on the list. The report improves the habit upstream of it. ### The morning routine - ✓ Open the email — Total, then the oldest three balances. - ✓ Send three owing notices — Portal link included. Schedule for 6 pm if they are at work. - ✓ Check today's route against the list — Know who owes before you knock. - ✓ Move a repeat offender to Direct Debit — One a week is enough. - ✓ Send yesterday's invoices — If they are not sent, they are not on the list. ### Questions people ask **Is the who owes me report an email or a page?** Both. The owed-money page in TradeYoke is always live, and a morning email summarises it so you see the list without opening the app. The email is part of the platform's background jobs and runs for every business with the feature switched on. **Does the customer need an account to use the portal link?** No. The portal link opens a page showing everything that customer owes, with a pay-now button for card or Direct Debit. Payments settle against the invoices automatically. **Does it include cash I have taken?** Yes, as long as you record the cash on the phone against the invoice. Cash settles in the ledger like any other payment, so the report reflects it the next morning. **Which plan includes the report and the portal?** The owed-money report and reminders are in Essentials. Online payments with Pay now on every invoice are in Premium, and the customer portal is in Ultimate. The free trial is 30 days of Essentials; online payments unlock when you choose a plan. The report works the same for every trade on the TradeYoke platform, from a window cleaning round to a gardening contract book. Plans are on the pricing page. See also: the full Getting paid guide ### Know the number every morning Start the free trial, send your invoices, and get the first who-owes-me email tomorrow. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Payments