Portal Payments and Payment Methods

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Open Portal Payments

Use Payments to pay an invoice, see what you have paid, and manage the cards and bank accounts saved on your account. Where: Customer Portal > Payments Customers open Payments from the portal navigation, from the Account Balance card or the Make a payment link on the Dashboard, or by selecting Pay on an invoice or on an order that has a balance. Arriving from an invoice or order opens the Make a Payment dialog right away with that document’s balance filled in. A saved link to the old Payment Methods page, such as the one in a “card expiring” email, now lands here too. The page is titled Payments with “Payment history and make payments”. It shows two cards, Account Balance and Payments Made, the Payment Methods panel where the customer manages saved cards and bank accounts, and Payment History. Payment History lists each payment, newest first, 15 to a page, with what it paid (“Payment for” the invoice number, the same number the customer’s invoice list shows), the date and time, the last four digits of the card or account when there is one, the amount, and a status. A completed payment shows Paid. When there are none, the list shows No payments yet with “Your payment history will appear here”. Use Previous page and Next page to move through older payments.

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Make A Payment

Start from the invoice you want to pay. That is what tells the portal which invoice the money is for.

1. Open Invoices, select Pay on the invoice, then Continue to Payment. The Make a Payment dialog opens with the Amount set to the invoice’s balance.
2. Keep the amount to pay the invoice in full, or lower it to pay part of it. The amount cannot be more than the amount the seller currently allows on that document, and Continue to Payment stays unavailable while it is zero.
3. Select Continue to Payment. The dialog shows Payment amount and the secure payment form.
4. Enter the card or bank details, or choose a saved method, and select Pay Now. Follow your bank’s confirmation prompt if it shows one.
5. You see Payment successful. The dialog closes and Payment History and Invoices refresh.

• Invoice payment: customer opens a portal invoice or public payment link, then pays the current balance due or part of it.
• Amount review: Arcus checks the document and its current payable amount before creating the payment request, so the customer cannot pay a cancelled, voided, or fully refunded document or more than is owed.
• Stripe entry: card, bank, authentication, and final authorization are handled by Stripe.
• Success: once the card processor confirms the payment, Arcus records it against the invoice, lowers the invoice balance and the account balance, and the seller’s activity history notes that the customer started a portal payment.
• Bank payments: an ACH payment can take a few business days to clear before the invoice shows as paid.
• Failure: the customer sees the payment error in the dialog, and staff should review the invoice, connector health, and Stripe result.

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Messages You Might See

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Manage Payment Methods

Saved cards and bank accounts live in the Payment Methods panel on the Payments page. There is no separate Payment Methods page in the portal navigation any more: the old address redirects to Payments, so a customer who follows a saved link or an email link ends up in the same place. The panel lists Cards and Bank Accounts separately. A card shows its brand, “ending in” the last four digits, and “Expires” month and year. A bank account shows the bank name with the last four digits and the account type. Full card and bank numbers are never shown. The panel reads “No payment methods on file” with an Add a payment method link when there are none, and “Failed to load payment methods” when the list cannot be read.

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What A Customer Can Do

Customers manage their own saved methods without staff help. Every action applies to the signed-in customer’s own account only.

• Add Method: opens a secure form run by Stripe, for a card or a bank account. The seller must have Stripe connected, otherwise the customer sees a message that the merchant has not configured Stripe payments.
• Set Default: makes a method the preferred one for future eligible payments. The panel confirms with “Default payment method updated”. The current default carries a Default badge.
• Remove: opens Remove Payment Method, which says “Remove” the card or bank account “ending in” its last four digits, and warns “Any pending charges using this method will fail.” Confirm with Remove, and the panel confirms with “Payment method removed”.
• Bank verification: a bank account may show a verification badge until it is verified. Staff can see the same status on the customer account.

Removing the default method is allowed. When the default is removed, Arcus promotes the oldest remaining method to default so the account is never left without one.

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Side Effects

• Adding, setting a default, and removing a method are recorded in the seller’s activity history, and the seller’s account page shows the same saved methods.
• Starting to save a method records that the customer began adding a card or bank account, even if they never finish.
• Starting a payment records that the customer began a portal payment. Money moves only when Stripe confirms the payment.

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Method States

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Staff Checklist

1. Confirm Stripe is connected and healthy before directing customers to portal payments.
2. Confirm the invoice or order has an open balance.
3. Confirm the customer is logged into the correct account.
4. Use public payment links for simple one-off payment requests.
5. Review Stripe, Arcus payment history, invoice status, and account payment methods when a customer reports a failed payment.

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Common Blocks

• Payment button is missing: the invoice may be paid, voided, not customer-visible, or portal payments may be disabled.
• Amount is zero: open the invoice or public payment link instead of starting from the general Payments page.
• Connector unavailable: Stripe is not connected, not configured for this entity, or temporarily failing.
• Card authentication fails: customer may need to complete bank/card authentication or use a different method.
• ACH or bank method pending: bank verification or settlement may take additional business days.
• Cannot remove a method: the customer sees the error in a message. Refresh the page and try again, and check the connector if it keeps failing. A customer can remove the default method.
• Wrong balance shown: refresh the invoice and payment history, then review recent payments, credits, refunds, and voids.

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