Get Your Clients Started on AdvicePay + Issuing Invoices

The 2 Steps to Set Up Success!

To get started, we generally recommend that you do the following together:

1. Add a client 
2. Request a payment and send them the Invoice email

📍 Want to play around with AdvicePay first? Create a test client!

To add a new client and request payment together in less than 1 minute, we've got you covered! Start by going straight to Invoices > Create New or Subscriptions > Create New. Click the + Add New Client link in the Client drop down to invite your new client, then proceed to finishing the payment request.

How to Add a Client to AdvicePay

To add a client anytime, you'll need to enter their name and email address! Here's how:

1. Select the Clients tab in your sidebar

2. Click Add Client in the upper right-hand side of your screen

3. Enter in your client's  First Name, Last Name, and Email Address (they can update all of this information later under their own account). Select their Advisor (if available). You may also assign an optional, internal Client ID or Tag. 

4. Click Add Client

Your client is now added -- woohoo! When you request a payment you can send them the invoice email notice and they will be able to pay and/or set up their account from there.

Alternatively, you can send over their unique Client Account Invitation link (located on their client page) so they can register their account separately from paying an invoice. To do that, copy/paste the link and send it yourself or click the paper airplane icon next to the invite link and we'll send an email for you. 

📍Read more:   What emails should I have AdvicePay send to new clients?

Now you're ready to request a payment from your client to set up their first invoice! Here's a walk-through below on how to do this. 👇

How to Request a Payment

Learn how to request a payment from your client by following the below tutorial. If you'd like to issue a subscription payment request in the  same step as issuing an up-front, one-time payment, check out our new Advanced Payment feature further down in this article!

📍 How to request multiple one-time payments at once

Let's get started:

1. Select the Invoices or Subscriptions tab in your sidebar

2. Click Create New in the upper right-hand corner of your screen

3. Select your Client (this is searchable by typing within the drop down menu box)

4. (Optional) If your firm has an eSignature integration enabled and you want to attach a document for eSignature, click Add eSign Document and assign signers.

Please note that if you are on the Essential plan or you don't have eSign enabled, this option will not be available!

5. Select Attach Invoice 

6. Select  Invoice Type (One-time or Subscription), Frequency if you are setting up a monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual subscription, Due Date or Start Date (a date on which you would like a subscription to begin billing).

Optional: select an end-date for a subscription by setting the number of billing periods under + Add End Date. (This feature is available on our Professional and Enterprise plans. On Essential accounts, subscriptions will bill indefinitely until you or the client cancel them.) 

You can also adjust whether a subscription reflects an invoice date range in advance or in arrears.

📍 Manage your default advance/arrears setting

By default both Credit Card and ACH are selected as payment method options unless you have limited all payment methods in your Account Settings. To limit the invoice payment method to ACH only, uncheck the Credit Card box (and vice versa). 

See more information on automatically limiting payment methods for all clients

7. Enter in your Payment Amount and select or write a Description of Services. (How to enter a new service description.)

Optional: If creating a subscription, you have the option to add an automatic future Fee Escalation.

8. Click Continue

8. On the final screen you can review the complete invoice details. When you're ready to send it to your client, click Finish!

Choose Send via email through AdvicePay if you'd like your client to instantly receive an email from AdvicePay inviting them to view the invoice, sign the contract (if applicable), and proceed to payment.

Choose  Publish without sending email if you don't want your client to receive an email from AdvicePay notifying them of the invoice and any attached contract. (This is a good option if you want to wait or let them know another way that they have an invoice to pay. You can copy/paste the provided URL or here's how to send the invoice email through AdvicePay later!) 

Advanced Payment Option for Subscriptions (Bundle a Subscription and One-time Up-Front payment)

We know you want billing and making payments to be a breeze, so we’ve given you the ability to request an up-front, one-time payment from your clients at the very same time as requesting a subscription payment. This way you can charge a subscription client for your initial fee or a partial month’s work without needing to spend extra time going back in and create a separate one-time invoice.

(Plus, another benefit of adding a one-time up-front payment request onto a subscription is that while it still creates two unique invoices,  your client will pay them in just one single step. Woohoo!)

Once the client has authorized payment on the invoice, the one-time charge will bill immediately and the subscription won’t bill until the due date you set.

To add a one-time up-front payment to your subscription invoices, follow steps 1-7 as normal above. Then:

1. Click  Add One Time Invoice

2. Enter in the Due Date, Payment Amount, and Description of Services 

Frequently Asked Questions