Get Your Clients Started on AdvicePay + Issuing Invoices
Please note that if your firm has disabled advisor ability to create clients, only the Account Owner, Full Access Advisors, and Admins can add a client.
In This Article:
The 2 Steps to Set Up Success!
To get started, we generally recommend that you do the following together:
- Add a client
- 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.
Optional: If you use Wealthbox, you can also copy/paste the client's Wealthbox link under the CRM Links tab. This will create a direct link to the client's Wealthbox page within the client's AdvicePay profile!
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.
Did you know? Clients can pay without logging in, so they aren't required to register their account. Find out more about how this works!
Essential plan accounts can add up to 10 clients, while Professional and Enterprise accounts may add unlimited clients. More information on our plans can be found here.
📍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 the following:
- 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, keep only ACH checked, and uncheck the Credit Card box.
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)
This option is available on Professional and Enterprise plans only. Please see more about our plans here.
This payment request method will give 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 allows you to charge an upfront fee on a subscription without needing to go back and create a separate one-time invoice. It also allows your client will pay in just one single step!
Once the client has authorized payment on the invoice, the one-time charge will be billed immediately(regardless of the due date) and the subscription won’t be billed 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
Tip: The subscription invoice as well as the one-time invoice attached to it will appear under Subscriptions in your sidebar, as well as on the client's profile page.