Payments with Smart Service
Smart Service and iFleet offer a number of options to help your business collect payment and create payment records in QuickBooks. Payments can be collected on work orders and deposits can be collected on estimates.
Below are two sections, one for the features outlined in Smart Service and another section outlining the additional features added if you have signed up for our merchant service, CardPointe from CardConnect. If you didn’t know we offered a merchant service, you can learn more by contacting us at [email protected].
Standard Payment Features
The features in this section are the standard options (without CardConnect) that will appear in Smart Service if you’re running version 105 or later of Smart Service or iFleet. The features in this section are designed to allow you to record that a payment was collected and the method in which it was taken.
Only customers with our merchant service should enter customer credit card information as the features discussed in this section are not designed to store or process sensitive customer data.
Payments in Smart Service (Standard Process)
Estimates and jobs in Smart Service will now have a ‘Payments’ tab where you can record that a payment was collected. When you click on this tab, the screen will show any unposted payments attached to this service.
You can create a new payment record by clicking the “Add Payment” button at the top left-hand corner of the screen. From there, Smart Service will assume you want to collect the job total (which can be changed manually here) and you can select a method of payment.
If you post the payment here (ahead of posting the invoice) you will receive a credit memo in QuickBooks. Payments will automatically be posted when the invoice is posted to QuickBooks, so when you post is up to your needs.
Payments in iFleet (Standard Process)
It’s easy to take payments in iFleet as well. iFleet will have a “Process Payment” option at the bottom of the screen that will help your field users take payment at the end of the service. You’ll want to perform this step before finalizing this work order.
If you do not have our merchant service (detailed below) then please do not store or record your customer’s credit card information with this feature. The default process is designed for collecting other forms of payment, or those who already have a merchant service but would like Smart Service to create a payment record in QuickBooks upon posting the invoice.
Send Invoices and Quotes (Standard)
Smart Service provides the option to send an invoice or quote to the customer from their job or quote record. At the top of this record, you’ll see an “email invoice/quote” option, as shown below.
When sent to the customer, they will receive the invoice/quote as an attachment. The text added to the “Send Email” prompt above will form the subject and body of the email.
You can create and manage these templates by visiting Settings > Company > Set up Smart Service Add-ons > Email Invoice. Not all users will be able to navigate to the settings section, so you may need to speak with your office administrator to have these templates customized.
Payment Processing with CardConnect
We’ve teamed up with the industry-leading payment processing service CardConnect to add credit card and ACH processing to Smart Service and iFleet. You can use Smart Service to take a payment in the field, or you can opt to send customers a link to your dedicated, online payment portal. This gives them a secure website they can use to make a payment themselves.
If you’d like more information about these features, please contact us at [email protected].
CardConnect serves as your merchant online portal for reporting, batching transactions, and account management. There, you can manage multiple merchant accounts or locations. View full reports on processed transactions and review your merchant statements. Upon approval with CardConnect, you will be sent information on setting up and using CardConnect.
- When opening CardConnect, the dashboard will present recent transaction activity and what items may need attention.
- Reporting in CardConnect will be the management console for reconciling accounts. Here you can view full reports on processed transactions, view gateway batches and their status, and see when processed transactions are funded to your bank account. This also provides statements for your merchant account or location
- CardConnect has a support team you can utilize for any merchant related issues such as banking changes, account updates, and, statement questions. You also can submit and update support tickets within the application, by navigating to the ‘Support’ tab of CardConnect.
Smart Service and CardConnect allow for simple and secure payment processing and transaction management from the office and in the field. Payments processed ahead of an invoice will show up as a credit memo for the customer in Quickbooks. Once a job in Smart Service is invoiced to QuickBooks, the invoice will be marked as ‘Paid’. When processing refunds, an expense record in QuickBooks will be created.
CardSecure combines CardConnect’s PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE and patented tokenization for payment data protection. Encrypted data is then tokenized, this irreversible tokenization solution replaces sensitive information with valueless tokens, which are useless to a criminal hacker should a business’s system or network be breached. Along with CardSecure security, CardConnect ensures your company’s compliant with security standards by offering a PCI compliance program. Find out more here.
*Merchant may be subject to non-compliance fees if a certificate of PCI compliance is not completed
CardConnect guarantees to beat your existing credit card processing costs. For more information on receiving a comprehensive rate analysis, reach out to a member of our Merchant Services Team by emailing us at [email protected] or filling out this contact form online.
Using the Payment Window (CardConnect)
The payment window is accessible from the payment tab within any job or via the “+!” button to the left of each job within the Post Work Orders screen. If you have CardConnect, you will have the option to enter credit card information’ otherwise, payment can be entered as check, saved payments, or “other”.
Creating a payment record of any kind with this feature will allow you to post a payment record directly into QuickBooks.
Once the window is open, choose the payment method and type of payment you’re trying to receive. When processing credit cards, you must also select the “Card Type” from the dropdown. Depending on how you’ve set up QuickBooks payment types, your “Method” and “Card Type” might have the same name. While you can customize the “Method” in QuickBooks, the “Card Type” is a standardized list for CardConnect to understand and process properly.
Once you’ve entered all of the information about your payment, click the “Process Payment” at the bottom of the window. This will log the payment in Smart Service, which will wait until the invoice is posted to QuickBooks or you choose to post it beforehand.
You also have the option of changing the amount the customer would like to pay on this transaction by editing the amount at the top right-hand corner of the window. Otherwise, Smart Service will charge the job’s total amount based on the line items added by default.
There are a few dialogues that may appear when attempting to post credit card payments. These messages will let you know if the customer has insufficient funding to pay for this service at the moment, or if you have entered payment information incorrectly.
Creating Saved Payments (CardConnect)
To create a saved payment, check the “Save Payment Method” at the bottom of the payment window when entering the customer’s credit card information. This will encrypt the card’s information and save it to the customer’s record. When you want to use this saved card in the future, create a new payment record and choose the “Saved Payments” option under payment type. Doing so will change the payment window into a screen where you can select one of the customer’s saved payment methods.
Keep in mind you will only be able to see the last 4 digits of the card number on file and the expiration date to identify which card the customer would like to process this transaction with.
Issuing Refunds & Voiding Payments (CardConnect)
If you need to issue a credit or refund on a posted transaction, you may do so by visiting the payment tab of the job you had received payment for. Remember, if the payment hasn’t been posted yet, you can edit the payment record from this screen instead.
To access payments which have already been processed, open the payment tab and uncheck the “view only pending payments” button at the top right-hand corner. Double-click on the processed payment to open the payment record and begin the refund process.
Once you’re inside the processed payment’s window, you will have the option to either void or refund under the payment information. The void option will cancel the payment, whereas the refund option will allow you to refund a specific item or amount. Using the refund option will also create a “Credit Card Refund” entry under the job in QuickBooks.
When refunding, make sure to select an item to be displayed on the credit memo before clicking the “Refund” button. This step is necessary to properly issue and record the refund transaction. You may also adjust the amount to be refunded by changing it in the top right-hand corner of the window before processing the refund below.
Payments in iFleet (CardConnect)
It’s easy to take payments in iFleet as well. iFleet will have a “Process Payment” option at the bottom of the screen that will help your field users take payment at the end of the service. You’ll want to perform this step before finalizing this work order.
For iOS devices, a card scanner has been implemented and shows up as a camera symbol where you would typically enter the credit card number. We will implement this feature for Android devices when that operating system provides the means to do so.
Hosted Payment Page (CardConnect)
Customers who have signed up for our merchant service have access to a hosted payment page (HPP). The HPP is a webpage provided by the merchant service that allows secure payments online. This is an optional service and will be configured for your company when you opt into this service. Please let us know if you would like this option enabled when you have our merchant service activated.
Sending Invoices and Quotes (CardConnect)
Smart Service has the option to send out invoices and quotes to collect payment from the office as well. These options are found on the work order or quote screen itself. This option will allow the customer to pay online using the aforementioned HPP. If the document in question is a quote, you will see the option to set the amount to be collected before getting the option to send to the customer.
The invoice/quote document will be sent to the customer’s primary email address(es) on file for that work order/quote record. You can also choose the button color for the “Make a Payment” button that appears on the PDF shown above.
When sent to the customer, they will receive the invoice/quote as an attachment. The text added to the “Send Email” prompt above will form the subject and body of the email.
You can create and manage these templates by visiting Settings > Company > Set up Smart Service Add-ons > Email Invoice. Not all users will be able to navigate to the settings section, so you may need to speak with your office administrator to have these templates customized.
Just like the other template email fields in Smart Service, you can insert a merge field by right-clicking. These merge fields can pull customer information from Smart Service and insert it into the email received by the customer.