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Payment methods and customer-document settings

The payment methods your counter accepts and every setting that shapes what customers see on Estimates, Invoices, and the Customer Portal live across four configuration pages: Financial > Payment methods holds the payment method list, Operations > Customer documents controls document detail and terms, General > Branding controls the shared customer-facing Logo and primary color, and Customer Experience > Customer portal controls portal-specific behavior. This page is the reference for each setting. For the guided first pass through them on a new shop, see New-shop onboarding. Editing any of them requires shop settings permission; see Assign Shop Roles, shop access, and User Permissions.

Payment methods​

A payment method is a tender staff picks when recording a payment: cash, a check, a fleet account. The list is under Configurations > Financial > Payment methods, alongside part markup, labor rates, fees, discounts, and tax. A new shop starts with two, Cash and Check, and you add the rest with Add method. Choose the method and whether it requires a reference. New methods start enabled and use the method name as their initial label; customize that label afterward in the table when the counter should see a different name.

Each method has four settings, edited directly in the table. Changes save automatically. The list stays in the order you arrange it - nothing re-sorts it when you rename a method - and that order is the order staff see when collecting a payment. Drag the grip handle at the left of a row to move it.

  • Label is the name staff sees when recording a payment, and the name printed in the Payment History section of the Invoice.
  • Method is the underlying tender type, from a fixed list: Cash, Check, Card, Warranty, Fleet card, Gift card, Internal, Financing, or Other. The type is how the system treats the payment; the label is how people read it.
  • Reference requires staff to record a reference number with every payment of this method, such as a check number or gift-card number. Check payments always require a reference, whether or not this box is checked.
  • Enabled controls whether the method can be picked when collecting a payment. Recording a payment with a method that has no enabled entry is rejected.

Collecting payments day to day is covered in the Payments, Invoicing, and Accounting section. Card records a payment completed outside BayEngine until a processor integration is connected; there are no processor or terminal settings in Configuration yet.

Customer Credit is always available as its own payment source when the Customer has an eligible balance. It is not a configurable payment method and does not need to be added or enabled here.

Retire a payment method​

Uncheck Enabled. The method disappears from payment collection but stays in the list, which is what you want for a tender you may take again. To drop one for good, use the trash button in the Remove column.

Either way, past payments are untouched: each recorded payment keeps the label it was recorded under, so Payment History on old Invoices reads the same after you relabel, disable, or delete the method.

What a customer document shows​

A printed or portal-viewed document is assembled from settings on several pages. The header (Public name, address, phone) comes from the shop's customer-facing identity on the General tab, covered in Shop identity, contact information, hours, and closures. The line-item detail comes from the Customer detail setting below. Terms of service print at the end of the Invoice after Payment History, using the remaining page space and continuing onto another page when needed. Payment History lines print the date, method label, reference, and amount of each payment. There are no custom document templates or layout options. When configured, the current effective logo prints beside the shop identity and also appears in the Customer Portal.

Customer detail on Estimates and Invoices​

The Customer documents tab controls how much line-item detail customers see. One setting covers Estimates, Repair Orders, and Invoices together; there is no separate estimate-versus-invoice configuration. Every Service always shows its name and price, and shop cost is never shown.

The Customer document detail card offers three presets. Summary shows only Service names and prices. Itemized adds labor lines, part lines with brand, quantity, unit price, and additional details, and sublet lines. Full shows everything, including labor hours, the labor rate, and part numbers. Customize details opens the individual toggles behind the presets if none of the three fits your policy.

A visit keeps the detail level in effect when it is first sent or authorized. Changing this setting affects future visits, not documents a customer already has.

The same card holds one Invoice switch: Include declined Services on mixed Invoices, which controls whether an Invoice mixing completed and declined work also lists what the customer declined. An Invoice containing only declined recommendations always lists them and totals $0.00, even with this off.

The card follows the organization default until you click Customize, which creates a shop override; Reset returns to the organization default. The detail level and the Invoice switch change ownership together, not one at a time. How defaults and overrides work across settings is covered in Organization defaults and shop overrides.

Append additional PDF documents​

The Additional documents card appends warranty sheets, policy pages, and other PDFs after the BayEngine-generated pages. Upload one or more PDFs, drag them into the order customers should receive them, and choose whether each PDF appears on Estimates, live Repair Orders, Invoices, or any combination. New uploads start with Invoice selected.

The list follows the organization default until a shop clicks Customize. A shop override is a complete copy of the list; later organization changes do not reach that shop until it resets to the organization documents.

Additional documents are current configuration, not part of the frozen Customer Document Presentation or Terms. Changing, disabling, reordering, or removing a PDF changes the next download, including a download of an older finalized Invoice. A missing or unreadable stored PDF is skipped so the main customer document remains available. BayEngine numbers the complete combined PDF after all available pages are appended.

Uploads are limited to PDF files, 25 MB per file, 20 configured files, and 100 additional pages in one list.

Terms of service​

Terms of service are the text customers accept when authorizing work in the Customer Portal, printed at the end of every Invoice under "Terms of service." It is one plain-text block owned by the Organization and shared by every shop; there is no per-shop terms text. Edit it on the organization's Customer documents settings tab, reached through Org view in the shop switcher. The shop's own Customer documents tab links there.

If your state requires specific wording on estimates or invoices, such as authorization disclosures or replaced-parts return rights, this block is where it goes. There is no separate disclaimer field, no per-document disclaimer picker, and no footer text setting.

Terms are versioned. A visit keeps the version first sent or authorized, so editing or clearing the text changes only future visits; the exact terms a customer authorized against stay attached to that visit and its Invoice. Leaving terms empty is allowed, and no terms section prints.

Customer-Facing Brand and Customer Portal settings​

The portal a customer opens from your texts and emails uses the shared Customer-Facing Brand under Configurations > General > Branding. Portal usage itself is covered in the Customer Communication and Portal section.

Branding is your Logo and primary color. Upload a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or SVG image up to 5 MB; it shows in the portal header, and without one customers see a letter tile in your primary color. Pick the color from the presets or enter a custom one; the page warns you when a color is too light for the white button text customers see. The Online Scheduler, hosted Booking Page, and Web Chat Widget use the same effective Logo and color. At Shop scope, Logo and primary color may each follow the Organization or be overridden independently.

The Customer portal tab contains Show staff first names, which names your technicians in portal copy (the inspection report, activity, and status card). When off, the portal says "your technician" instead. This setting follows the Organization default until the Shop overrides it.

Service section headings lead the same Customer portal tab. They rename the three groups Services are presented under: Customer requested, Urgent, and Recommended. Titles show on the Estimate tab and in the portal; the subtext under each title shows in the portal only. Clearing a field returns it to the built-in default.

Portal payments is visible but locked off until payment processing ships. Customers can still view finalized invoices, but the portal shows no payment methods or Pay button and directs customers with a balance to pay at the shop. The per-customer "Allow this customer to pay online" value is also inactive while the shop setting is unavailable.

Customer signature is configured under Configurations > Operations > Customer documents. It controls whether authorizing work requires a hand-drawn signature in the portal and at the counter. The signature is stored with the authorization evidence and printed on the Invoice.

Not built yet​

  • Card processing: no processor, terminal, or text-to-pay integration, and no way to record a card payment on the collect-payment screen.
  • Document templates: Estimates and Invoices use one built-in layout with no logo, font, or footer options.
  • Per-shop terms of service, and disclaimers picked per document or per Repair Order at write-up time.