Getting paid

Pay by text

The invoice text link opens the invoice on the customer's phone. After signing, Pay now opens a secure Stripe checkout. The money goes directly to your shop's own Stripe account, connected once in Settings, Payments, and settles to your bank on Stripe's payout schedule.

Many customers pay from the "your car is ready" text before they even arrive, which means no line at the counter.

In person

At the counter, Record payment on the invoice records money you already collected, with a method picker (cash, card, check). For the final balance, get the customer's signature or choose Record without signature if they declined or are unavailable. Select the reason before recording. CarSignal saves who recorded it, when, the payment amount and the exact invoice version. The receipt states that a signature wasn't obtained. This records the payment, not customer approval of the work. Smaller deposits can still be recorded before signing; online balance payments still require signing.

The signature reason and reviewed invoice version stay with a saved payment retry. They cannot be changed while its outcome is unknown. If an older app asks you to update before a payment or refund, update CarSignal or use the current web app. Don't start another payment to work around an unconfirmed result.

Taking less than the full balance records a partial payment: the invoice flips to Partial, shows what's left, and keeps its Record payment button — including after the car is picked up — until the balance hits zero. That's the whole flow for deposits and payment plans: record each installment as it comes in, and the one that clears the balance closes the invoice and sends the receipt. When you send a deposit request, the customer is asked exactly the amount you typed — money they already put down never shrinks a new ask; only payments made after the request count toward it.

Request deposit asks for an additional amount, even when earlier payments or refunds are on the bill. Web, mobile and the customer link show what's still requested—not the cumulative payment target. Online deposits start at $5. Asking for the whole balance uses the normal balance payment and its signature requirement; a remaining request below $5 also falls back to the balance payment.

If recording a payment loses its connection, reopen Record payment and retry the saved payment. Its original amount, method, reference and receipt choice stay together until the result is confirmed—even if the refreshed balance is already zero. On mobile, the vehicle's invoice history keeps Retry original payment available for that saved attempt after payment closes the active bill. Don't enter a different payment to work around an unconfirmed result. A confirmed rejection lets you correct the details; a confirmed success lets you record the next installment.

For an unfinished payment from an older web version, the original amount, method and reference are restored. If that version did not save your receipt choice, choose it before retrying. The original payment request is reused.

Older mobile builds: if the app asks you to use the latest version when recording money, use the vehicle page on the web. The mobile payment-safety update is being prepared, not yet published. It checks the server's payment format before sending and preserves unfinished attempts. An unconfirmed refund from an older server needs a payment-history review before another refund—not a blind retry after updating.

A $0 invoice (membership plans, goodwill work) can be marked paid too. CarSignal asks you to confirm, since nothing is collected, and closes the invoice without recording a payment.

Forgot the check number? Open Payment details on the paid invoice to add it later — reference, payment method, and the fleet's PO/authorization number stay editable after close-out. Amounts and dates never change there; every edit is recorded in the invoice's audit trail with who made it.

What happens on payment

Automatically, on either path:

• The invoice flips to paid, and the vehicle moves to its Paid stage.
• The customer's live status page updates, and a receipt goes out by text and email. The picker on the Mark paid button narrows it to one channel or none (for a printed copy) and remembers your last choice. Online card payments always send one.
• A review ask is queued.
• If QuickBooks is connected, the invoice and payment sync over.
• The payment appears in Financials, Payments, with the payout it belongs to.

Payment state follows the processor, not the browser: a customer closing the tab at the wrong moment cannot produce a wrong status, and delayed bank payments and refunds reconcile themselves.

Repeat confirmations of an already-recorded online payment or refund leave an otherwise unchanged invoice alone. You do not need to restart signing or payment just because the processor retries a notification. New payments, refunds and bill edits still update the balance.

Refunds

How a refund is recorded depends on how the money was taken:

• Online (card) payments. Refund the charge in Stripe. CarSignal picks it up automatically within seconds — the invoice updates, your team gets a "Refund issued" notification, and a refund receipt syncs to QuickBooks. You don't record anything by hand, and partial refunds work the same way.
• Cash, check, or in-person card. Use Record refund — as you type, the dialog shows what the customer gets back and where the balance lands. The customer gets a refund receipt by text and email; the picker on the Refund button narrows it to one channel or none.
• Mixed (an online deposit plus cash at the counter). Both of the above, each on its own rail: Record refund handles the hand-collected portion (it caps there automatically), and the online portion refunds in Stripe. The same dollar can never be refunded twice.

Where to record one

• Days or weeks later (the usual case): Financials, Customer payments, then Find an invoice — search by number, customer, plate, or VIN. Paid results carry a Record refund action.
• While the car is still on the board: the paid invoice card on the vehicle page has the same action.
• On the mobile app: the customer's invoice history and the vehicle's paid-invoice row both offer Record refund.

If a refund response is interrupted, reopen Record refund and use Retry original refund. It checks the same saved request, even if nothing remains refundable. Mobile keeps the retry in the vehicle's invoice history when a refund changes the bill's status; Review saved refund in customer history takes you there. If another window already confirmed it, refresh instead of retrying from the old dialog. A retry must not become a second refund.

How refunds hit your numbers

Every refund — online or manual, full or partial — is written to a refund ledger stamped with the day it happened. That date is what makes the money views correct: a refund always lands in the period it occurred, even when it's for a sale from an earlier month.

Refunds are netted out everywhere: Financials revenue and profit run on money kept (net of refunds), "Collected" shows net of refunds, the end-of-day close shows them as a drawer contra, and sales tax to remit is reduced by the tax you refunded — if you refund more tax than you collected in a period, the report shows the credit you're owed rather than hiding it.

Refunding an online deposit before the bill settles works the same way: the original payment stays on record in the period you collected it, the refund lands in the refund column on the day you gave it back, and the balance owed goes back up. Revenue and profit skip it (that money was never earned yet), and it doesn't post to QuickBooks, which only sees a bill's money once it settles.