Getting a client to pay: payment links and card-update links

When a license you manage for a client comes up for renewal, you can have the client pay for it directly, without giving them your billing details or the license key. Two links do this, and which one applies depends on how the license renews. This article covers both: the payment link, which takes one renewal payment, and the card-update link, which puts the client’s card on a subscription you hold.

Which link to send #

A lifetime license offers neither, because it never renews. A subscription set up with another payment method, such as PayPal, cannot have its card changed from here.

Payment links #

Create the link

1. Go to Agency, then Licenses, and click Get the client to pay on the license.
2. Check the amount: the page shows what the renewal costs today, which is what the client pays. Coupons do not apply to a payment link, so the price cannot drift. Tax and the client’s own currency are settled at checkout.
3. Choose how to hand the link over:
   • Show me the link reveals the URL once, on this page only, so you can paste it into your own email or chat. It is not shown again after you leave the page.
   • Email the client sends it to the client the license is assigned to, using the wording under Agency, Settings, Review your client emails.

The page lists the link under Live payment links for this license with the date it was sent and when it expires, and keeps spent links below for your records.

What the client sees

The link opens a checkout on GravityKit that is locked to that one renewal. The address changes as the page opens, so what the client ends up looking at is not the link you sent; the emailed link is the one to keep and re-open. A banner names your agency and the product, and says the client is settling your invoice, so there is nothing to sign into and no account is created for them. The cart holds only the renewal, at the price you saw. Nothing else can be added, and the checkout takes cards only. The client enters their email address, name and card. They do not need a GravityKit account, and an address that already has one is fine.

After paying they land on a Payment received page that says your agency has been told, and they receive a confirmation email. They are not given the license key, downloads or a login.

After the payment

• The license renews on your account, and the order is filed under it, so the receipt, the invoice and any refund are yours.
• You receive an email that the client paid for the license.
• The link is spent, and the license page lists it under spent links, paid or expired, kept for your records, marked PAID.

Revoking a payment link

If a link went to the wrong address, or you no longer want it paid, open the license’s Get the client to pay page and click Revoke this link on the live link. Anyone holding the link can no longer pay with it. A payment that was already in progress when you revoked still goes through. If the client completed the payment in the same moment, GravityKit records it, renews the license, and tells you in its email that the link was revoked but the payment went through. That link then stays on the page as a record of the payment.

Card-update links #

Create the link

1. Go to Agency, then Licenses, and click Get the client to update payment details on the license.
2. Choose how to hand the link over. Show me the link reveals the URL once, on this page only. Email the client sends it to the client the license is assigned to, using your wording from Agency, Settings, Review your client emails.

The link works for seven days, and opening it does not spend it: the client can open the page, close it and come back until they save a card or the link expires. The panel lists the live link with the date it was sent and when it expires, and keeps used and expired links below it.

What the client sees

The link opens a card page on GravityKit, not a checkout. The page says your agency asked them to put a card on the product so it keeps renewing. It says the card is theirs and is charged by GravityKit rather than by you, and that closing the page changes nothing. It names the subscription, the amount of the next renewal and the date it renews. The client enters a card with its country and postal code and clicks Save this card.

• The client does not need a GravityKit account, and nothing is created for them.
• Nothing is charged when they save the card. The new card is charged at the next renewal.
• If the card is declined, the page says so, and the link stays open for another try.
• Without JavaScript the page shows the details but no card form, and says the link has not been used.

After a card is saved, the page confirms it. The next renewal will use it, nothing else about the subscription changed, and the link cannot be used again.

After the card is saved

• The next renewal of the subscription is charged to the new card. The price, the renewal date and the ownership of the license do not change.
• You receive an email that the card for the license has been updated.
• The link is spent, and opening it again says it has already been used.

If a renewal payment was already overdue when the card was saved, GravityKit tries the new card for it straight away. When that payment cannot be taken at once, the client’s page and your email say so, and the payment provider tries the new card on its own schedule.

Revoking a card-update link

If you sent the link to the wrong address, open the license’s card-update page and click Revoke this link on the live link, after which the client can no longer use it, though a card that was already saved through it stays saved. Every live link has its own button. Once three or more are live, a Revoke all control appears above them and withdraws them together.

Good to know #

• Both links are for licenses you own, so if you want the client to own the license and pay for it themselves in future, hand it over instead. Read Moving a license between you and a client.
• If the license changes hands while a payment link is live, the link stops working, and the client is told to ask for a new one.
• A link that no longer works says why on its own page: This payment link has expired, This payment link was cancelled, or This payment link cannot be used if it was copied incompletely. Each of those asks the client to come back to you for a new one. A link that has already been paid says so instead, and asks them to come to you for a copy of the receipt rather than paying again. If the link is fine but the store cannot open the invoice behind it, the page says We cannot open this invoice right now, that nothing has been charged and that the link stays valid, and asks the client to tell you so you can get in touch with us.
• The payment link shows the renewal price without coupons, which is what the client pays. If the client leaves the link’s checkout and opens the ordinary checkout, the usual discounts appear there, but that checkout cannot complete the payment the link was for, so they need to open the link again.
• The client’s own purchases and account are not affected by paying your link. The order is not filed under them and does not appear in their billing history.
• A card-update link belongs to one subscription, so if the same subscription pays for several licenses on one order, the link applies to all of them, and GravityKit asks you which client to email. If the subscription’s card details cannot be confirmed with the payment provider, the panel says so and no link can be created, and support can help in that case.

Related #

• Adding clients and giving them licenses
• Moving a license between you and a client
• Managing licenses for your clients with an agency account