CPM allows you to initiate a payment request with an associated payment link. This article discusses Standard, Custom and Quick Payment requests.
It is possible to set up a Stripe payment portal through which customers can submit payments to an external payment platform. The process of providing access to this payment portal can also be handled through the external payment platform; Stripe can be configured to send a payment request e-mail to a customer that contains basic information along with a URL link to a separate payment portal.
CPM supports this functionality, allowing you to initiate a payment request for the following documents in Business Central:
- Open sales orders
- Posted sales invoices
- Posted service invoices
CPM monitors the status of outstanding payment requests and automatically performs the proper posting activity within Business Central when the customer makes the payment.
As part of this configuration, CPM will return generated portal URLs from Stripe to Business Central. This gives you additional flexibility in the way you communicate payment requests to your customers; if desired, you can configure Stripe to not send any e-mail communications, then use the URL as part of your own payment request.
There are two ways you can manually perform a payment request with CPM:
- Custom Payment Request: you manually go through the steps of creating and activating a payment request. This allows you to customize the details of the payment request
- Quick Payment Request: a single action automatically creates and initiates a payment request, without allowing for review or customization.
In addition, it is possible to instruct CPM to automatically create a payment request when a sales or service order is invoiced. If any portion of the newly created posted invoice’s total amount is uncaptured, CPM will create a payment request for this amount.
It is not possible to have more than one active payment request for a document. If an active payment request exists for a document, the actions to create a new one will be removed from the ribbon. You must open the existing payment request by choosing the CPM Payment Requests action on the CPM tab in the ribbon and either finalize it or cancel it.
Custom Payment Request
Custom payment requests allow you to manually build a payment request for a document in Business Central. This allows you to fully customize the components of your payment request. When you are done building your payment request, you can communicate it to your external payment platform, where a corresponding invoice record will be created. Relevant information from this external record, including the payment portal URL, is then retrieved back into Business Central.
Note: the following instructions describe the process of creating a custom payment request for a posted sales invoice, but they can also be followed for open sales orders and posted service invoices.
- Choose the looking glass within Business Central
- Enter Posted Sales Invoices and then choose the related link
- Open the posted sales invoice for which you want to record a payment
- Choose the CPM tab in the ribbon, then choose Custom Request.
- CPM generates and presents an open payment request for the outstanding amount of the posted sales invoice. The payment request status for this record is initially open, indicating that it has not yet been communicated to your external payment platform and is still editable.
- CPM generates and presents an open payment request for the outstanding amount of the posted sales invoice. The payment request status for this record is initially open, indicating that it has not yet been communicated to your external payment platform and is still editable.
This payment action is only available if the posted sales invoice’s customer record has been linked to your external payment platform. If this action is not visible to you, please review the instructions on CPM Customer Mapping and confirm that these steps have been performed.
In addition, this payment action is only available if the posted sales invoice has a remaining amount. It is not possible to initiate a payment request against a posted sales invoice that has already been fully paid.
- Fill in or edit the following fields:
- Description: enter a description to identify the payment request. CPM automatically enters a description that includes the customer and invoice numbers by default, but you can modify this if desired.
- Payment Request Amount: enter the amount of the payment request. This will default to the outstanding amount of the posted sales invoice for which the payment request was generated, but you can change this to a lesser value if you want to request a partial payment. You cannot record a greater payment than the
document’s outstanding amount. - Automatic Payment Collection: select this check box to instruct your external payment platform to automatically finalize payment requests and collect payments. If this setting is not enabled, the payment request’s state will not advance without manual activity.
- Collection Method: select the method by which you want to process this payment request. Options are:
- Send Request: the payment request will be sent to the customer. This request will include a URL to your payment portal, allowing the customer to log in and complete the payment.
- Immediate: the payment request will be immediately paid using the default payment method that has been defined for the customer in your external payment platform.
- When you are satisfied with the settings of the payment request, update the selection in the Payment Request Status field to Released.
- From the Actions ribbon, choose Platform Integration then Create Request
The payment request is sent to your external payment platform. Information about this communication can be viewed on the External Information FastTab. This FastTab will inform you as to whether this external update was a success or resulted in an error, along with more detailed information about the update result (this can be useful if the status update resulted in an error, as the result information can assist in troubleshooting).
If the communication was successful, a new payment request is created in your external payment platform for the specified payment amount. The identification number for this record is displayed in the Payment Platform Internal ID field on the External Information FastTab. The payment request’s status is also updated; depending on how automatic collection for the payment request has been configured, the payment request may now be in either draft or requested status.
- Depending on how you want to send the payment request to the customer, choose the Actions tab in the ribbon and choose one of the following actions from the Platform Integration menu:
- Send Request via Platform: this instructs your external payment platform to generate a URL that will allow access to your payment portal, then send this URL along with other payment request information to the customer according to its configured collections functionality.
- Finalize Request on Platform: this instructs your external payment platform to generate a URL that will allow access to your payment portal. Your external payment platform does not send this URL or any other communication to the customer.
Quick Payment Request
Quick payment requests allow you to build a payment request in Business Central, communicate it to your external payment platform, and retrieve relevant details back into Business Central as a single activity. This can simplify and streamline collection activities when you do not need to review or adjust your payment request details. If you want to
adjust the payment request amount or other settings, you should use the custom payment request functionality.
Note: the following instructions describe the process of creating a quick payment request for a posted sales invoice, but they can also be followed for open sales orders and posted service invoices.
- Choose the looking glass within Business Central
- Enter Posted Sales Invoices and then choose the related link
- Open the posted sales invoice for which you want to record a payment.
- Choose the CPM tab in the ribbon, then choose Quick Request.
- CPM generates a payment request for the outstanding amount of the posted sales invoice, then sends this payment request to your external payment platform.
- This payment action is only available if the posted sales invoice’s customer record has been linked to your external payment platform. If this action is not visible to you, please review the instructions on CPM Customer Mapping and
confirm that these steps have been performed. - In addition, this payment action is only available if the posted sales invoice has a remaining amount. It is not possible to initiate a payment request against a posted sales invoice that has already been fully paid.
- To view the payment request, choose the Related ribbon, then choose CPM Payment Requests.