[Account Owner] Get Clients Started on AdvicePay + Issuing Invoices
Please note that if your firm has disabled advisor ability to create clients, only the Account Owner and their Firm Admins can add a client.
In This Article:
The 2 Steps to Set Up Success!
To get started, we generally recommend that you do the following together:
- Add a client
- Request a payment and send them the Invoice email
📍 Want to play around with AdvicePay first? Create a test client!
To add a new client and request payment together in less than 1 minute, we've got you covered! Start by going straight to Invoices > Create New or Subscriptions > Create New. Click the + Add New Client link in the Client drop down to invite the new client, then proceed to finishing the payment request.
How to Add a Client to AdvicePay
To add a client anytime, you'll need to enter their name and email address! Here's how:
1. Select the Clients tab in your sidebar
2. Click Add Client in the upper right-hand side of your screen
3. Enter in the client's First Name, Last Name, and Email Address (they can update all of this information later under their own account). Select their Advisor. You may also assign an optional, internal Client ID or Tag.
Optional: If you use Wealthbox, you can also copy/paste the client's Wealthbox link under the CRM Links tab. This will create a direct link to the client's Wealthbox page within the client's AdvicePay profile!
4. Click Add Client
The client is now added! When you request a payment you can send them the invoice email notice and they will be able to pay and/or set up their account from there.
Alternatively, you can send over their unique Client Account Invitation link (located on their client page) so they can register their account separately from paying an invoice. To do that, copy/paste the link and send it yourself or click the paper airplane icon next to the invite link and we'll send an email for you.
Did you know? Clients can pay without logging in, so they aren't required to register their account. Find out more about how this works!
📍 Read more: What emails should I have AdvicePay send to new clients?
If it fits your process, now you're ready to request a payment from the client to set up their first invoice! Here's a walk-through below on how to do this. 👇
How to Request a Payment
Learn how to request a payment from a client by following the below tutorial. If you'd like to issue a subscription payment request in the same step as issuing an up-front, one-time payment, check out our new Advanced Payment feature further down in this article!
📍 How to request multiple one-time payments at once
Let's get started:
1. Select the Invoices or Subscriptions tab in your sidebar
2. Click Create New in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.
3. Select the Client (this is searchable by typing within the drop down menu box)
4. (Optional) If your firm has an eSignature integration enabled and you want to attach a document for eSignature, click Add eSign Document and assign signers.
Please note that if you don't have eSign enabled, this option will not be available -- you can skip to Step 6!
Tip: If your Enterprise firm is using multiple Engagements, the options here will look just a tad different! You'll need to choose a specific Engagement from the drop down menu on this page:
If an eSignature document is required as part of the Engagement, you can then proceed to filling out the appropriate signers.
Or, if available via your firm, you may have the option to upload a PDF version of a "wet" signed document (for instances where you have a document that was signed outside of AdvicePay). You will need to select a Signed Date and you can choose to upload up to 6 PDFs no larger than 5 MB each.
Depending on an Engagement's settings, you may also see the option to add an invoice/subscription to an existing Engagement. (Documents cannot be added to an existing Engagement.) You can do so by selecting Existing Engagement, then selecting the desired Engagement from the drop down menu:
5. Select Attach Invoice
6. Select Invoice Type (One-time or Subscription), Frequency if you are setting up a subscription, Due Date or Start Date (a date on which you would like a subscription to begin billing).
Optional: select an end-date for a subscription by setting the number of billing periods under + Add End Date.
You can also adjust whether a subscription reflects an invoice date range in advance or in arrears.
📍 Manage your default advance/arrears setting
By default both Credit Card and ACH are selected as payment method options unless you have limited all payment methods in your Account Settings. To limit the invoice payment method to ACH only, uncheck the Credit Card box (and vice versa).
See more information on automatically limiting payment methods for your assigned clients
7. Enter in your Payment Amount and select or write a Description of Services. (How to enter a new service description.)
Optional: If creating a subscription, you have the option to add an automatic future Fee Escalation.
Depending on your firm's settings, you may see a Rep code on this page as well. You can enter your internal rep/advisor code here for tracking payments OR a percentage split with an advisor (if enabled in your settings):
❗️ Note: If entering a percentage split, the total % must equal 100. You may also find that if you have set % limits for certain types of advisors, you won't be able to enter a percentage greater than the number they have established.
8. Click Continue
9. On the final screen you can review the complete invoice details. When you're ready to send it to the client, click Finish!
Choose Send via email through AdvicePay if you'd like the client to instantly receive an email from AdvicePay inviting them to view the invoice, sign the contract (if applicable), and proceed to payment.
Choose Publish without sending email if you don't want the client to receive an email from AdvicePay notifying them of the invoice and any attached contract. (This is a good option if you want to wait or let them know another way that they have an invoice to pay. Here's how to send the invoice email through AdvicePay later!)
📍Important: Based on the assigned advisor's unpaid and overdue email reminder settings, the client could later receive an email notice about their invoice even if you initially choose to publish it without sending the email. To view or manage your settings, please click here.
To send the email invoice notice via a personal email, you can copy/paste the provided URL and send that to your client.
Advanced Payment Option for Subscriptions
Bundle a subscription and one-time up- front payment in one request
We know you want billing and making payments to be a breeze, so we’ve given you the ability to request an up-front, one-time payment from clients at the very same time as requesting a subscription payment. This way you can charge a subscription client for your initial fee or a partial month’s work without needing to spend extra time going back in and create a separate one-time invoice.
(Plus, another benefit of adding a one-time up-front payment request onto a subscription is that while it still creates two unique invoices, the client will pay them in just one single step. Woohoo!)
Once the client has authorized payment on the invoice, the one-time charge will bill immediately and the subscription won’t bill until the due date you set.
To add a one-time up-front payment to your subscription invoices, follow steps 1-7 as normal above. Then:
1. Click Add One Time Invoice (under the Subscription information)
2. Enter in the Due Date, Payment Amount, and Description of Services
Tip: The subscription invoice as well as the one-time invoice attached to it will appear under Subscriptions in your sidebar, as well as on the client's individual page.