One of my new favorite things of mine is Payment Links in QuickBooks Online.
As a long time QB Payments (sometimes referred to as Intuit Merchant Services, QuickBooks Merchant Services) user, I was so sad a few years ago when Intuit decided to drop Intuit Payment Network (IPN). This was such a great tool – it allowed a user to request funds with just a link – without having to create an invoice in QuickBooks.
Why would one do such a thing? I’ve had clients want to give bonuses or tips outside of monthly fees, and it’s VERY handy when, say, you travel with a group of colleagues and it’s a big pain to split a restaurant tab, but there’s a per diem limit. Sending links with IPN was very handy for that.
Anyhoo, back to Payment Links in QuickBooks Online.
This is a slick little tool if you’re using QB Payments and I’ll walk you through it. From the left nav bar in QBO, click Sales > Payment Links, then the “Create My Link” button:

You could also just click on Sales, then choose Payment Links from the menu:

A “drawer” will open on the right side, where you’ll be able to add the amount, a description, then choose the customer:
You can create a custom URL for your payment links in QuickBooks Online
One cool thing – at the top of the screen to Create and send a payment link, you’ll see a link to Customize URL. I highly recommend this: this is what it looks like when you click on that and create a unique URL for your payment links in QuickBooks Online:

Once you get your URL set, add your description, choose the customer, check the box(es) for bank and/or credit card payments, and make sure the email is correct, it’s time to click that green action button that says: “Send payment link”.
QBO then shows you the link, as well as a QR code:

Your customer sees this in their inbox:

And then can pay you using the payment link in QuickBooks Online:

Once they pay they’ll see this:

Now, what the SENDER sees in QBO, after using payment links in QuickBooks Online is this the screenshot below. Descriptions can be edited and links can be deleted as long as they haven’t been paid. Once they are paid, they can only be viewed.

And if we click on that one that shows paid or we click on View from the action column on the right, we’ll get another drawer that opens, with a link to the Sales Receipt that QBO creates when a payment is made via payment links in QuickBooks Online:

Here’s the Sales Receipt in QBO, with a note in the memo field stating it was “auto-generated”:

Now, what happens if this link is just used by someone, without sending it from QBO? Well… It just doesn’t work that way. If a user sends the custom URL out, this is what a visitor sees:

While I would LOVE for the Custom URL to work that way with payment links in QuickBooks Online – it would be great for non-profit organizations to request donations – right now the link must be created in QBO first, for a specific amount for a specific customer in QBO.
Since it’s still faster than creating an invoice, I highly recommend payment links in QuickBooks Online.