Payment before production

ArtworkDesk can make sure you've been paid before you spend time and money on a job. An approved job waits in the production queue, and its blanks aren't ordered, until the order's payment is recorded. It's on for every account, including accounts that existed before it arrived; turn it off if you invoice after the work (see the end of this page).

How it works

Every order has a Payment box on its page:

While a job waits:

• its card on the production board says Waiting for payment and counts as Blocked, and it can't be moved to a stage, scanned on or marked ready
• it can't be dispatched
• Order blanks is greyed out, and on Blanks to order its lines are shown but can't be ticked
• your dashboard lists it under Approved, waiting for payment, and Orders has a Waiting for payment view
• your customer's order page says Ready to start once paid

Everything before production carries on as normal: artwork requests, mockups and approvals.

Recording a payment

Anyone on your team who can work with orders can do this. On the order, in the Payment box, choose how it's paid, add a reference if you like (an invoice or transaction number) and click Save payment. If the job was waiting, it's released straight away and production is told it can start.

You often won't need to:

• Approved quotes set the payment for you: Paid in full or ticking Record that it's paid makes it paid, Deposit paid a deposit, Purchase order received a purchase order and Account customer on account. Accepted by customer leaves it not paid yet. See Accepting and approving quotes.
• Orders from your online shop arrive paid. If the shop says payment is still pending (a bank transfer, for example), the order waits, and is released when the shop reports it paid.
• Customers who pay on account: tick Pays on account on the customer, and their new orders never wait. Orders they already have keep their payment; change those on each order.

Checking the invoice in your accounts software

If the quote went to Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent or Sage as an invoice, the Payment box shows it with a Check if it's paid button. ArtworkDesk looks the invoice up and marks the order paid (or deposit paid, if part is paid). It also checks once a day for jobs that are waiting, and again whenever someone tries to start a waiting job, so a paid invoice usually releases the job by itself. See Connections.

Reminding the customer to pay

ArtworkDesk can email the customer when their approved order is waiting for payment. In Settings > Business and branding > Payment before production:

• Remind customers after (days): the number of days an approved order waits before the first reminder. Reminders then go every that many days, up to three. Leave it at 0 for no automatic reminders.
• How customers pay: your bank details or payment link, shown in the reminder and on the customer's order page.

To send one yourself, click Email a reminder in the order's Payment box. One you send yourself restarts the wait before the next automatic one, but doesn't count towards the three. The email lists what's approved, says work starts once it's paid and asks them to use the job number as the reference. Each reminder is noted on the order's timeline. Change its wording on Email wording.

Starting before it's paid

Sometimes you'll go ahead anyway, for a regular customer or someone paying on collection. An owner or admin (or anyone whose role can change settings) can open Start before it's paid in the Payment box, say why, and click Let production start. The reason and who decided are kept on the order and its timeline.

Turning it on or off

Settings > Business and branding > Payment before production:

• untick Check the customer has paid before work starts if you invoice after the work: nothing waits, and the Payment box disappears
• choose whether a deposit is enough to start, or only paid in full

Orders from before the check was turned on never wait.