Adding a credit card payment button to your invoices lets your clients pay with credit cards and digital wallets. This can simplify the payment process for many customers because the majority of online payments worldwide use these payment methods. You can use a payment processor such as Stripe or integrate the button with your invoicing software. Adding the button can improve the payment experience while keeping transactions secure and minimizing payment delays.

Below, we’ll explain the benefits of adding a credit card payment button to your invoices, how to do so, and ways to accept credit card payments securely.

What’s in this article?

• Why add a credit card payment button to your invoice?
  
• How to add a credit card payment button to your invoice
  
• How to securely accept credit card payments on invoices
  
• How Stripe Invoicing can help
  

Why add a credit card payment button to your invoice?

Adding a credit card payment button to your invoice can help you get paid faster while improving your customer experience. Here’s how:

• A payment button lets customers pay instantly without extra steps such as mailing checks and using bank transfers, encouraging quicker payments.

• Credit cards enable immediate authorization, which means you know the funds are coming.

• This feature can make your invoices look polished and modern. It signals you care about making the process easier for your customers.

• When payments are made digitally through a button, they’re often tracked automatically. This reduces the likelihood of errors and saves time on administrative tasks.

How to add a credit card payment button to your invoice

Adding a credit card payment button to your invoice can improve the payment process for you and your customers. Make the payment button prominent, and use clear text such as “Pay Invoice Now” as well as attention-grabbing colors. Test the button before sending it to customers to ensure all links work properly, and include as many digital payment options as possible to make it easier for customers to pay.

Here’s how to add a payment button with Stripe Invoicing or another invoicing method.

Stripe Invoicing

If you’re using Stripe, you can add a credit card payment button to your invoices by going to your Stripe Dashboard and selecting “Invoices.” From there, click on “Create Invoice.” You’ll be prompted to enter details such as customer information, itemized charges, taxes, and payment terms.

Once you’ve completed this step, Stripe automatically adds a “Pay this invoice” button to the invoice. This lets both local and international customers pay via credit card, debit card, or other supported payment methods. The button leads the customer to a payment page where they can enter their credit card details safely. Stripe provides a secure, hosted payment page for every invoice you send.

Other methods of adding digital payment options to an invoice

Here’s how to add a credit card payment button if you’re not using Stripe Invoicing and are instead generating invoices manually or using a different invoicing tool. These methods differ by medium, but are convenient for your customers and bypass the need for a merchant account to accept credit card payments.

Payment link

Stripe Payment Links let you generate a unique link for a specific payment amount, which you can easily add to an invoice. Include this link in your invoice by adding a button or placing the link text with instructions such as, “Click here to pay by credit card.” This method typically requires a small fixed fee and a percentage (usually ranging between 1.5% and 3.0%) of the transaction amount.

Hosted checkout page

Another option is to use a hosted payment page such as Stripe Checkout, a prebuilt payment page. Incorporate the payment details for your invoice, then share the link to the checkout page. If you’re generating your invoices with a PDF or other invoicing software (e.g., QuickBooks, FreshBooks), you can embed a “Pay Now” button that redirects to your payment page. They have similar fixed and percentage-based transaction fees to payment links.

Payment button HTML code

If your invoicing system allows HTML customization, you can generate a custom payment button using Stripe’s application programming interface (API) or Stripe Elements. The customer can click on the button to be redirected to a Stripe-hosted payment page.

QR codes

Another method is to create a QR code using an online tool to convert a URL into a unique scannable code that links to a Stripe payment page. QR codes are particularly useful accepting credit card payments when sending physical invoices or invoices as PDFs. Customers use their phones to scan the QR code, which takes them to the payment page. There, they can enter their credit card details.

How to securely accept credit card payments on invoices

Accepting credit card payments means handling sensitive financial information. Businesses must ensure their security measures are compliant with relevant regulations and protect their customers as much as possible. Here are ways to improve security:

Ensure Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance

When you use Stripe Invoicing to send invoices, you automatically benefit from Stripe’s PCI compliance. Stripe handles the complex compliance checks, so you don’t have to independently validate PCI requirements.

Use Stripe payment links

When you generate an invoice in Stripe, the customer receives a unique, secure payment link. This URL points to a Stripe-hosted payment page, which uses HTTPS encryption to protect data in transit. Stripe’s encrypted environment provides more protection than would manually processing payments or sharing card data through unsecured channels.

Enable 3D Secure (3DS) payment authentication

For invoices that involve credit card payments, enable 3DS for another layer of verification. Stripe makes this easy by automatically determining when 3DS is required—such as for European customers under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)—or by suggesting it for high-risk transactions. This additional authentication step helps ensure the person completing the payment is the cardholder.

Use tools that offer payment monitoring

Stripe Radar is a great tool to integrate when you accept payments on invoices. Radar can assess each transaction’s risk in real time through machine learning and provide insight into whether a particular payment might be fraudulent. You can also implement custom rules in Radar—for instance, flagging transactions from countries you don’t typically do business with or automatically requiring 3DS for high-risk payments.

You can also review payment attempts manually for your invoices in the Stripe Dashboard and track potentially suspicious activities. Activity logs include metadata about each payment attempt, so if there’s anything unusual—such as repeated failed attempts and multiple attempts from an unexpected location—you can spot it and act promptly.

Enable tokenization

If you’re doing any custom integration with Stripe to generate invoices, use Stripe Elements to handle the payment form. Elements automatically tokenizes sensitive credit card data so that customers’ card numbers are never found on your servers. This reduces your PCI compliance obligations and minimizes the exposure of sensitive data, which is a big advantage when you manage invoices that might vary in payment amount and frequency.

Accept payments from digital wallets

Apple Pay or Google Pay can be more secure than direct card entry because these methods involve biometric authentication and tokenization. Adding these options via Stripe Invoicing reduces the need for customers to enter sensitive card information, which lowers the risk of manual entry errors or cybersecurity attacks.

Use stored payment methods

Stripe’s customer portal can save payment methods on Stripe and generate tokens that can be used for future payments. You can use these to process repeat customers’ credit card payments without needing to request the details again or storing sensitive data.

How Stripe Invoicing can help

Stripe Invoicing simplifies your accounts receivable (AR) process—from invoice creation to payment collection. Whether you’re managing one-time or recurring billing, Stripe helps businesses get paid faster and streamline operations:

• Automate accounts receivable: Easily create, customize, and send professional invoices—no coding required. Stripe automatically tracks invoice status, sends payment reminders, and processes refunds, helping you stay on top of your cash flow.

• Accelerate cash flow: Reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) and get paid faster with integrated global payments, automatic reminders, and AI-powered dunning tools that help you recover more revenue.

• Enhance the customer experience: Deliver a modern payment experience with support for 25+ languages, 135+ currencies, and 100+ payment methods. Invoices are easy to access and pay through a self-serve customer portal.

• Reduce back-office workload: Generate invoices in minutes and reduce time spent on collections through automatic reminders and a Stripe-hosted invoice payment page.

• Integrate with your existing systems: Stripe Invoicing integrates with popular accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, helping you keep systems in sync and reduce manual data entry.

Learn more about how Stripe can simplify your accounts receivable process, or get started today.