What a payment is
A payment is money collected against one or more invoices. It can arrive automatically, through a connected payment gateway, or be recorded by hand when a customer pays you outside Zenskar, for example by wire transfer or cheque. Either way, once a payment is recorded, Zenskar updates the invoice it’s applied to and posts the corresponding accounting entries.Two ways payments reach Zenskar
Through a payment gateway
Zenskar charges the customer automatically through a connected gateway, and the result comes back to Zenskar as a payment.
Recorded manually
You add the payment yourself, for money collected outside Zenskar, such as a bank transfer or a cheque.
Payment methods
A payment method describes how the money moved: card, bank transfer, direct debit, cash, cheque, UPI, netbanking, and a few others. These are Zenskar’s own normalized categories. If you’re collecting through Stripe, Zenskar maps whatever Stripe reports back to one of these categories, so regional rails like SEPA, BACS, or ACH generally come through as a general direct debit or bank transfer method rather than as their own distinct category.Payment fields and methods
See the full list of payment methods and statuses.
Default payment method
A customer can have more than one payment method on file, and one of them can be marked as the default. Zenskar’s automatic charging uses the default payment method when one is set.Default payment method
Read what actually happens when a default payment method is set, and what doesn’t happen if a charge fails.
How a payment updates an invoice
When a payment is applied to an invoice, Zenskar reduces the invoice’s amount due by the payment amount. If that brings the amount due to zero, the invoice is marked paid. If some balance is still owed, it’s marked partially paid. A single payment can be split across several invoices, and a single invoice can receive several payments over time.Where payments show up in your accounts
Every successful payment posts a journal entry, so your accounts receivable balance stays current without manual bookkeeping. Zenskar actually tracks two flavors of receivable behind the scenes: one for money still owed by the customer, and a separate one for payments that have been collected by a gateway but not yet settled into your bank account. Payments collected in cash or by cheque post straight to cash instead, since there’s no gateway settlement step to wait for.Refunds
A payment, or part of one, can be refunded. A refund can go back to the customer’s original payment method, into their Zenskar wallet as credit, or be tracked as a manual, external refund you’ve handled outside Zenskar. Refunds post their own accounting entries and show up in a dedicated Refunds view alongside your regular payments list.Payment instructions are a separate thing
Payment instructions (the remittance details, like your bank account or wire information, shown on an invoice) are configured separately from payment gateways and methods. They’re what a customer paying you manually needs to know where to send the money, not something that triggers automatic collection.What’s next
Connect Stripe and collect your first payment
Walk through connecting a gateway and collecting a payment end to end.