How to Review Payments Clients Send from a Payment Link

What a client types is not proof that money arrived

A payment link lets the client confirm an amount and type a UTR. That is convenient, but a typed UTR is a claim, not a bank credit. If it counts straight away, the outstanding drops for money that may never arrive.

Two quick taps on the submit button can also record the same payment twice, and the client looks like they paid double.

When a claimed payment turns out to be wrong, deleting it leaves no trace of what the client said they paid.

Why this happens

• Client-entered payments count immediately.
• Nobody checks the UTR against the bank before the balance changes.
• A request link can be submitted more than once.
• Rejected claims are deleted instead of kept.

Biznsbook addresses this through Pending review for link payments, accept or reject with a note, one payment per request link when Service Billing & Collections is licensed. Clients are the parties you already keep, and collectors record what they received without seeing the fee or the outstanding.

Services firms lose money in the gap between the work done and the payment recorded. Keeping the fee on the job, the payment against the job, and the collector away from the numbers closes that gap without turning the firm into an accounting office.

Step-by-step: Review Payments Clients Send from a Payment Link

Built for owners of services firms and the staff who collect client payments in Biznsbook Collections.

1. Send a payment link. From a saved job, create a payment request for one amount, or create a client portal link from the client statement. Copy the full URL from Payment links.
2. Let the client submit. The client confirms the amount and enters how they paid and the reference. A one-amount link works once; a second submit is refused.
3. Find payments waiting for you. The dashboard shows how many link payments are waiting. Its chip opens Payments filtered to link payments to review.
4. Check the UTR. Open the payment and compare the reference with your bank or UPI app before deciding.
5. Accept a real payment. Choose Accept. The payment now counts in collected and outstanding, and it is posted to the ledger when ledger posting is on.
6. Reject a payment that did not arrive. Choose Reject and enter a note. The payment stays on record as Rejected and is never counted.
7. Tell the client. After a rejection the client’s page says the business could not confirm the payment, so they know to contact you.

Review results after the first full weekly cycle. Adjust roles, mappings, or approvals where the same exception repeats.

Screen names in this guide match Collections in the product: Record a payment, My entries, Dashboard, Jobs, Payments, Payment links, Corrections, Service types, Settings, and Guide. Every screen has a ? help button.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mistake 1: Client-entered payments count immediately. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in billed, collected, or outstanding for the period.
• Mistake 2: Nobody checks the UTR against the bank before the balance changes. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in billed, collected, or outstanding for the period.
• Mistake 3: A request link can be submitted more than once. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in billed, collected, or outstanding for the period.
• Mistake 4: Rejected claims are deleted instead of kept. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in billed, collected, or outstanding for the period.

Note each recurring gap in the weekly review; each should map to a step in this guide.

Best practices that hold up as you scale

• Send a payment link — From a saved job, create a payment request for one amount, or create a client portal link from the client statement.
• Let the client submit — The client confirms the amount and enters how they paid and the reference.
• Find payments waiting for you — The dashboard shows how many link payments are waiting.
• Check the UTR — Open the payment and compare the reference with your bank or UPI app before deciding.
• Accept a real payment — Choose Accept.

Firms that keep the fee on the job, let Collections compute outstanding, and correct by reversal instead of editing a row keep their period totals and their trail intact.

How Biznsbook supports this workflow

Pending review for link payments is part of Biznsbook Service Billing & Collections. Each client is a party you already keep, each job holds its fee, and each payment keeps who entered it, when, and how the client paid.

accept or reject with a note is part of Biznsbook Service Billing & Collections. Each client is a party you already keep, each job holds its fee, and each payment keeps who entered it, when, and how the client paid.

one payment per request link is part of Biznsbook Service Billing & Collections. Each client is a party you already keep, each job holds its fee, and each payment keeps who entered it, when, and how the client paid.

Ledger posting is off until Collections settings turn it on, and only when Accounting or Finance is licensed. Outstanding is the fee plus any tax, minus the payments on the job. Collectors do not see fees, outstanding, other people’s entries, the dashboard, statements, the correction queue, or a journal.

Suggested implementation timeline

1. Week 1: Add your service types, check that clients exist as parties, and open jobs with fees.
2. Week 2: Start Pending review for link payments with one collector and a handful of clients.
3. Week 3: Add the rest of the collectors and clear the dashboard attention items daily.
4. Week 4: Review billed, collected, and outstanding by age with the client statements.
5. Ongoing: Weekly review using trust, then verify and the dashboard.

Related guides

Start with track a service job and fee and record a client payment without showing the fee. Then bill a monthly retainer, split a fee into installments, and read billed, collected, and outstanding.

Owner routines: review link payments, confirm cash hand-over, and the daily summary email.

All guides: service billing & collections. Decision page: service billing software vs spreadsheets. Product page: Service Billing & Collections.

What changes on Accept

Accepting turns the payment Active. It is placed on the job the link was for, so outstanding on that job falls. When ledger posting is on and Accounting or Finance is licensed, the payment is posted at that moment, not before.

The payment page records who accepted it and when, so the trail shows both the client’s submission and the owner’s decision.

What a rejection keeps

A rejected payment is not deleted. It keeps the amount, the reference, and the note, so if the money arrives later or the client disputes it, the claim is still there.

Rejected payments never count in collected or outstanding and are never posted, so they do not disturb the period totals.

Building it into the daily routine

Start the day on the dashboard. If the link payments chip shows a number, open it and clear the list against the bank app, the same way you tick Seen in bank for payments collectors recorded.

Owners who turn on the daily summary email also get the count of link payments waiting in the evening email.

Request links and portal links

A payment request link asks for one amount, usually the next installment or the balance of one job. When the client submits it, the payment is placed on that job once you accept it, and the link cannot be used again.

A client portal link shows the client their own jobs and payments and can be used more than once until it expires after 30 days. Payments sent from it also wait for your review, so a portal never changes the balance on its own.

Both kinds of link show only that client, never another client or internal notes.

Why collectors are not involved

Link payments come from the client, not from staff, so they never appear on a collector’s My entries. Reviewing them is an owner task that needs the amounts permission plus the permission to allocate payments.

Collectors keep recording what they receive in person on Record a payment, as before.

Metrics to track monthly

• Billed for the date range
• Collected for the date range
• Outstanding, and outstanding older than 90 days
• Collections by payment mode
• Payments not yet reconciled

Start with three metrics; trend direction matters more than a single point-in-time snapshot.

Spreadsheets and notebooks vs Biznsbook Collections

Compare running this on spreadsheets with Biznsbook Pending review for link payments and related capabilities.

Trust, then verify

Payment links make paying easy for the client. Pending review makes sure the books only change for money you have seen. Together they keep outstanding honest without asking the client to call the office.

Write this into your weekly owner routine and revisit it when you add collectors or new services.

Frequently asked questions

How this differs by industry