A one-time invoice allows merchants to charge customers for specific items or services outside of a subscription. This is useful for ad-hoc charges, additional purchases, or standalone transactions. Merchants can choose to charge the invoice immediately, schedule a charge, or save it as a draft for later.
How It Works
When creating an invoice, merchants can select customers or plans with active payment methods. This ensures that only customers who can be billed will receive the invoice. Once a customer is selected, merchants can add invoice items, configure tax and shipping settings, and choose how the charge is processed.
For BigCommerce merchants, the process is streamlined. Instead of manually entering items, they can browse and select products directly from their BigCommerce store, making invoice creation faster and more accurate. This reduces errors and ensures pricing consistency.
Process Overview
Select Customers or Plans – Choose customers with active payment methods or group them into plans for easier management.
Add Items – Select items manually or use BigCommerce integration to pull in products from the store.
Configure Settings – Adjust taxes, shipping charges, and currency as needed.
Choose an Action – Charge immediately, schedule for later, or save as a draft.
Confirm & Notify – The invoice is processed based on the selected action, and customers receive email notifications accordingly.
For specialty billing cases, such as wine clubs, merchants can create a zero-charge plan to capture payment details and group customers into a billing plan. They can generate invoices for actual charges when ready to fulfill an order, ensuring a seamless transaction process.
Key Features & Benefits
Flexible Billing: Ideal for one-time purchases, additional fees, or special requests.
Seamless BigCommerce Integration: View and add products directly from your store.
Multiple Processing Options: Charge immediately, schedule for later, or save as a draft.
Automated Notifications: Customers receive email notifications when an invoice is created and scheduled.
When to Use One-Time Invoices
A customer wants to buy an additional product outside of their subscription.
You need to charge a one-time setup or service fee.
A manual charge is required for special cases, such as replacing lost items.
Wine clubs and specialty billing - Merchants can use a zero-charge plan to capture payment details in advance and group customers into plans. When ready to ship, they can generate invoices for the actual charges, ensuring a smooth checkout and billing experience.
By using a one-time invoice, merchants can handle non-recurring charges without the customer having to enter payment details. This helps with record keeping and maintaining a smooth customer experience.
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Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
The PayWhirl Team