Getting Paid: How Payments Work

Getting paid shouldn’t mean a separate invoicing tool and a trail of follow-up emails. Spatiko handles the money side of a shoot end to end — collecting payment from the client, generating the paperwork, chasing what’s overdue, and tracking who still owes what. If you want that in one page rather than in setup detail, see the invoicing and payments overview.

Clients pay through Spatiko

Connect a card processor — Stripe or Square — and clients pay right where they booked or picked up their media, never a separate payment link off to another service. With Stripe, checkout leads with one-tap wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, and PayPal where the client’s device supports them, with a card form underneath.

Not every order is settled by card. An order can be paid at checkout, paid later from the client portal, recorded by you after a cash, check, or bank transfer — or covered by credit the client already has on file with you. When a returning client books with credit on their account, it comes off the booking and they’re charged only the remainder.

You set when payment is due

Payment timing isn’t a single site-wide setting — it’s a choice you make on each order form. Require full payment upfront to hold a slot, let the booking confirm now and collect on delivery, or invoice after the shoot with net terms. See when clients pay for how to pick per form.

Orders generate invoices

Every order carries a Billing card — the running balance, what’s been collected, and the invoices raised against it. From there you create an invoice for the full order, request a deposit or bill the remaining balance, record a payment, or email the client a payment request. Invoices start as editable drafts; issuing one assigns a permanent number and makes it payable. And an order with more than one person on it can bill each of them separately — the brokerage’s bookkeeper for the full amount, or a share each to two co-listing agents.

Creating new invoices needs a paid plan — see the pricing page. Invoices you’ve already issued always stay readable, payable, and closable.

The Invoices section tracks them

Invoices get their own section in the app: one list of every billing document across every order, with outstanding and overdue totals at the top, search, and filters by status and client. Open any invoice to see its document, the payments applied to it, and a full activity timeline. Details in how invoices work.

Overdue balances don’t just sit there: Spatiko emails automatic payment reminders after an invoice’s due date, and surfaces what’s overdue on the invoice list and the dashboard.

Sales tax, if you charge it

If you’re registered to collect sales tax, set your rates once under Sales tax in Settings → Payments. From there tax is applied automatically to taxable items and the travel fee on every new order, and it follows the money the whole way: the booking form’s review step, the order, the invoice PDF, and the client’s emails.

Spatiko applies the rates you configure — it doesn’t decide what you owe or where you owe it. See sales tax for setup, exemptions, and per-order overrides.

Media stays gated until you’re paid

Pair payment timing with the pay-to-download gate: clients can browse their gallery any time, but downloads unlock only once the order is paid — whether that payment came through online checkout or you recorded it yourself. The lock covers more than photos: video, file deliverables, the marketing kit, and change requests all wait for payment too.

When money has to go back

Mistakes and cancellations have clean paths too: refund a payment in full or in part, or issue a credit note — a numbered document that settles as a refund, account credit for a future order, or a write-off of a balance that’s never coming.

Go deeper

• Accepting online payments with Stripe — connect Stripe once and let clients pay by card or one-tap wallet.
• Accepting card payments with Square — the alternative card processor, and how the active-processor choice works.
• Creating and sending an invoice — draft from an order, edit the lines, issue, and email it with a payment link.
• Deposits and balance invoices — take part of the money at booking and bill the rest on delivery.
• When clients pay — payment timing — choose upfront, on-delivery, or invoiced terms per order form.
• Invoice reminders and overdue invoices — automatic follow-up on unpaid invoices, and how overdue is tracked.
• Recording cash, check and other manual payments — log offline payments so status and downloads catch up.
• Agents, sellers, and billing contacts — bill the people on one order separately, each with their own invoice.