Get paid faster: adding Stripe payment links to your invoices

Most trade invoices still end with a block of bank details at the bottom and a line that says “please pay within 14 days”. The customer gets the PDF, saves it somewhere, opens online banking on a different day, types in your sort code, and hopes they got the reference right. It works — eventually. But “eventually” is why so many electricians spend Friday afternoons chasing payments.

Bank details on the PDF: the hidden cost

Putting your sort code and account number on an invoice is the default, and it feels professional. The problem isn’t the details themselves — it’s everything that happens after you hit send:

• The customer has to switch apps to pay you
• They may mistype the reference, so you can’t match the payment to the invoice
• You only find out they paid when you check your bank — or when they email to say they did
• There’s no card option for customers who would pay immediately if they could

Every extra step between “invoice received” and “money in your account” adds days. For a sole trader waiting on a £800 consumer-unit job, that delay matters.

Stripe payment links: one tap to pay

A Stripe payment link turns your invoice into something the customer can pay in under a minute. Quill adds a “Pay now” button directly on the PDF and in the email you send — no separate portal, no account for the customer to create.

• Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay where supported
• Amount and invoice reference pre-filled — no typos
• Instant confirmation to the customer; status updates in your Quill dashboard
• Funds settle to your Stripe account on their normal schedule

You still keep bank details on the invoice for customers who prefer BACS. The payment link is an additional option, not a replacement — but in practice, most customers who can tap a link will.

Bank feed matching: know you’ve been paid without asking

A payment link handles customers who pay by card. Bank feed matching handles everyone else — and confirms card payments landed in your account too.

When you connect your business bank account to Quill (read-only, via open banking), incoming transactions are matched to open invoices automatically. A BACS payment with reference “INV-1042” marks invoice 1042 as paid. A Stripe payout that matches an invoice total does the same.

• No manual spreadsheet reconciliation at month-end
• See which invoices are still outstanding at a glance
• Get notified when a long-overdue invoice is finally paid

Quill never stores your banking credentials and cannot move money from your account. The feed is read-only — it tells you what arrived, not the other way around.

The combination that actually gets you paid faster

Payment links reduce friction for customers who want to pay now. Bank feed matching removes the admin of checking whether they did. Together, they replace the two slowest parts of trade invoicing: waiting for the customer to find their banking app, and waiting for you to notice the money arrived.

Both are included in every Quill invoice. Enable Stripe in your account settings, connect your bank once, and every invoice you send from that point carries a pay link and feeds into automatic matching. See features or start your free trial.