BQE ePayments

Overview

Note: Help content (except videos) has been updated to reflect the UI/UX changes in CORE.

CORE allows your clients to pay their invoices electronically or online from anywhere in the world using its ePayments feature, called BQE ePayments. BQE ePayments provides marketplaces, SaaS businesses, and ISOs with a flexible payment platform. If you are a CORE billing user, an admin user or an account owner, BQE ePayments PayFac (Payment Facilitator) model for ePayments gives you the ability to share the  payment processing options with your clients to cut down on the time it takes to collect payments from them. It also sets up payment processing options for your company that work with your existing banks. This way the company financials are seamlessly integrated into the CORE billing and accounting system. You will have a predictable cash flow and invoice collection mechanism to focus on building the practice more confidently.

BQE ePayments supports both credit cards as well as ACH transfers (eChecks) as online payment methods. Your clients must have a credit card, debit card or bank account to make online payments. Their accounts are first verified with due authorization from them. You get to choose whether to enable ePayments at the global level for all clients (Settings) or selectively that at the client, project and invoice level. CORE lets you set up multiple online accounts to control processing fees and other settings. ePayments can be used for regular invoices, statements, retainer invoices as well as late fee invoices. Click here to watch a video on managing BQE ePayments in CORE.

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After the payment confirmation and process status is received, invoices paid using BQE ePayments are automatically recorded and reconciled as payments and deposits in CORE when the money moves to your bank account. 

Note: CORE does not allow scheduling ePayments for statements and ACH transfers.

Field Descriptions

Basic Tasks

Set Up ePayments Profiles

Advanced Tasks

Specify Online Payment Accounts

Process ePayments

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Field Descriptions

Field Name Field Description
Settings > ePayments >

Create Account:

Business Type

Type of business: it can be

  • Corporation
  • Limited liability company (LLC)
  • Non-profit organization (NPO)
  • Partnership
  • Government
Deposit Account

This is the bank account for receiving your client payments, say HDFC bank account. For regular A/R payments, you can create a separate profile and select any operating account for deposits. If there are no bank accounts listed, you can create new accounts using the Add Deposit Account option. Please note that the payments received will be deposited in this bank or deposit account.

In case of credit cards, the payment moves to your bank account and is deposited (debited) within 24 hours of the online payment by the clients in the currency of your bank account.

In case of ACH transfers, deposits take about a week after payment is made. Your clients see the payment reflected on their bank statements within a day or two of creating the charge. Do note that linking your bank account online via Plaid is the fastest way to on-board and start processing. On the other hand, manual entry of bank account details can result in delays and require upload of bank statements and other supporting documentation before you can process.

Expense Account

This is the account that gets posted for your expenses related to online payments, such as the BQE ePayments processing fee. It gets debited for the charges. If there are no expense accounts listed, you can create new accounts using the Add Expense Account option.

Payment Methods

Payment Method for accepting online payments from your clients:

  • Credit Card: This payment type supports full, partial and scheduled payments. 

  • ACH: The ACH transfer payment type supports full or partial payments, but not scheduled payments. ACH (Automated Clearing House) transfers are electronic payments made directly from the payer’s (your client’s) verified bank accounts. ACH transfers cannot be scheduled by your clients and need to be paid immediately. CORE supports ACH payments for US-based companies only.

  • Both
Payment Method Name Depending on the payment methods selected above, this field is prefilled, but you can change it here. It is the name of the credit card or ACH Transfer payment account. You can set up multiple online payment profiles, if needed, with a different connection name for each.
Deposit Account

Depending on the deposit account selected above, this field is prefilled, but you can change it here.

Expense Account

Depending on the expense account selected above, this field is prefilled, but you can change it here.

Set as default for ...  payments

You must set at least one of the ePayment profile as the default profile for online payments of type credit cards or ACH. The first ePayment profile created is set as the default profile by CORE. When you have multiple profiles, you must choose the default profile on the respective tabs. When you create new projects, the default profiles get linked automatically to them.

Advanced Options:

Payment Options

You can choose one of these options for your online payments. These options are provided to your clients while making the payments.

  • Enable Partial Payments: Allows the clients to pay the electronic invoices partially, if needed. This option is available for both credit card and ACH transfer payments.
  • Enable Scheduled Payments: Allows the clients to schedule the online payment to a later date or on the due date instead of today. Retainer invoices do not have a due date and cannot be scheduled for delayed ePayments; so CORE allows only the Pay Now option on them. This option is available for credit card payments only, not ACH transfers.
Processing Fee

Processing fee charged by BQE ePayments to your account. You can pay this fee or pass it on to your clients by checking the 'Client gets charged a processing fee' option. In that case, CORE includes the fee in the invoice payment total when the client makes the online payments. It is un-selected by default.

Processing Fee Account

This is the account that gets posted if you charge your clients for the ePayments processing fee. It is considered a revenue or an income for your company. This account is dependent on the processing fee; it is enabled only when you check the Processing Fee option. 

Fixed Processing Fee

This is a fixed fee that might be charged by BQE ePayments in addition to the processing fee that is charged as a percentage of the payment amount. As with the processing fee, you can pass this fixed fee amount on to your clients. You can enter the transaction fee here and have your clients pay it.

Processing Fee %

A percentage of the total payment amount is charged as the processing fee to the clients.

Settings

The ePayments Account Settings lets you configure more settings for your electronic invoices and statements.

  • Statement ePayments: You can enable the ePayments feature on your client or project statements, besides invoices. It is disabled by default.

  • Pay Now Button Placement: Specify the Pay Now/Pay Invoice button placement on the invoice or statement, whether it should appear on the invoice/statement template, or email body. following the email content or preceding the email content.

  • Send Email Notifications to: You can control as to who should be the default recipients of the email notifications for ePayments in CORE. The options include notifying the biller (creator of the invoices and statements), CORE Administrator and project manager.

  • Email Message Options: You can set up the default options for the emails sent to the clients. Options include sending no message, using the invoice memo, or entering a personalized default message here. This option is available for both regular invoices and retainer invoices.

Set Up ePayments Profiles

To start offering the online payment option to your clients, you need to configure a BQE ePayments profile in Settings. First, you must submit a BQE CORE ePayments application and then set up a BQE ePayments profile. After your new account is processed, you are notified by email and can create multiple ePayments profiles.

To set up a BQE ePayments profile, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the ePayments screen from the side menu > Settings.

    epayments get started.png

  2. On the right panel, click Get Started. To proceed, you need to complete the steps launched in a separate browser and later return to this screen.
  3. On the BQE CORE ePayments Application screen, create a new BQE ePayments account by entering the required information. Some details are pre-filled from your CORE company. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

    BQE Payments screen.png

    • About the Business 
    • About the Principal/Owner
    • Add Bank Account: Linking your bank account via Plaid is the fastest way to onboard and start processing. Manual entry of bank account details may result in delays and require the upload of bank statements and other supporting documentation before you can process.
    • Terms and Conditions

      Note: Federal law requires all financial institutions to verify and record information that identifies each individual or business who opens an account. So when you open an account, CORE asks for your identifiable information including your full name, address, date of birth, and other business information that will allow us to identify you. 
  4. After entering all the required details, submit the application form. You will receive an email regarding the processing and approval of your new BQE ePayments account. If for any reason your account is rejected, you will get a rejection email notification along with the reason.
  5. After successful account creation, you must select your bank accounts for ePayments deposits and expenses. If there are no bank accounts listed, you can create new accounts using the Add Deposit Account and Add Expense Account options. Please note that the payments received will be deposited in this bank or deposit account and payment processing fees will be charged to this expense account. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

    Accounts.png

     

  6. Click Confirm Accounts.
  7. Now choose the Payment Method for accepting online payments from your clients. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    • Credit Card
    • ACH: CORE supports ACH payments for US-based companies only.
    • Both

      Payment Methods.png

  8. Click Confirm Payments. The new ePayments profile is assigned automatically to the existing clients, projects, and invoices (draft or final).
  9. Next, you have two options: either go to the Home screen (Dashboard) or go to the advanced settings. You can choose to review the settings on the newly created ePayments profile tab. 

    Home screen.png

  10. On the BQE Payments CC/ACH tab, you can manage the ePayments settings.
    Check Field Descriptions above for details.

    epayment settings.png

    • Payment Method Name
    • Deposit Account
    • Expense Account
    • Set as default for ... payments
    • Payment Options
    • Processing Fee
    • Processing Fee Account
    • Fixed Processing Fee
    • Processing Fee %
  11. Click Save Profile (or Update Profile).
  12. You can go ahead and add another BQE ePayments profile by clicking Add Payment Method, if needed. In that case, one ACH and one Credit Card profile can be set as the default ePayments profile.
  13. You can also click Settings on the top to specify the ePayment Account Settings. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    • Statement ePayments
    • Pay Now Button Placement
    • Send Email Notifications to
    • Email Message Options

Note: After saving a BQE ePayments profile, you can update its details or delete the profile. If you delete a profile here after invoices are available for ePayments, the Online Payment Account gets reset to 'None' in the Invoices screen.

These global ePayments accounts are inherited when creating new clients; inherited from clients when creating new projects; and inherited from projects when creating new invoices. You can further enable or disable this option for existing clients, projects or invoices from the respective screens. CORE allows you to choose from multiple credit card or ACH accounts set up here to be used for making online payments.

Specify Online Payment Accounts

After you have configured the BQE ePayments profiles in Settings, the default profile is inherited by all new clients. Similarly, all new projects inherit them from the clients, and all new invoices inherit them from their projects. However, you can enable, disable or change the online payment accounts in the Clients, Projects, or Invoices screens, as required. Check out the CORE Help Center for details.

Note: If you remove the online payment profile in Settings > ePayments after invoices are available for ePayments, the Online Payment Account gets reset to 'None' in the Invoices list. Also, you cannot change the account of ACH scheduled and credit card scheduled invoices.

You can also enable, disable or change the online payment accounts in the Invoice Collections and Retainers screens, if required. Check out the CORE Help Center for details.

Process ePayments

When enabled, the ePayments option appears as a Pay Now/Pay Invoice button on the invoice PDFs as well as in the body of the emails sent to the clients. Your clients can click on the Pay Now button and pay electronically from the ePayments portal by entering their credit card, debit card or bank account details, and apply a partial, full or scheduled payment to the invoices (depending on your ePayments settings). If allowed, they can schedule payments on any date they choose. As long as the scheduled payment date falls on or before the invoice due date, your clients can choose when to pay and also be able to make any changes right from the ePayments portal for the specific invoice. However, the scheduled payment options are not available for ACH transfer payments. They can be paid fully or partially using manual entry of bank account details or automatic entry via Plaid. The payment history on the ePayments portal shows a list of previous partial payments received against the invoice.

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The invoices reflect the ePayments Status accordingly. In case of statements, you or your clients can choose which invoices to pay on a statement and distribute the payment amount among invoices, as required. You can either apply the payment in full or do a partial payment.

When the payments are made by your clients and validated by the merchant, it moves the payment amount to your BQE ePayments account and deposits the same in your bank account within the next 24 hours (debiting the bank account). CORE automatically creates the payment and deposit transactions with proper accounting (crediting the accounts) and reflects the processing fees (debiting the expense account). It also processes relevant notifications and delivers them to the CORE user who creates the invoices. These payments are non-refundable and include any processing fees. 

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