Online Order Form — Payment Methods

Overview

Payment methods are set per order form, under Online → Order Forms → Manage → Settings → Payment Methods. There are three to choose from, and you can enable any combination of them — but at least one must always be enabled.

Because the setting lives on the form rather than the account, different forms can work differently. A corporate account form might offer invoicing only, while a public form takes card payment up front.

Invoiced

Customer pays on account. The customer is telling you they'd like credit terms and expect an invoice. Nothing is collected at checkout. Your team reviews the order, prepares a quote with any additional charges such as delivery fees and tax, and sends it out. Payment is collected however you normally invoice.

This is the default for a new order form, and it suits businesses that want to review and confirm every order before asking for money.

Pay in Advance

Bank transfer, details provided before delivery. The customer is committing to pay before the order goes out, but nothing is collected through Puree — you send your payment details and follow up. At checkout they're shown the line "Our payment details will be provided to you before delivery of your order".

Useful when you want payment upfront without setting up online card processing.

Pay by Card (Stripe)

Customer pays by card at checkout. With Stripe connected, the customer is sent to Stripe's secure checkout and pays at the moment they place the order, rather than waiting for a quote.

Since the card is charged at checkout, the total the customer pays is whatever the form has calculated at that moment. Configure your delivery fees by postcode before enabling card payment, so the delivery charge is included rather than chased afterwards. See Online Order Form — Delivery Fees by Postcode.

What the Customer Sees at Checkout

Once the customer has chosen their items and moved on to entering their details, what they see next depends on how many methods you've enabled:

• More than one enabled — a Payment method section appears with a card for each option, and they pick one before pressing Confirm order
• One enabled — there's no choice to make, so the section is replaced by a single line explaining what will happen, such as "You will be invoiced for this order"
• Card only — the payment section disappears entirely and the button changes from Confirm order to Continue to Payment, taking them straight to Stripe

The card option only shows to customers if Stripe is actually connected. If it's enabled on the form but the connection is missing, it's quietly left out rather than shown as a broken choice.

Seeing What the Customer Chose

Open the order in Online → Orders Received and look under Payment & Instructions. The Payment terms line shows what they picked. Card-paid orders also carry a Paid with Stripe badge at the top of the order and a Paid marker against the total.

The order notification email reads slightly differently for card payments too. A card customer is told their payment has been received and that you'll review and confirm; everyone else is told you'll check availability and send a quote including delivery charges and terms. The card version also shows a "Paid by credit card" line against the total.

Card Payments and Acceptance

Card-paid orders still arrive in Orders Received like any other order, and you still process them there — link a customer and use Quick Create or the order editor.

What's different is the end state. Because the money has already been taken, Puree accepts the quote for you as soon as you process the order, so it skips pending and goes straight to accepted. With every other payment method the quote lands in pending, and you send it to the customer to accept.

See Online Order Form — Processing Orders for the full processing workflow, and Stripe Credit Card Payments for how Stripe payments work more generally.

Choosing a Combination

Any mix works. Offering Invoiced alongside Pay by card is common — account customers carry on being invoiced, while everyone else pays on the spot. Enabling all three gives the customer the most choice; enabling card only gives you the fastest cash cycle and the least admin, at the cost of turning away customers who expect an invoice.

Puree will not let you save a form with no payment method enabled.