PayFlow Academy

Before you send your first invoice, take five minutes to set up your account. This ensures your customers get the right information — and the right way to pay you — every time.

Add your payment link. This is the link your customers click to pay you. PayFlow supports Stripe, Square, PayPal, and Venmo. Log into your payment account, find your personal payment link, and add it at payflow365.com/my-account. Without a payment link, your customers won’t see a Pay Now button. See the “How to find your payment link” section below for step-by-step instructions for each platform.

Add a processing fee (optional but recommended). If your customers pay by credit card, the card processor charges a small fee — typically around 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. PayFlow lets you add a processing fee to your invoices so you can pass that cost to the customer rather than absorbing it yourself. Many owners simply add a 3% processing fee and let customers choose whether to pay by card or another method.

Set your tax settings. If you charge sales tax, enter your tax rate in My Account. PayFlow calculates and adds tax automatically on every invoice. If you don’t charge tax, leave it blank.

Review your business information. Confirm your business name, email address, and phone number are correct. This information appears on every invoice you send.

The single biggest thing you can do to get paid faster — besides sending the invoice immediately — is giving your customer a button to click. The data on this is not subtle.

When a customer has to figure out how to pay you — find your Venmo handle, write a check, look up your bank info — friction kills momentum. A Pay Now button removes every excuse.

What about credit card fees? Here’s the math on a $500 job:

Is $14.80 worth getting paid today instead of chasing the invoice for 30 days? For most owners, yes. And with PayFlow’s processing fee feature, you don’t have to eat that cost — you can add a 3% processing fee to the invoice and let the customer pay it. It shows up as a clear line item, so there are no surprises.

Sources: Sentoo Payment Research; Intuit QuickBooks 2025 Small Business Late Payment Report. PayFlow is not affiliated with Stripe, Square, PayPal, or Venmo.

Each platform stores your payment link in a slightly different place. Here’s exactly where to find it.

PayFlow is not affiliated with Stripe, Square, PayPal, or Venmo. Links above go directly to each platform’s official documentation.

Sending an invoice takes less than 60 seconds. Here’s exactly how it works.

1. Text your job details to (563) 794-7171 from your registered phone number.
2. PayFlow reads your message and builds a professional invoice automatically.
3. You receive a text with a summary. Review it — customer name, job description, amount, and total.
4. Reply YES to send it, EDIT to make changes, or DISCARD to throw it out.
5. Your customer receives the invoice by email, text, or both — depending on what you included.

Sending a bid works exactly like sending an invoice. The only difference is your wording. Use words like bid, quote, or estimate and PayFlow formats the document as a bid automatically.

On a bid, PayFlow shows a “Complete By” date instead of a service date, suppresses the due date, and hides the Pay Now button. Need to send two price options? Submit two separate bids.

After PayFlow sends you an invoice summary, reply with one of three keywords.

YES — Approves and sends the invoice to your customer immediately.

EDIT — Tells PayFlow you need to make a change. PayFlow replies with instructions: copy your original message, make your corrections, and resend it as a new text. Nothing is sent to your customer until you reply YES to the corrected invoice.

DISCARD — Cancels the invoice completely. Nothing is sent to your customer.

Bill immediately. Send the invoice before you leave the job site. With PayFlow, you can text it from your truck in under 60 seconds.

Add a payment link. Customers with a Pay Now button pay significantly faster. Set up your payment link in My Account before your first invoice.

Your invoice is your paper trail. Every PayFlow invoice is timestamped with the job description, amount, and customer contact information. If a dispute ever comes up — or you need documentation for collections or small claims — your PayFlow record is there. Send the invoice every time, even for customers you trust.

My customer says they didn’t receive the invoice. Confirm you included their email or phone number in your original message. For email, ask them to check spam. You can resend by submitting the invoice again as a new message.

PayFlow isn’t responding to my text. Make sure you’re texting from your registered phone number. If you recently signed up, give your account 4–5 minutes to fully activate.

My YES, EDIT, or DISCARD isn’t working. These are case-insensitive. Make sure you’re replying from your registered number and to the correct PayFlow summary message.

The invoice amount is wrong. Reply DISCARD, then resend with the corrected amount. Nothing goes to your customer until you reply YES.

Still stuck? Email us at support@payflow365.com.

PayFlow is built and operated by Empowered for High-Capacity (EHC), an Iowa-based consulting and services organization that helps small businesses and nonprofits build the operational capacity to do their best work.

The $29/month price point is intentional. Professional invoicing and bidding tools have historically been out of reach for independent owner-operators. PayFlow is built to change that — putting the same paper trail, payment tools, and professional presentation in the hands of the person running a one-truck operation that larger businesses have always had.

PayFlow is 75% women-owned. Learn more about EHC at empoweredhc.org.