Skip to content
English - United States
Contact us
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Pay By Link — Centime-hosted one-time links for buyers without portal access.

Centime's hosted Pay by Link allows you to collect payments from customers who do not use the Customer Portal by sending them a secure, one-time payment link for a specific invoice.

Prerequisite: Merchant Services must be active on your account for Pay by Link to function and for buyer to either Pay via ACH or Credit Card.

It is designed for:

  • Consumer (B2C) buyers rather than business AP teams
  • Ad hoc, one-time, or project-based payers with no ongoing relationship
  • Buyers in industries with lower digital sophistication who need a simpler, consumer-style payment experience
  • Anyone who would not typically be onboarded to the Customer Portal

How link generation works

Pay by Link operates on a daily batch job. Once an invoice appears in the Unpaid tab, the batch job runs and generates a unique link for that invoice. The generated link then appears next to the invoice in the Unpaid tab.

Key behaviors:

  • One link is generated per invoice — not per customer
  • The link reflects the actual outstanding balance at the time of generation.
  • Links are one-time use only

How to generate and share a payment link in the AR module

1. In the Unpaid tab, click on the Outstanding Balance for the relevant invoice to open the invoice detail view.
2. If the daily batch job has already processed the invoice, the payment link will be displayed and ready to copy and share with your buyer.
3. If the batch job has not yet run for this invoice, click "Generate Payment Link" to create the link immediately. Once generated, copy and share it with your buyer.


What the buyer sees on the payment page

 

When a buyer cis directed to the generated Pay by Link, they are routed to a Centime-hosted payment page showing:

  • Invoice details and key information
  • Early payment discount, if applicable
  • Available payment methods (ACH, card) based on the merchant's AR settings
  • Card surcharge, if applicable for the selected payment method
  • ACH discount incentive, if applicable
  • Payment amount field (editable or read-only — see partial payments below)

The page is optimized for both web and mobile.

Web :

 

Mobile:

Note: Buyers cannot save payment methods or view other invoices and payment history from the Pay by Link page. For those capabilities, they must use the Customer Portal.
 
 

Partial payments

Whether a buyer can pay partially using the payment link depends on the merchant's AR settings:

Partial payments setting Buyer experience
Enabled (globally or at customer level) Payment amount field is editable. Buyer can enter any amount up to the outstanding balance. The system prevents overpayment.
Not enabled Payment amount field is read-only and pre-filled with the full outstanding balance. Amount cannot be modified.

Buyer-level payment settings and email behavior

Merchants can configure how each buyer can make payments via going to Customer Profile > Payments > Buyer Settings > Online Payment Options.
This setting directly controls which buttons appear in outbound reminder emails and monthly statements sent to that buyer, and where those buttons route them when clicked.

 

There are four options:

Setting "Access your portal" button "Pay Now" button
Customer portal & Pay by link Routes to Customer Portal (full access) Routes to Pay by Link payment page
Customer portal only Routes to Customer Portal (full access) Routes to Customer Portal
Pay by link only Routes to Customer Portal (view-only) Routes to Pay by Link payment page
Disabled payments Routes to Customer Portal (view-only) Not shown
For accounts where Merchant Services is inactive, or where payments are disabled at the global level, the portal is always view-only and the Pay Now button is never shown.

**If you want buyers to have the flexibility to pay via either Pay by Link or the Customer Portal, select Customer portal & Pay by link. Statements and reminders sent to these buyers will show both CTAs i.e - "Access Your Portal" routing to the portal and "Pay Now" routing to the payment link.