Setting up invoicing and Stripe payments

LodgeHQ raises invoices from each matter, can put a Stripe “Pay Now” link on them, and issues a numbered receipt when a client pays. An invoice bills work you have done. Money a client pays before the work is asked for differently — see Trust-first firms below.

1. Connect Stripe (optional)

A firm admin opens Settings → Invoicing and, under Online Card Payments, clicks Connect Stripe on the Accept card payments with Stripe card, then signs in to an existing Stripe account or creates one. Keep Put a “Pay Now” link on invoices ticked. Payments go straight into your own Stripe account — LodgeHQ never holds your money and takes no cut.

2. Create and send an invoice

1. Open the matter and click its Billing tab.
2. In the Invoices panel, click + New Invoice. On a matter that has never been invoiced, the fees from its signed service agreement or Engage pack can fill in for you.
3. Add a line for each service you performed: describe the work, pick the fee type (Professional fee, Government / authority fee, Disbursement or Discount) and set the quantity and price. GST is worked out line by line.
4. Check the Due Date and click Create Invoice. The invoice is saved as a Draft.
5. Click Email to Client to send it, or Mark as sent to issue it without emailing anyone.

Every invoice across the firm is listed under Finance → Billing & Invoices in the sidebar, which has its own New Invoice button.

3. When the client pays

When a client pays by card through the Pay Now link, LodgeHQ records the payment, marks the invoice paid and issues a numbered receipt, emailed to the client from your connected mailbox (Settings → Email). For money that reached your bank account another way, click Record Payment on the invoice and say where it landed — Your office account or Your clients' (trust) account. A numbered receipt is issued every time, and Email receipt to client is ticked for you (emailing needs an email address for the client). Before money on a matter's invoice goes into your office account, LodgeHQ checks for a service agreement in force and a statement of services covering the invoice; if either is missing, it asks how you want to go on.

Trust-first firms

LodgeHQ asks for money before the work with a deposit request into your clients' (trust) account, not an invoice. That is LodgeHQ's default Deposit Handling setting (Settings → Invoicing). The Code of Conduct defines client money (s 10) as an amount received from a client for work or services performed, or to be performed, under the agreement — check with your adviser how that applies to the payments you take.

1. On the matter's Billing tab, under Deposit requests, click Request deposit, save it, then click Send to client. A deposit request is not a tax invoice and never reaches your accounting software.
2. When the money arrives, click Record received. A numbered trust receipt is issued.
3. Once the work is performed — after each stage, for staged fees — raise the tax invoice for that work. If card payments are on, untick Include card payment link (Stripe), since the fee will come from the money you hold.
4. Issue it, and make sure the client has been given it before any fee is drawn from trust: Code s 49(a) says a client must not be charged a fee unless they are given an itemised invoice with details of the work. Mark as sent emails nothing — at most the invoice shows in the client portal, as unpaid, until you apply the trust money. So either click Email to Client and let the client know the fee will be paid from the money you hold, or rely on the portal only if the client actually uses it.
5. Give the client the Statement of Services with Email to client, beside Statement of services at the top of the Invoices panel.
6. On the day you move the money, click Apply to invoice on the deposit request first, with that day as the payment date. LodgeHQ checks the statement of services and the money held, records the transfer and marks the invoice paid. If it refuses, sort out what it names before any money leaves your clients' account.
7. Once it is accepted, make the same transfer from your clients' account in your banking that day — LodgeHQ records the transfer but doesn't move the money.
8. Click Email to Client on the invoice for the client's paid copy. It goes to the client marked paid in full, with no payment required.