Payments
Wrenbase tracks the money without ever holding it. You tell your clients how to pay, you record what comes in, and every payment lands in your books with a full history. Wrenbase takes no cut.
What Wrenbase does, and doesn’t
Wrenbase sits beside the money, not inside it. The workflow, the record, and the history are ours; the funds are always between you and whoever pays you.
| Wrenbase does | Wrenbase doesn’t | |
|---|---|---|
| The money | Track it, record it, keep the history | Hold, custody, or route your funds |
| The fee | Charge you nothing | Take a cut or add a markup |
| The rail | Work with whatever you use | Force you onto one processor |
There’s no Wrenbase fee on a payment, on any plan. When card payments arrive, you’ll pay your processor’s standard rate and nothing on top of it from us.
Connecting Stripe to accept cards, and to pay vendors directly, is being finalized. In the workspace, Integrations → Payment Providers shows it as coming soon for now. Until it’s live, the two methods below cover every way you get paid.
Getting paid
You have two ways to collect, and most businesses use both:
- Tell clients how to pay. Save your payment details once and they appear on every invoice you send.
- Record what arrives. When a payment lands, mark the invoice paid and note how it came in.
One distinction worth holding onto: paid means the payment has been reported, and settled means you’ve confirmed the money is actually in your account. For anything that arrives outside Wrenbase, marking it settled is your confirmation the funds really landed.
Payment instructions
Payment instructions are the “here’s how to pay me” note that travels with your invoices. Set them once in your organization settings and they pre-fill on every invoice, quote, and payment request. Your client sees them on the pay page, in the email, and on the PDF, so it works like a low-tech Pay button.
Write it the way you’d explain it to a client: bank and account details for a transfer, a Zelle handle, or “check payable to Acme Studio.” If one client needs different details, you can edit them on that invoice without changing your default.
Anyone you invoice can see your payment instructions, so put in what you’d be comfortable printing on a paper invoice. Wrenbase helps keep you safe here: if you paste something that shouldn’t go on a public invoice, like card details, it won’t let it through.
Recording a payment
When a client pays you outside Wrenbase, by bank transfer, Zelle, check, wire, or cash, record it against the invoice. Open the invoice from Revenue → Invoices, mark it paid, and pick the method it came in on. Once you’ve seen the funds in your account, mark it settled.
Noting the method isn’t busywork. It’s what lets you reconcile against your bank statement, answer “how did this client pay last time,” and keep a clean trail. Because Wrenbase records rather than moves the money, this covers any rail: a wire from overseas, a mailed check, cash, or a transfer through a service Wrenbase doesn’t integrate with.
Paying your bills
The bills your vendors send you land under Bills in your workspace. Paying them works the same way: once you’ve paid a bill, open it under Bills → Invoices, mark it paid, and note the method, so your payables stay accurate.
If a vendor isn’t set up to receive payment through Wrenbase yet, you can invite them from the bill so that future payments are simpler.
One-click card payment to a vendor is being finalized. Until then, record vendor payments with mark-as-paid, which works for every rail.
Payment activity
Every payment you record, in or out, lands in one running history under Payments → Activity. It shows money coming in from clients and going out to vendors in one timeline, each with its amount, direction, and where it stands, so you can tell at a glance what’s done, what’s in motion, and anything that didn’t go through or was returned.
Refunds show up here too, as money going back out. Wrenbase records refunds rather than starting them: if you need to return money paid by card, you do that with your processor, and it’s reflected here once done.
Activity is your record of payments, not a bank balance. Your available balance and payout schedule live with whatever processor moves the money.
Related
- Invoicing: the invoices and statuses behind these payments
- Contacts: the clients and vendors on each side
Frequently asked questions
- Does Wrenbase take a cut of my payments?
- No. There's no Wrenbase fee on a payment, on any plan. Wrenbase tracks and records the money without ever holding it, so the funds stay between you and whoever pays you, and when card payments arrive you'll pay only your processor's standard rate.
- How do I record a payment that came in outside Wrenbase?
- Open the invoice from Revenue then Invoices, mark it paid, and pick the method it came in on, whether bank transfer, Zelle, check, wire, or cash. Once you've seen the funds in your account, mark it settled. Because Wrenbase records rather than moves money, this works for any rail.
- What are payment instructions and where do clients see them?
- Payment instructions are your "here's how to pay me" note. Set them once in your organization settings and they pre-fill on every invoice, quote, and payment request, appearing on the pay page, in the email, and on the PDF. Treat them as public, since anyone you invoice can see them.