Invoices & getting paid

Quick answer: Turn completed orders into invoices, charge a saved card with Stripe, send payment links, and push invoices to your accounting system.

Open Pantry helps you turn completed orders into invoices and collect payment. This article covers the invoice lifecycle, charging a card with Stripe, sending payment links, and sending invoices to your accounting system.

What is the invoice lifecycle?

Invoices are managed from the Accounting section. An order moves through its invoice lifecycle as you complete and bill it. The recommended approach is to send orders to your connected accounting system, where they arrive as draft invoices for you to finalise and send (see the accounting article).

How do I charge a card now with Stripe?

If you use Stripe, you can charge a customer's card directly with Charge now. This is only available when the customer has a card on file — if they don't, the option is disabled until a card is added.

Related: See the existing Stripe articles — "What is Stripe?", "Set up Stripe (Pro accounts only)", "How do payouts work?" and "When will my customers be charged?" for the full payments setup.

How do payment links work?

You can send a customer a payment link so they can pay online themselves — handy when you'd rather they enter their own card details than keep one on file.

How do I send an order to accounting?

Send to accounting pushes the order/invoice through to your connected accounting system as a draft invoice, ready to finalise and send from there. This is the recommended way to invoice — it keeps your accounting system as the single financial source of truth and avoids double-entry.

Where to invoice? Our recommendation is to finalise and send invoices from your accounting system, with Open Pantry handling the operational side. See the existing article "Will Open Pantry replace my accounting system?" for the full reasoning.