How to Set up PaintScout Payments
1. Click the person icon in the top right of your page and go to your Account Settings > Integrations. Find PaintScout Payments and toggle it on.
If you're currently connected to Stripe, switching to PaintScout Payments will automatically disconnect your Stripe integration.
2. You will be redirected to a form page - fill in all the requirements and submit.
3. Head back to PaintScout to adjust your payment settings. Click the Settings drop-down.
Collect a deposit payment when estimates are accepted – Enable this option to require deposit payments via credit card or ACH. You can set a default deposit amount as a percentage (%) or a fixed dollar ($) amount. Once enabled, customers will be prompted to pay the deposit immediately after accepting an estimate.
Allow payments on invoices – Enable these options to accept credit card or ACH payments for invoices.
Enable surcharging – To pass along processing fees to your customers, toggle surcharging on, and set the percentage fee. If you’d like to exclude this fee from deposit payments as well, check the second box.
Select “Allow debit card payments” if you want to accept debit transactions — just note that surcharges won’t apply. Due to legal restrictions, debit payments can’t be surcharged. If unchecked, customers won’t be able to pay with debit while surcharging is enabled.
4. Once you have adjusted your settings, you can log in to your payments portal at https://payments.paintscout.com/login - this is where you will be able to see all your payments, process refunds, etc.
You can also click the Open Payments Portal button to log in.
How Customers Make a Payment
1. On the estimate or invoice the customer receives, they can click the 'Pay Now' button to make a payment.
Note: The Pay button will only appear on estimates after they have clicked Accept.
2. The customer can choose to pay via Credit Card or ACH.
3. A new window will appear if payment is successful.
Payment Received Email
Anytime a payment is added to an estimate or invoice, an email will be sent out to your customer confirming you have received their payment. To edit the email template follow the steps below:
1. Go to your Account Settings > Communications > Email Templates > Emails Sent Automatically section.
2. Click the Payment Received email template.
3. Adjust the verbiage in your email and make sure the Enabled checkbox is on.
If you would like to receive email notifications when a payment is made, navigate to the Email Alerts section in your PaintScout Payments portal to configure your notification preferences.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I access the payments portal?
You can access your payments portal directly here: https://payments.paintscout.com/login
Alternatively, you can access it through the Integration Settings in your account.
Once I apply for PaintScout Payments, how long does it take to get approved?
In most cases, after you've applied you should be approved instantly! However if there happens to be any hiccups with your application, we will email you directly with any additional information or documents required to complete the onboarding process.
What are the processing fees?
Credit card payments incur a flat processing fee of 3.15%, while ACH payments have a fee of 1%, capped at $25. Additionally, a $0.35 payout fee is charged per payout.
Please note that certain credit cards will incur additional fees. These additional fees include:
AMEX: +0.35%
Commercial / Business Cards Fees: +0.75%
International Transaction Fees: +1.75%
Any additional fees will be stacked on top of the existing 3.15% credit card processing fee.
Example: An AMEX transaction will be 3.15% + 0.35% = 3.5%
Why don't the transactions in my portal match what I was paid out?
The two amounts will slightly differ due to the processing fees incurred per transaction. The transaction amount is the initial total that was paid by the customer, whereas the amount deposited into your account is the total after those processing fees have been removed.
If you'd like to view the breakdown of fees for a specific payment, you can navigate to your PaintScout Payments portal and head to Payouts > Payout History> Payout Details. This will also allow you to expand each column, where you can view the fees removed from each individual transaction in more detail.
How long does a payment take to get to me?
The default payout schedule is set to daily, but you can customize it in your settings.
Navigate to your Payments Portal and click Payouts in the Admin category of the left navigation panel.
Click the View Schedules button to access more information about all payout schedules.
To edit the details of the active payout schedule, click the Edit Schedule button.
Typically ACH payments take 1–5 business days to appear in your available funds for withdrawal while credit card payments usually take a day. Please note, some transactions may take longer to review before they're fully cleared.
How can I issue a refund?
To issue a refund on a payment, navigate to your Payments Portal and select a payment under the Payment History category of the left navigation panel.
Once the payment is expanded, click the Refund button.
Please note that refunds will incur additional fees. These include:
Refund Fee: $0.04
ACH Refund: $15.00
How do I handle a dispute?
If a customer has initiated a dispute, you will need to respond to the dispute claim to resolve it. To start this process, you can click the Respond button included in the dispute email notification you received.
This will bring you to the dispute details page which will outline the current stage of your dispute case and how to proceed.
If you are currently in the "Representment" stage, you can either submit evidence against the dispute, with the goal of overturning the claim, or you may choose to accept the liability and the issuing bank will refund the charge to the cardholder. Accepting Liability will mark the dispute as lost and resolve the dispute.
Once the dispute is resolved, you will receive an email notification of the final dispute resolution status.
I was previously connected to Stripe, how does this affect my outstanding estimates and invoices?
You can still accept payments on your previous estimates and invoices; however, ACH will not be available until you manually enable it. To enable ACH, go to the Sidebar > Payments & Lending > Select ACH as an option.
Can I add a surcharge to Debit and ACH payments?
Surcharging is only legally available for credit card payments and does not apply to ACH or debit transactions.
You can select the “Allow debit card payments” if you want to accept debit transactions — just note that surcharges won’t apply. If unchecked, customers won’t be able to pay with debit while surcharging is enabled.
Can I set up a Webhook that triggers when a payment is made via PaintScout Payments?
Yes, you can use the following resource and event to enable a Webhook that triggers when a payment is made through PaintScout Payments.
My authenticator app provided me with an 8 digit code, but PaintScout Payments only allows 6 digits. What do I do?
The Microsoft Authenticator generates both 6 and 8 digit codes depending on how your account was set up.
To get a 6 digit code, you will need to also setup Two-Step Verification in the account, or download a separate authenticator, like the Google Authenticator app, that will generate a one-time 6 digit code to enter.
An error occurred on an invoice and now payments are temporarily disabled- How do I fix this?
Please reach out to support@paintscout.com for further assistance.