Articles on: Billing & payments

Add a manual payment method

Manual payment methods let your clients pay you outside Stripe, by bank transfer, PayPal, Wise or cash, with your own payment instructions shown at checkout. The money does not pass through Zendo, so Zendo cannot see it arrive, and someone on your team marks each payment as paid. You add manual methods on the Payment methods tab of Settings › Sales › Payments & documents.


Add the method and offer it on a service


  1. Open Settings › Sales › Payments & documents and go to the Payment methods tab.
  2. Select Add new payment method.
  3. In the new row, type a name your clients will recognise in place of Type the payment method title…, such as "Bank transfer (EUR)", "PayPal" or "Wise". The client sees this name at checkout, and the order shows it as the payment method, so a general word like "Manual" tells them very little.
  4. In Payment details, write everything the client needs in order to pay you: the account details, the reference to use and any other instructions. You have up to 5,000 characters.
  5. Select Save at the top of the page.
  6. Open each service that should accept this method, and in its Finance settings, tick the method in the Payment method list.


A new manual method: its name (3) and the payment details the client sees (4).


One method for each way of paying


You can add as many methods as you like. A client sees the Payment details only of the method they choose, and nowhere else. That is why it helps to add a separate method for each way of paying, for example "ACH / Domestic Wire" and "International Wire (SWIFT)": a client paying from abroad then reads only the international instructions.


Which services offer the method


A new method is hidden from clients until you tick it in a service, and you decide service by service. A small service might accept only cards, for example, while a large one accepts cards or a bank transfer. Quotes and invoices have a payment method of their own, which you set on the quote or invoice itself.


How a manual payment works


Apart from the payment itself, a purchase with a manual method works the same way as a Stripe purchase. At checkout, the client chooses your method and reads its Payment details. The order is created straight away: its Payment method shows your method's name, and its payment status shows that payment is expected. The client then pays you outside Zendo.


Until someone on your team marks the payment as paid, the order stays unpaid, and anything that depends on the payment waits. See Mark a document as paid or refunded.


Only Stripe can charge a client automatically on a schedule. If you sell a subscription with a manual method, the client pays each period by following your instructions, and someone on your team confirms each payment.



Updated on: 09/11/2026

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