Before Nagaris can charge a client automatically, the client needs a payment method on file: a verified bank account for direct debit, or a credit card captured through the secure card form. This article covers adding, verifying and maintaining those methods, plus the client's virtual account.
Billing must be enabled for your organisation. Which method types you can add also depends on the firm-wide Credit Card and Direct Debit switches in Settings → Billing.
Open the client and go to Billing → Payment Methods. Methods are grouped into:
Ready to charge – verified bank accounts and current cards.
Needs attention – anything that can't be charged yet. A warning summarises why, e.g. 1 bank account needs verification, 1 credit card is awaiting card details or 1 credit card has expired.
Client groups have the same section on the group's Billing tab, where each method also shows which entities it is assigned to.
Click Add Payment Method. The dialog offers up to three choices:
Enter details yourself – Add bank account or credit card details directly. You then choose Bank Account (Add bank details for direct debit payments) or Credit Card (Enter card details on behalf of the client).
Request from client – Send a secure link for the client to enter their own details. See Asking a client to add their own payment details.
Use existing from group – shown for clients in a group; link a payment method already used by another client in the group.
The New Bank Account form takes BSB, Account Number and Account Name. New accounts start as Requires verification and can't be charged until verified:
Click Verify on the account card.
Nagaris explains the process, then sends a small deposit (1–9 cents) to the account. It can take up to 48 hours to appear on the client's statement.
The deposit comes from your direct debit remitter name followed by Nagaris and includes a 6-character code (e.g. 7C5E33). Ask the client for the code, enter it and click Verify.
If you're confident of the account's ownership you can tick Bypass verification instead; the account then shows Verification Bypassed and can be charged. Bank status badges are Verified, Verification Bypassed, Requires verification, Failed and Expired.
Card details are entered in a secure Primer checkout — Nagaris never sees or stores the full card number. Before the card form can open, the client needs an email address and a billing address on file; if the address is missing you'll see This client needs a billing address before a credit card can be added. and can add both from the same dialog.
Card badges are:
Awaiting card details – a card record exists but no card has been captured. Use Enter card details to open the secure form, or copy a link for the client (below).
Active – captured and current; shows the masked number and expiry.
Expired – use Update card to capture a replacement.
For cards that need details or have expired, the card's menu also offers Copy card update link and Open in browser — a public Credit Card Collection page where the client clicks Enter Credit Card Details and completes the secure form themselves. The page notes Your payment information is processed securely by Primer. We do not store your credit card details.
Each method's menu includes Remove (deletes the method) or — when the method is shared across a group — Unlink, which detaches it from this client but keeps it for the others. In group billing you can also choose Assign to clients to control which entities in the group a method can be charged for.
Below the payment methods, the Virtual Account section manages the client's unique inbound account. Click Create Virtual Account to set one up — each client can have only one. As the panel explains: the virtual account gives the client their own unique BSB and account number, and when they pay into it the payment is automatically matched to their invoices in Xero — no manual reconciliation needed.
The table shows Account Name, BSB, Account No. (masked, with a show/hide toggle), PayID and PID. Click Generate PayID to register a PayID for the account; while registering it shows Pending, and a Failed registration offers a Retry button.
Only Verified (or bypass-verified) bank accounts and captured, unexpired cards appear in the payment method selector when charging an invoice.
A payment method that previously failed shows a warning indicator; charging it again after a hard failure asks you to confirm. See A client's payment failed — what happens?.
If a payment method is used on an engagement, its card shows which payment package it's used in, so you know before removing it.
