How Does Payments Manager Help You Get Paid Faster in BrightBooks?

Payments Manager is a new BrightBooks feature that adds a “Pay Now” button to your invoices, letting customers pay you instantly by card, without leaving BrightBooks or needing a separate platform. For small businesses, getting paid sooner isn’t just convenient, it’s what keeps cash flow healthy. It is currently available through our Early Adopter Programme for BrightBooks SME customers only.

Why Do Invoices Take So Long to Get Paid?

Most small businesses know the pattern well. An invoice goes out, and then there’s a wait. Sometimes it’s a few days, sometimes weeks, and often it ends with a reminder email or a phone call chasing payment that should already have landed. The root cause is usually friction: paying by manual bank transfer means a customer has to stop what they’re doing, open their banking app, and type in your details correctly. Every extra step is a chance for the payment to be delayed.

Payments Manager is built to remove that friction. When a customer opens an invoice with a Pay Now button, paying takes a few clicks rather than a trip to their banking app. The easier it is to pay, the sooner it happens. Every day saved is a day that money is actually working for your business rather than sitting in someone else’s account.

What Happens Once a Customer Pays?

This is where a lot of the hidden admin usually creeps in. Normally, once a payment lands in your account, you or your bookkeeper still need to go back into BrightBooks and match it to the right invoice by hand. With Payments Manager, that step disappears. When a customer pays through the Pay Now button, BrightBooks automatically records the payment against the correct invoice, with no manual reconciliation needed and no risk of a payment being logged against the wrong entry.

You’ll also see the payment status update in real time, so you know exactly what’s been paid and what’s still outstanding, without waiting to hear it from your bank. That kind of visibility makes it much easier to plan ahead, rather than being caught out by cash you were expecting but hadn’t actually landed yet.

Does This Mean Using Another App?

No. This is one of the most common questions we hear, and it’s worth being clear about: Payments Manager isn’t a separate product or a new login to remember. It lives inside BrightBooks, alongside the invoicing you already use. There’s nothing extra to set up on a different platform, and nothing new for your customers to download either. They simply click Pay Now, enter their card details, and the payment is done.

How Do Customers Actually Pay?

At launch, customers pay by card, including Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, directly from the invoice. It’s a familiar, low-friction experience, similar to paying for anything else online, which means fewer customers are put off or delayed by an unfamiliar process. Instant bank transfer and Direct Debit are on the roadmap, so more ways to pay are on the way.

Is Payments Manager Secure?

Payments Manager is powered by Unipaas, a specialist payment provider regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It’s certified to PCI DSS Level 1, the highest industry standard for card payment security, and includes additional checks and safeguards to keep your customers’ payment data protected at every stage.

What Does It Cost?

There’s no monthly fee to use Payments Manager. A transaction fee applies each time a payment is processed, and because you’re joining through the Early Adopter Programme, you’ll benefit from an introductory rate of 0.9% until 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027, this moves to the standard rate of 1.5%.

How Do You Get Started?

Getting set up involves a quick, one-time account setup, after which you’re ready to start accepting payments through BrightBooks. There’s no need to switch tools or learn a new system: it works within the invoicing screens you already know.

This content may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools. Content is reviewed by a member of the Bright team before publication. Guidance on legislation can be obtained from your industry body.