Payment Links overview
Payment Links are reusable links you publish so customers can pay by card without an invoice and without a Mallow account. You build the link once in Mallow, share the URL with customers, and each customer pays through a public checkout page. Each successful payment shows up in your Mallow account, syncs to QuickBooks Online (if applicable), and triggers an emailed receipt to the payer.
Where Payment Links live
You manage everything from the Money page > Payment Links tab. The page has a view for your current links and a separate view for archived ones. Each link shows its name, pricing, billing cadence, status, purchase count, and revenue, so you can see at a glance how a link is performing.
One-time payments or subscriptions
A Payment Link can be used to collect one-off payments, or it can be used to set up a subscription. Choose the model that matches what you are selling: a single service payment works well as a one-time link, and retainers or recurring client work fit a subscription link.
US Dollar and card only
Payment Links accept card payments in US Dollars only. ACH is not available through Payment Links, and links cannot be priced in Canadian Dollars. If a customer needs to pay by ACH or in CAD, send them a Mallow invoice instead.
Links are reusable
A link does not close after a payment. Multiple customers can each pay through the same link, and each payment is a separate purchase. This is what makes a link useful for things like a standard deposit or a standing service package: you publish it once and keep sharing it.
Editing and deleting after the first payment
After a Payment Link has been created, it can be edited or deleted until a payment is made. Once a payment has been submitted, the associated Payment Link can no longer be edited or deleted. To stop new purchases on a Payment Link, make the link "Inactive". Archiving is a separate action and does not by itself deactivate an active link.
How customers pay
Customers open the link's public checkout page without signing in. They enter their name, email, phone number, and card details to pay. For a subscription, the customer acknowledges the recurring-payment terms before submitting. After a successful payment, the customer sees a confirmation, receives an emailed receipt, and can download the receipt as a PDF. The customer-facing flow is covered in Pay through a payment link.
Guest Customers
Payers who come through a Payment Link are not added to your standard Clients table. They appear in a Guest Customers tab on the Clients page, where you can archive the guest, convert them into a standard client, or merge them into an existing client. How each option works is covered in the Manage Guest Customers help article.
QuickBooks Online
Successful Payment Link purchases sync to QuickBooks Online as Sales Receipt records, with the Payment Link receipt number used as the QuickBooks document number. This differs from regular Mallow invoices, which sync as an invoice plus a linked payment. Details are in How Mallow syncs invoices and payments with QuickBooks Online.
What's next
This collection has three guides alongside this overview:
Create and manage payment links: build a link, set pricing, publish it, copy the URL, and manage its status, archiving, and deletion.
Pay through a payment link: what your customer sees at checkout and how their receipt works.
Manage Guest Customers: archive, convert, or merge the people your payment links create.
To publish your first link, start with Create and manage payment links.