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Set Up Trade and External Payment Types

Updated

What this does: Creates trade and external payment types so you can record barter, advertising trades and payments taken by outside vendors, and report on them in more detail.

Applies to: GrowthZone staff with access to Finance billing settings. This setting is optional.

Before you start: Decide which Default Trade Deposit Account these payments should go to, or be ready to create one.

Time needed: About 10 minutes.

Good to know:

  • Trade/External Payment Types is an optional setting — it is not required to set up. When enabled, the system provides two default types. If you do not create specific types, the options available will simply be Trade or External Payment, which might be fine for most users.

Payment types allow you to have more detailed reporting on what types of trades or external payments you are accepting. For example, you might enter Advertising trade, Giftcard trade, etc. for your Trade Payment Types. Or, if you are using an outside credit card processor, you may have an external type called Square. To use these payment types, you must enable Trade or External at Finance, Administrative section, click Billing Settings and select General Billing Settings.

Setting your Trade & External Payment Types is a two-step process: first create your payment types, then enable them.

Part 1: Create your Trade & External Payment Types

  1. Go to Finance, Administrative section, click Billing Settings and select Trade/External Payment Types. A list of payment types you have currently set up for your organization will be displayed.

    • Trade Types are usually for things like advertising credits or other type of trade or barter used to offset the balance of an invoice.
    • External Payment Types are generally used for payments applied through a third-party vendor like PayPal, Square, or another processor not integrated through GrowthZone.

    Trade/External Payment Types page reached from Finance > Administrative > Billing Settings, showing the Trade Types and External Payment Types lists

  2. Click Add (+) for the desired payment type.
    Close crop of the plus icon used to add a new payment type
    Trade/External Payment Types page with the plus icon boxed on the Trade Types heading row
  3. Enter a Name for the payment type. This is the name that will be available to you for selection when accepting payments.
  4. Click Done.

You may add as many payment types as needed to support your business processes.

Part 2: Enable Trade & External Payment Types

  1. Go to Finance, Administrative section, click Billing Settings and select General Billing Settings, then scroll down to the Trade and External Payments section toward the bottom of the page.
  2. Select the appropriate Default Trade Deposit Account. When processing a payment, the system must understand which account should be debited. This will be used by the system as the default if an alternate account is not specified when processing the goods/service. You may select an existing account or create a new account if needed.
    General Billing Settings page scrolled to the Trade and External Payments section with the Default Trade Deposit Account list boxed
  3. Select the Optional Payment Types you wish to enable in your system from the dropdown.
    General Billing Settings with the Optional Payment Types list open and both Trade and External checked
  4. Click Save.

Using Trade or External Payments as a Payment Option

Once you have created your trade/external payment options they are available anywhere you can take a payment. On a contact’s Billing tab, click the arrow beside ENTER CHECK/PAYMENT and choose Enter Trade Payment or Enter External Payment — each opens its own window, where you pick the specific type from the Trade Type (or External Payment Type) list.

The arrow beside ENTER CHECK/PAYMENT on a contact’s Billing tab, with its menu open and Enter Trade Payment and Enter External Payment boxed

The trade/external payment displays just like any other payment type, and the invoice will reflect the payment and if there is a remaining balance to be paid.

The Add Enter Trade Payment window with Trade Type selected, an Amount entered and the invoice to pay ticked 
The invoice after a trade payment is applied, with the remaining Balance and the Payment History entry boxed. Mask any real email address with a solid grey bar

Common pitfalls

  • Creating types but never enabling them: Creating a payment type is only half the process. Until you enable the Optional Payment Types under General Billing Settings and click Save, your new types will not appear when applying a payment.
  • No Default Trade Deposit Account set: The system needs to know which account to debit. Set the Default Trade Deposit Account before enabling, or payments may not post correctly.

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