--- title: "Payment links and templates" description: "The payment chooser explained — when to set up a payment for one person, when to share a link anyone can pay, and how templates speed up payment plans." lastModified: "2026-08-27" lang: "en" wordCount: 1642 url: https://qualyhq.com/training/payments/payment-links-and-templates --- ## Site navigation - [For schools](/international-education/for-schools.md) — For international education schools - [For agents](/international-education/for-education-agents.md) — For international education agents - [Explore](/training.md) — Watch videos on how to use Qualy - [About](/about.md) — Learn about Qualy's mission and values - [Pricing](/pricing) - [5-min demo](/demo.md) - [Login](https://dashboard.qualyhq.com) # Payment links and templates > Share a link that anyone can pay — or let templates build the plan for you. ## At a glance - **Intended for:** Everyone - **Available in:** All plans - **Reading time:** 5 minutes - **Last updated:** 12th August 2026 ## Quick summary Hitting 'Create new payment' opens a chooser with four ways to set up a payment for a specific person — AI Import from PDF, a payment plan, a single payment, or a subscription — plus a fifth option that works the other way around: 'Or share a link'. The links are your public services; clicking one copies a link that anyone can open and pay, no login needed. Qualy creates the payment and the customer record from whatever the payer enters at checkout. Templates live one level down, inside 'Create a payment plan', where they prefill whole payment schedules so nobody builds the same plan twice. ## Overview There are two directions to getting paid. You can set up a payment *for* a specific person — you know who owes what, and Qualy chases it. Or you can share a link and let *anyone* pay — you don't know who's coming, and Qualy works out who they are when they do. The window behind **'Create new payment'** covers both, and this guide maps each option to the situation it's for. It also covers templates: the presets that stop your team rebuilding the same payment plan customer after customer. ## The payment chooser Hit **'Create new payment'** on the Payments page — or **'Receive money'** in the quick actions on Home, or the same action from a customer's profile, their wallet, or an order. The **'Choose how to create a payment'** window opens with four methods: - **'AI Import from PDF'** — upload one or more PDFs (a letter of offer, an invoice) and Qualy AI extracts the payment plans automatically. Start here when the schedule already exists in a document. - **'Create a payment plan'** — many payments at once, built by hand or from a template. Instalment plans live here. - **'Create a single payment'** — a one-time payment, no plan. - **'Create a subscription'** — recurring payments for ongoing services or memberships. ![The Choose how to create a payment window with four options and the Or share a link section below](/images/training/payments/payment-links-and-templates/01-payment-chooser-share-link.png) The chooser remembers your last choice and pre-selects it next time. Every one of these four asks you *who* the payment is for — which is exactly what the fifth option doesn't do. ## Or share a link The bottom section of the chooser, **'Or share a link'**, lists your public services as chips — 'Instead of setting up a payment for one person, send a link that anyone can pay.' Clicking a chip copies that service's direct purchase link, confirmed with **'Link copied'**. Paste it into an email, WhatsApp, your website — wherever the payer is. Two lists can appear here: - The main list: services that are active with **'Public storefront'** on — anyone can pay these. - **'Only for signed-in customers'**: services with only **'Customer portal'** on. Share these with existing customers; they'll log in to the portal before paying. The dashed **'Share a new link'** chip creates a new service on the spot, pre-configured as public — because 'a payment link only works on a public service' — and requiring a price, because 'A payment link needs something to charge.' The **'Manage your services'** link at the bottom takes you to the full services list. If you see 'No payment links yet. Someone who manages services can add one.', your role can share links but not create services — ask an administrator to set the service up. ## What the payer sees The link opens the service's page on your portal — logo, description, and a **Pay** button showing the amount (or **'Buy now'** when the customer chooses the amount). The **'Direct purchase link'** variant skips the reading and heads straight into checkout. ![A public service page with a Pay button, seen exactly as a payer sees it](/images/training/payments/payment-links-and-templates/03-hosted-service-page.png) No login, no account creation hurdle: the payer enters their details at checkout, and Qualy matches them to an existing customer or creates a new one. The payment lands in your Payments list like any other — same statuses, same receipts, same reconciliation. The page follows the payer's browser language automatically. On the portal's Services page, customers see every service you've made visible to them, grouped by category, with 'Sold out' replacing the buy button when capacity runs out. ![The portal Services page a customer sees, with services grouped by category and prices on the right](/images/training/payments/payment-links-and-templates/02-portal-services-public.png) A service's buy button needs exactly one visible payment plan — none shows 'Not available', and two or more shows no button at all. If a link you shared lands on a page without a Pay button, that's the first thing to check on the service's page. Details in [Managing your services](/training/payments/managing-your-services.md). ## Templates: plans without the rebuilding Templates don't appear in the chooser itself — they live one level down, inside **'Create a payment plan'**. Pick the customer, then the service, and any matching templates appear as chips under **'Available templates'**: - Templates attached to the selected service show for that service only. - Templates with no service attached show every time — your general-purpose plans. Click one and it prefills the whole schedule: the payments, amounts, currency, due dates, splits. A predetermined-list template drops in its fixed payments; a dynamically calculated one first asks for the total or the number of payments, then generates the schedule. You can still edit everything before creating. Two things happen automatically: - Templates marked to auto-select apply themselves when you create a payment from an order item that uses their service — the plan is there before you've clicked anything. - With no matching templates, the empty state offers 'Go to templates' to create your first — templates are built on the service's page (Payment plans) or under Preferences → Templates. If your team keys the same 12-instalment structure in more than twice a month, that's a template. Build it once on the service's page and it shows up pre-wired every time that service is picked — the fastest plans are the ones nobody types. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is there a direct payment link we can put on our website? Yes. Create a service, turn on 'Public storefront', and give it one payment plan — it gets a page anyone can open and pay on, without logging in. Copy the 'Hosted page' or 'Direct purchase link' from the service's page (or click its chip in the payment chooser), put it on your website, or use the 'Embed buy button' snippet for a ready-made button. Payments made through it land in your Payments list like any other, and Qualy reconciles them against the customer record it creates or matches at checkout. ### A student says their payment link expired — is that the same kind of link? No. A service link doesn't expire — it keeps working for as long as the service is active and public. A link that expires is a link to one specific payment, like the ones in reminder emails, which stop working once the payment is paid, canceled or replaced. If a student reports an expired link, open their profile, find the payment that's actually due, and share that payment's link — or send them the portal, where every outstanding payment is listed. ### Who can pay through a shared link? Anyone who has it — no portal login needed on a public service. At checkout the payer enters their details, and Qualy matches them to an existing customer or creates a new one, so the payment is never orphaned. If the service should only be payable by your existing customers, use the 'Customer portal' channel instead of 'Public storefront': those links sit under 'Only for signed-in customers' in the chooser and require a portal login. ### Can the payment page be in the student's language? It already is, automatically — the portal follows the payer's browser language. A student whose browser is set to Portuguese sees the page in Portuguese; you don't pick a language when you share the link, and there's nothing to configure per link. ### Why isn't my service showing under 'Or share a link'? The main list shows services that are active with 'Public storefront' on. Services with only 'Customer portal' on appear in the second list, 'Only for signed-in customers'. A service with both channels off, or with status Archived, doesn't appear at all — open the service's page and check its Distribution channels and status. ### What's the difference between a payment link and a template? Direction. A payment link is a public service — you share it outward and whoever opens it pays. A template is internal — a preset payment schedule your team applies when creating payments for a specific customer, so a 12-instalment plan doesn't have to be rebuilt by hand every time. They meet on the service's page: the plan attached to a public service is itself a template, and it's what the link charges. ### How do I take a link down? Turn off 'Public storefront' on the service's page — the toggle saves immediately, and the link stops working for anyone who isn't logged in. Archiving the service takes it down everywhere, portal included. Payments already made through the link are unaffected; you're closing the door, not undoing what came through it. ### Why would I use AI Import from PDF instead of a link or a template? Use it when the payment schedule already exists in a document — a letter of offer, an invoice, a signed agreement. Upload the PDF and Qualy AI extracts the payment plan from it, instead of you re-typing it. Links are for letting people pay you without setup; templates are for schedules you define once and reuse; AI Import is for schedules someone else already wrote down. ## Prefer doing this via the Qualy API? Head over to our developer docs for everything you need—endpoints, examples, and simple how-tos. 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