Spark Payments for Suppliers: Setup and Billing Terms
Spark Payments lets suppliers on the Vendor Portal bill their retailers by card or ACH. Payments go into your Spark Payments account and pay out to your bank, and Spark Shipping takes a small fee on each one.
This article covers turning it on and setting the billing terms your retailers accept. Invoices, charges, refunds and tax certificates are covered in Spark Payments for Suppliers: Invoices, Charges and Credits.
Turn on Spark Payments
Only a vendor admin (a team member with the Site Owner or Admin role) can do this. Admins are also the only ones who can change Settings and Billing Defaults. Other team members can work with invoices, charges and refunds or only view them, depending on their role.
- Go to Payments > Settings and click Turn on Spark Payments.
- Complete the business verification. It runs right inside the portal.
- If anything is still needed, it's listed under Still needed. Click Continue verification to finish it.
Until verification is finished, retailer orders are not held for billing. When the status is active, your account can take payments and receive payouts. If it shows restricted, finish the listed steps to take payments again.
Fees and the payment method for Spark fees
The Spark Payments fees panel shows your fee tier and links to your fee statements. Spark's fee is withheld from each card or ACH charge before your payout.
Invoices you mark paid outside Spark Payments (by check or wire, for example) still carry Spark's fee. Those fees, and any monthly minimum, are charged once a month to the card under Payment method for Spark fees. Click Add payment method to put one on file.
Settings
Set your Default currency and an Invoice prefix (up to 10 letters, numbers or dashes) and click Save.
Set your billing defaults
Payments > Billing Defaults sets the terms that apply to every retailer unless you override them for one retailer. Changes take effect right away for new orders and invoices, and retailers are notified when their terms change.
| Group | Fields (default) |
|---|---|
| Billing mode & terms | Billing mode: Per order or Net terms (Net terms). Net days (30). |
| Invoicing & collection | Invoice generation: Per order or Consolidated (Per order). Consolidation period: weekly, semi-monthly or monthly. Consolidation cut day (1 to 28). Invoice payment: Automatic, charged when issued, or Manual, retailer pays (Automatic). |
| Per-order card options | Split shipment capture, Authorization expiry, Manual charge collection |
| Vendor fees: card / ACH | A fee per order and/or a percentage, the base the percentage is taken from, and whether each shows as a line item. All off by default. |
| Sales tax | Sales tax rate (%) (0). Tax shipping and handling (Yes). |
| Tax certificates | Certificate state rule: the retailer's home state or the ship-to state per order. Hold orders missing a certificate (Yes). Nexus states. |
| Credit & past due | Credit limit ($) (none). Hold orders when past due (Yes). Late fee (1.5% of the invoice after 5 grace days). Payment reminders (3 days before, on, and 3, 7 and 14 days after the due date). Retry failed autopay (1, 3 and 7 days after a failure). |
| Currency | Invoice currency (your account currency) |
How the two billing modes work:
- Per order: the retailer's card is authorized when an order routes to you and charged when it ships. Per order is card only. A card authorization lasts about 7 days, and Authorization expiry decides whether it is re-authorized automatically or charged at shipment.
- Net terms: shipped orders are invoiced, one invoice per order or consolidated over the period you choose. With automatic invoice payment, the retailer's payment method is charged as soon as an invoice is issued and retried if it fails. Retailers paying by ACH must be on net terms.
Card fees you add are shown to the retailer as your fees, never as a card surcharge. Some states and card networks limit what you can charge for card payments, so check your fees comply before turning them on.
Propose terms to a retailer
Payments > Retailers lists every retailer connected to you (every retailer that has added you as a vendor on one of its sites) with its terms status, billing mode, payment method, outstanding balance, credit used, open holds and certificate status. Once your verification is finished, your default terms are sent to every connected retailer automatically, and to each retailer that connects later. A retailer that already has a default card saved is set up on that card without having to accept.
Click Manage on a retailer to:
- Propose terms (or Resend terms proposal). The retailer accepts them and chooses a payment method on their side. See Spark Payments Billing for Retailers.
- Override any billing field for this retailer under Terms for the retailer. Leave a field on Inherit to use your defaults; choosing Inherit and saving resets it.
- See held orders, and release them one at a time with Release this order, or lift a whole hold with Release past-due hold or Release credit-limit hold.
- Revoke terms. Open invoices stay due.
The page also shows recent invoices and charges and a history of every change.
Payments dashboard
Payments > Dashboard shows what retailers owe and what needs attention: total outstanding, aging, past-due retailers, questioned invoice lines, failed payments in the last 30 days, autopay retries due in the next 7 days, retailers missing certificates and orders on billing hold.
Payouts, fee statements and exports
- Payouts & Account: your payouts, payments and chargebacks, account details and tax documents. Payouts go to your bank automatically.
- Spark Fees: a monthly statement of the volume you processed and Spark's fees. Fees on offline payments, the monthly minimum and adjustments are collected on the 1st of the following month.
- Exports: CSV downloads for your accountant by date range: Invoices, Invoice lines, Payments, Refunds, Credit memos, Spark fees (ledger) and Tax certificates (metadata only). Invoice files use QuickBooks Online's invoice import columns.
- Notifications and Notification Settings: choose which Spark Payments events email you. In-portal notifications always show.
Turn Spark Payments off
On Payments > Settings, click Turn off Spark Payments. Card holds are released, orders stop being held for billing, and invoices, charges and history are kept. You can turn it back on later from the same page.