Payments — invoices, money, and the Report Lock

What this screen is for. Getting paid: invoices, e-signed agreements, and the Report Lock — a report releases only when it's paid and signed. One page, top to bottom: your payout status, the money at a glance, the release board, invoices, the agreements list, and the payments ledger. How to get there. Sidebar → Payments. (It's for owners and office admins; an inspector seat lands back on the dashboard.) The gear opens payout settings on Business → Payments. What every button does Getting paid — your payout rail's honest state. Not set up: "Get paid by card, straight to your bank… HomeRecon takes $0" with Set up payouts (~5 min) — and the frank note that until it's done, clients can't pay online from their report. Action needed: the amber reason and Finish setup. Active: "Payouts active," your bank's last digits, and your five most recent payouts. Money at a glance — Collected (after refunds) · Outstanding · Overdue · Awaiting signature. These agree to the cent with the invoices and the ledger below. Report release — one read-only card per gated report: Locked or Released, with the three checks (Payment received · Agreement signed · Released to client) and "Waiting on:" naming exactly what's missing. The releasing itself happens on the inspection page. Invoices — New invoice — pick the inspection, leave Amount blank to bill its fee automatically, leave Due in blank for due-on-receipt. You get a draft numbered like INV-2026-4a7f9c2b (your firm's initials stand in for a demo firm — the demo's read INV-DEMO-1106). Record payment — for money that arrived outside the card rail. The amount is pre-filled with what's due; a part payment says plainly "that leaves $X still due — the report stays locked until the invoice is paid in full." Method chips — Cash · Check · Zelle · Venmo · Cash App · Card · Bank transfer · Other — set the reference label ("Check number…"). Record, and the status flips, the ledger gains its row, and the receipt email queues. Open invoice — the drawer: the masthead honestly reads INVOICE or RECEIPT, the lines editor (add, remove, discount, tax — read-only once paid), Email the invoice / receipt, Download PDF, the payment history, and Split this invoice — name someone else's share and mint them a pay link on the public site where they see their share only, never your client's total. Inspection agreements — the list with signer and status. Unsigned with a client → Client link copies the signing link; signed rows show "✓ Signed" with the date. (Nobody on staff can sign for a client — by design.) Payments (the ledger) — every payment with method and reference, searchable. Refund pre-fills the remaining amount and refuses more than remains; the invoice honestly stops claiming RECEIPT once money went back. Export for QuickBooks downloads the CSV your accountant expects — refunds as negative rows on their refund date. Common questions "Can my clients pay by card?" Yes — from their report's own page, once you've activated your Stripe payouts account (Business → Payments, about five minutes). Until then the report politely tells them to arrange payment with you directly — and card payments run in test mode until launch, so sell the capability, not "today." "My client paid by check — how does the report unlock?" Record payment → Check → the check number → Record. Paid in full plus a signed agreement releases the report automatically. "How do I split a bill between the buyer and the seller?" Open the invoice → Split this invoice → name and email, their share → the pay link. They see only their share. "How do I refund?" The ledger row → Refund. Partial or full; the numbers everywhere follow, and a refunded invoice stops asking for money. "Where's the money for my accountant?" Export for QuickBooks at the bottom — dates, methods, references, refunds as negatives. "Why can't I edit the lines on a paid invoice?" Paid paper is a record — it goes read-only. Refund first if the money truly must move. "What does 'Awaiting signature' count?" Agreements not yet signed — each one has a Client link to copy and send. Good to know HomeRecon's platform fee on client payments is 0% — you pay only the card's actual processing cost. That's enforced by a test in our codebase, not just promised. A draft invoice stays "Draft" even after you email it — there's no mark-as-sent step; what matters is Paid. "Partly paid" is arithmetic, not a stored label — it's what's true when some money has landed. "Charge card" on an invoice row exists only on the demo account — real clients pay from their report link. Payroll and paying your own team live on Business → Team, not here. Related Business → Payments — activating payouts The inspection page — the fee, delivery, and release Pay and sign — your client's side of the lock Business → Team — payroll and splits