How 247Billz Works

This page explains how invoices and payments work, what clients see, and what business owners must do before creating and sharing invoices.

Overview

• Businesses create invoices in the dashboard and share a public invoice link with clients.
• Clients open the link, review the invoice, and tap the Pay button to pay online.
• Payments are processed by the configured payment gateway (Flutterwave).

Checklist — What Business Owners Must Do Before Creating/Sharing Invoices

1. Complete your Business Profile: add your business name, email, and address so invoices show correct details.
2. Configure Payout Bank Account (required to accept online payments):
   • Select your bank from the dropdown (the app submits the numeric bank code).
   • Enter a valid 10-digit account number and verify it using the Verify button.
   • If verification fails, double-check bank code and account number, then retry.
3. Configure Payment Gateway Keys: ensure `FLW_SECRET_KEY` (server-side) is set in your environment. Without a valid server secret, payment initialization will fail.
4. Test with a sample invoice (send to yourself) before sharing with customers.

What Clients See and What to Tell Them

• Clients open the invoice link and see a Pay button if the business accepts online payment.
• If the business has not configured a payout bank account, the client will see a clear notice: “This business has not configured their payout bank account yet. Payment cannot be processed.”
• If payment fails, the client will see a friendly message such as:
  "We couldn't complete your payment right now. Please try again later or contact the business."

Recommended User-Facing Messages

For Clients (friendly)

• Payment not available: "This business has not configured their payout bank account yet. Payment cannot be processed."
• Verification failed: "We couldn't verify your payment details. Please confirm your card or try another method."
• Generic payment error: "We couldn't complete your payment right now. Please try again later or contact the business."

For Business Owners (admin / dashboard)

• Bank verify failure: "Bank verification failed — check the bank and 10-digit account number, then try again."
• Missing payout account: "You must verify and save a payout bank account before you can receive online payments."
• Payment gateway error: "Payment gateway returned an error. Check gateway keys in settings and try again."

Troubleshooting & Common Errors

• "invalid account" — Usually the account number does not match the bank. Re-check the 10-digit number and verify it in your dashboard.
• "destbankcode/account_bank must be numeric" — Ensure the bank selector sends the numeric bank code (e.g., 044) to the server, not a label string.
• If you see provider messages in logs (e.g. from Flutterwave), map them to friendly messages in the UI and keep the provider details in server logs only.

Developer Notes (implementation suggestions)

1. Validate on the client: bank code is numeric, account number is 10 digits.
2. Validate on the server before calling provider and map provider errors to friendly messages.
3. Log full provider responses for debugging; do not show raw messages to users.

Need more help?

Contact support at the business owner email or use the in-dashboard support ticket form. We recommend adding a link to this page from the dashboard and from invoice emails so users and owners can find it easily.