Payments, refunds and invoices

Shop purchases have their own payment method, separate from your Smileline subscription. Payments go through Stripe to Smileline, which sells every product in the Shop. The Shop serves practices in the UK (except Northern Ireland) and the US.

Payment methodsCopy Anchor Link

An owner or manager saves one payment method for the whole practice in Shop settings → Payment. Every order, approval and auto order uses it.

The method is saved on Stripe's secure page, never in Smileline. When you switch from a card to a bank debit, the card stays in use until the debit is ready, so orders and auto-order keep going. If the method stops working (the bank cancels the mandate, or the card is removed), owners and managers are told The shop payment method stops working or changes and the Payment tab reads Stopped working: add another before the next order. When your bank updates a card by itself, the new card is used with nothing to do, and owners and managers are told.

Paying for an orderCopy Anchor Link

You pay when you place an order or approve a basket: Place order and pay or Approve and pay names the exact total, tax included. See Buying.

• Your bank may ask to confirm the payment in a window from Stripe. If it doesn't go through, the order is still placed and reads Payment needed, with Pay now for any buyer to try again. Nothing is sent until it's paid, and nothing is cancelled.
• Auto orders are charged without anyone there, under the standing authority your practice accepted: never more in a month than your auto-order budget, tax included. If the bank refuses, the order reads Payment needed and every buyer is told. See Auto-order.
• Bank transfer (an equipment deposit or balance) needs no saved method, only the accepted shop terms. On a quote's order, Pay by bank transfer sits beside Pay now. The order then shows the account details and the reference: Pay by bank transfer, Reference and Still to pay. The order goes ahead once the money arrives.
• Too many payment actions, try again in a minute appears if one person places or pays very many times in a minute.

ClearingCopy Anchor Link

A card payment clears at once. A bank debit takes a few working days, and the supplier dispatches only once it has cleared:

Delivery dates already include this. While it clears, the order reads Bank payment processing · dispatch starts when it clears, with the expected day. When it clears later than expected, the parcel reads New date: your bank payment cleared on that day.

RefundsCopy Anchor Link

A refund goes back to the method you paid with. The order shows Refund of the amount in progress, then Refund of the amount issued with the day and the method: It can take 5–10 working days to show.

The delivery fee comes back only when every line of the order is refunded and the reason is a cancellation before dispatch, a delay, or the supplier's fault. An equipment order's deposit and balance are each refunded from their own payment.

• Cancelling while a bank debit is still clearing: a Direct Debit can't be stopped, so the money is refunded once it clears. Cancelled. Any money taken is refunded once your bank payment clears.
• A refund Smileline has to look at reads Refund waiting for Smileline on the return.
• If your bank reverses a payment (a chargeback), the order reads Your bank reversed this payment. Contact us and nothing more is sent until it's settled.

Invoices and credit notesCopy Anchor Link

Smileline issues an invoice each time a payment succeeds, and a credit note each time a refund does. An equipment quote gets one invoice for the deposit and one for the balance. Find them in the order's Invoice menu, as PDFs:

• Invoice — Smileline's invoice for the products and delivery.
• Seller's invoice — issued by Smileline on a seller's behalf, where a seller sells in its own name.
• Credit note — names the invoice it credits.
• Printable order summary — the order as a page to print, not an invoice.

Before payment the menu reads Invoice available after payment. A new document shows Being prepared for a few minutes while its PDF is made. Documents are in English.

Each invoice is addressed to the legal entity that pays for the site, with its VAT number where it has one, and keeps those details even if you change them later in Practice details → Legal entities. Numbers run in order with no gaps; credit notes have their own series, marked CN.

• UK invoices are VAT invoices: Smileline's company details and VAT number, the tax point, and each line's quantity, price ex VAT, VAT rate and VAT.
• US invoices show the sales tax on each line and in total.

How VAT and sales tax are shownCopy Anchor Link

VAT on the shelves is worked out from each product's rate, so it matches checkout unless a rate changes. Checkout's figure comes from Stripe Tax and is the one you pay. In the US the sales tax follows where each supplier dispatches from and your site's address.