What Are Integrated Payments?

Integrated payments means taking payments inside the software you already use to invoice or sell, so each payment is recorded against the invoice or sale it pays. With a standalone setup, the payment happens somewhere else, such as a separate card terminal, a bank transfer or a payment link, and you record it in your books yourself. Either way, card and wallet payments still go through a payment processor.

Billed publishes this page. There's no regulator definition of the term integrated payments for this page to quote, so it describes the term as it's used for invoicing and sales software. Billed's integration features are quoted from its live integrations pages, opened on October 30, 2026. For what happens to a card payment after the customer pays, see what is payment processing; for the checkout technology itself, what is a payment gateway.

Integrated vs. standalone payments

• Integrated: the invoice or sale carries a way to pay, such as a pay button, and when the customer pays, the software records the payment and updates the invoice's status.
• Standalone: the customer pays through something that doesn't talk to your invoicing software, such as a bank transfer or a separate terminal, and someone matches the payment to the invoice by hand.

A business can have both at once: payments through the integration are recorded for you, and bank transfers or checks are still recorded by hand. The integration cuts the matching work; it doesn't remove it.

Not the same as an integrated checkout

The phrase sounds similar to something else. On a website, an integrated checkout means the card fields sit on your own page instead of a page hosted by the payment provider. That's a choice about where card details are entered; what is a payment gateway compares hosted and integrated checkouts. Integrated payments, on this page, is about whether the payment connects to your invoicing records.

What an integration does and doesn't do

• It records the payment against the invoice. That's the main thing to check when you compare tools.
• It doesn't replace the processor. The card or wallet payment still goes through a processor, with its own fees and payout schedule; see what is payment processing and payment processors for small businesses.
• It doesn't reconcile your bank account by itself. A processor payout can cover more than one payment and arrive net of the processor's fees, so it still has to be matched to the invoices it covers. How to accept online payments walks through matching a payout.
• It covers only the payment methods it connects. Bank transfers, checks and cash still need recording by hand.

Sample: one month of invoice payments

The business and figures here are a sample, invented for this example.

A web designer is paid on 10 invoices in June:

• 6 invoices paid through the pay button on the invoice: $800 + $450 + $1,200 + $300 + $650 + $900 = $4,300
• 3 invoices paid by bank transfer: $1,500 + $700 + $1,100 = $3,300
• 1 invoice paid by check: $400

Total received: $4,300 + $3,300 + $400 = $8,000.

With the pay button integrated, 6 of the 10 payments are recorded against their invoices as they come in. The designer records the other 4 by hand ($3,300 + $400 = $3,700). With no integration, all 10 payments, $8,000, would be recorded by hand.

The processor's payouts for the 6 card payments still need matching to those invoices, and they arrive net of the processor's fees, so the payout total will be lower than $4,300.

Where Billed fits

Billed's Stripe integration page says Billed connects to Stripe through Stripe Connect, and Billed's invoice software page says: "Connect your Stripe account and every invoice you send gets a pay button, so clients can pay by card."

Billed's PayPal integration page says Billed connects to PayPal with your PayPal keys, and the invoice software page adds: "Connect PayPal to add a PayPal option as well."

For connecting other apps, Billed's Zapier integration page says: "Billed has an app on Zapier, so a workflow can start when something changes in Billed, or create and update Billed records from another app, without code." For payment terms on those invoices, see invoice payment terms explained. For other ways to get paid, see international payment methods, digital wallet apps, and, if an invoice stays unpaid, how to collect money from clients who won't pay.

Related Articles

• What Is Payment Processing?
• What Is a Payment Gateway?
• How to Accept Online Payments
• Cashless Payments: Types and How They Work

Frequently Asked Questions

What are integrated payments?

Payments taken inside the software you use to invoice or sell, so each payment is recorded against the invoice or sale it pays, instead of being recorded by hand.

What is the difference between integrated and standalone payments?

With integrated payments, the software records the payment and updates the invoice. With a standalone payment, such as a bank transfer or a separate card terminal, someone matches the payment to the invoice by hand.

Is an integrated payment the same as an integrated checkout?

No. An integrated checkout means the card fields sit on your own website rather than on a page hosted by the payment provider. Integrated payments is about whether payments connect to your invoicing records.

Do I still need to reconcile with integrated payments?

Yes. A processor payout can cover more than one payment and arrive net of the processor's fees, so each payout still has to be matched to the invoices it covers, and payments made outside the integration, such as bank transfers and checks, still need recording by hand.