Payments & Invoicing
Taxes, payment terms, and late fees
Three settings control the money side of every invoice you send - the sales tax you add, the due date you default to, and the late fee you charge on overdue invoices. Each one lives on its own screen, and each sets a default that new invoices inherit. You can still change most of them on any single invoice.
The short version
- Set your Sales Tax - a rate and a label (like HST), or 0 if you don't charge tax.
- Set your Payment Terms - the default due date on new invoices (Net 7, Net 30, and so on).
- Turn on Late Payment Fees if you want a daily fee to accrue on overdue invoices.
On your phone
All three live under Settings. Tap the More tab, tap Settings, then scroll to the Billing & Payments section.
- Sales Tax - tap the Sales Tax row. Enter your rate in the Tax rate field (the number you charge % on taxable items) and a Label shown on invoices (for example HST or GST). If your rate is above 0, the label is required so clients know what the charge is. A live example shows what a $30 walk would bill. Tap Save. Set the rate to 0 if you aren't registered to collect tax.
- Payment Terms - tap the Payment Terms row. Pick a preset - Due on receipt, Net 7, Net 14, Net 15, Net 30, or Net 60 - or tap Custom and type a number of days after sending. Tap Save.
- Late Payment Fees - tap the Late Payment Fees row, turn on Enable late payment fees, then set the Daily fee amount (a flat dollar amount per day) and the Grace period (days after the due date before fees start). A preview shows how a 10-day-overdue invoice would add up. Tap Save Changes.
On the web
Go to /app/settings and open the Billing & Payments group.
- Sales Tax - open Sales Tax, enter the rate % on taxable items and the Label shown on invoices, then click Save.
- Payment Terms - open Payment Terms, choose a preset button or Custom and a number of days after sending, then click Save.
- Late Payment Fees - open Late Payment Fees, set Late Fees to Enabled, fill in Daily fee ($) and Grace period (days), then click Save Policy.
Good to know
- Only owners and billing managers can change these. If you don't see the Billing & Payments settings, or they're read-only, your role doesn't have billing permission.
- Chester applies your tax rate - it doesn't decide whether you should charge tax. Whether pet services are taxable depends on where you are and whether you're registered. In Canada, businesses under the CRA small-supplier threshold aren't registered and shouldn't charge GST/HST. Check with your accountant, and set the rate to 0 if you're not sure.
- Sales tax is a single rate and label, applied to taxable items on new invoices. There's no separate per-service or multi-tax setup on this screen.
- Payment terms are just a default. You can still change the due date on any individual invoice when you create or edit it.
- The late fee is a flat daily dollar amount, not a percentage. It accrues automatically once an invoice passes its due date plus the grace period, and it keeps adding up each day until the invoice is paid or the fee is waived. On mobile you get a push notification the day before a fee applies, with a one-tap option to waive it, and you can waive fees on any invoice at any time.
- The due date comes from your payment terms, not the late-fee screen. The late-fee setting only decides what happens after that due date passes.
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