In this article:
Overview
Payment Policies let you define rules that automatically apply financial incentives and penalties to invoices when customers pay through the Simplypaid portal. Policies are evaluated at checkout - the first active policy that matches the invoice conditions is applied.
Where to find it: Login into your ezyCollect file → Payment Policies in the left navigation. Manager or Admin access is required to configure policies.
Rule Types
Rule | Type | How it works |
Early payment discount | Discount | Rewards customers who pay before the due date. Supports multiple tiers (e.g. 5% within 5 days of issue, 3% within 10 days, 2% within 20 days). Only applies to up to the due date. |
Direct Debit discount | Discount | Offers a percentage off when payment is made via a Direct Debit agreement. Customers without DD see a setup prompt. Only applies when the invoice is paid on or before the due date. |
Overdue penalty | Penalty | Adds a fee for late payments (e.g. 3% if paid more than 3 days past due). Applies to the full invoice amount only — partial payments are excluded. |
Setting Up a Policy
Open Payment Policies. If no policies have been created yet, you'll see an empty state with a + New Policy button in the centre of the screen.
Select a template. A modal presents pre-built templates. Choose the one that best fits your use case. Values can be customised in the next step.
Templates list the exact policy rules they include before you commit, so you can preview what you're starting with.
Configure the policy. Set the title, description, rule values, customer scope (all or a specific list), and effective date range. The configuration panel shows each rule as an editable row - adjust the percentage and day thresholds to match your terms.
Save and activate. After saving, the policy appears in your list with an Inactive status. Toggle it to Active when you're ready for it to take effect. A green "Policy enabled successfully" confirmation will appear.
Policy list and ordering
When multiple policies exist, their order in the list determines which one is applied. Only the first active policy that matches the invoice conditions is used — lower-ranked policies are skipped.
Priority rule: Policies at the top take precedence over those below. Drag and drop rows to reorder them. You can activate or deactivate individual policies at any time without deleting them.
Previewing impact
Use the Preview button on any policy to simulate the financial impact across all open invoices before activating. Use the date slider to simulate payment on different days, and filter by a specific customer to see individual impact.
The preview shows four summary metrics at the top:
Total owing across all invoices
Total discounts or fees applied
Net balance per simulated date
Per-invoice breakdown with rule applied
Simulated date: Today is 1 April (penalties applied)
Today selected. Overdue invoices show a +3.0% penalty badge and the additional fee amount in the Penalty / Discount column. Final Amount reflects total owing + all fees added.
Simulated date: 28 March (no penalties)
4 days before today selected. Invoices not yet overdue at that date show no penalty, demonstrating the cut-off point where penalties begin to apply.
Customer experience (Simplypaid)
When a customer opens their payment portal, active policies are reflected automatically at every stage of the checkout flow.
Invoice list — penalty and discount indicators
Overdue invoices display an amber warning: "An overdue penalty fee of 3% will be applied on checkout." Invoices eligible for an early payment discount show the discount amount inline (e.g. Discount $11.37). Payment buttons at the bottom show the total including $12.47 in penalty fees.
Payment summary — breakdown before confirmation
Before confirming, the customer sees the original invoice amount, the penalty value separately, and the total payment amount including charges.
Receipt — itemised breakdown
The receipt clearly separates the original invoice amount and penalty so the customer has a permanent record of what was charged and why.
Reporting and reconciliation
Transactions list
Every transaction where a policy was applied shows a penalty / discount badge next to the paid amount. The badge makes policy-affected transactions easy to identify at a glance.
Hovering the paid amount shows the breakdown — original amount plus the penalty percentage applied.
Transaction Fee Statement (export)
For reconciliation, export the full breakdown: go to Transactions → Export → Transaction Fee Statement (Excel). The report includes an Invoice Breakdown tab with the following columns:
Column | Description |
Status | Transaction status (Cleared / Settled) |
Customer | Customer name |
Transaction ID | Unique transaction reference |
Payment Method | e.g. Visa Credit Card |
Description | Invoice number |
Original Amount | Invoice value before policy |
Paid Amount | Final amount collected |
Penalty / Discount | Value and percentage applied |
Applied Policy | Name of the policy rule used |
Manual reconciliation required. There is no automatic writeback to Accounting softwares when a penalty or discount is applied. Your finance team must reconcile manually using the Transaction Fee Statement export.
Key constraints
Constraint | Detail |
Full amount only | Discounts and penalties apply to the total invoice value. Partial payments are not supported. |
Discounts before due date | Early payment discounts only apply when the invoice is paid on or before the due date. |
First matching policy wins | Only one policy is applied per invoice. Lower-ranked policies are ignored once a match is found. |
Manual activation | Newly created policies are inactive by default and must be toggled to Active manually. |
No auto-reconciliation | Accounting softwares/ERPs are not updated automatically. Manual reconciliation via the report export is required in this version. |