Take payments by bank transfer (EFT)

You don't need a payment provider to get paid online. Add your bank details and switch on bank transfer (EFT), and customers can pay you straight into your bank account. You can offer EFT on its own or alongside card payments.

With EFT there's nobody in the middle to confirm the payment. The customer gets your bank details and a reference, the order waits as unpaid, and you mark it paid once the money shows on your bank statement.

Before you start

• A bank account for your business. A business account in your business's name works best. Customers trust a name that matches your store.
• Owner or admin access to your ShopEazy business. Other team members can't add or change bank details, or switch EFT on or off.

Set up EFT

1. Click Settings in the sidebar, then Payments.
2. Under Bank transfer (EFT), click Add bank details.
3. Choose your Bank. For most banks the Branch code fills itself in with the bank's universal branch code. You can still change it. If your bank isn't listed, choose Another bank and type its name.
4. Fill in Account holder (as it appears on your bank statement), Account number and Account type.
5. Add a Note for customers if you like, for example "Email your proof of payment to orders@yourstore.co.za". It can be up to 280 characters.
6. Check the What your customers see preview at the bottom. It shows exactly what customers will copy from, so this is the place to catch a typo.
7. Click Save bank details.
8. Switch the toggle next to Bank transfer (EFT) on. It changes from Off to On at checkout.

Saving your details doesn't switch EFT on by itself. You always switch it on yourself, after you've checked the preview.

When it's on, the strip at the top of the Payments page says customers can pay by Bank transfer (EFT). Your saved details show there too, with the account number hidden except for the last four digits.

To stop offering EFT, switch the toggle off. Orders that are already waiting for an EFT keep their bank details, and you can still mark them paid.

What your customers see

At checkout. If you offer both card and EFT, customers pick under Pay with: Card or Bank transfer (EFT). Card is selected first, because it confirms straight away. If EFT is your only way to take payment, checkout tells them they'll pay by bank transfer. When they're paying by EFT, the button says Place order.

After they order. The order page says "Order placed — one step left" and shows a Pay by EFT card with:

• the Amount and the Reference, each with a copy button
• your Bank, Account holder, Account number, Branch code and Account type
• the date to pay by
• your note, if you added one

The reference is always the order number, for example ORD-00042. That's how you'll match the payment on your bank statement.

By email and WhatsApp. The customer gets a "how to pay" email with the same details, with a subject like "Your Store — how to pay for order ORD-00042". If they ordered from your WhatsApp channel, they get the details in the chat too.

Paying by card instead. If you also have a card partner connected, the customer can switch to paying by card from their pay page. Customers with an account on your shop can find it under Your orders, where the order shows Awaiting EFT.

A customer can place up to three EFT orders with the same email address in 24 hours. That stops anyone filling your orders list with orders that will never be paid.

When an EFT order comes in

You get a notification that says "New order ORD-00042 · awaiting EFT". The order is Open and Unpaid, with an Awaiting EFT badge.

No stock is held for an unpaid EFT order. Stock comes off only when you mark it paid. If an item sells out while an order waits, you'll be warned when you confirm the payment (see below).

At the top of Orders there's a Waiting for EFT panel (it hides while you're searching or filtering). It shows how many EFT orders are still unpaid and how much is owed in total, and lists the oldest ones with their reference, customer and amount. Check it against your bank statement.

Confirm a payment

Only mark an order paid once the money actually shows in your bank account. A screenshot or proof of payment from the customer isn't the same thing, because those can be faked.

1. Open the order from Orders or the Waiting for EFT panel. The top of the order shows the Reference and Amount to look for, and which account it should be paid into.
2. Click Mark EFT received.
3. The Amount (R), Method (EFT) and Reference are filled in for you. If the customer paid less than the full amount, change Amount (R) to what they paid.
4. Click Record payment, or Record part payment for less than the full amount.

The order is now Paid (or Part-paid), stock comes off, and bookings are confirmed. If the customer gave an email address, they get a "payment received" email. If they ordered on WhatsApp, they get a message there too.

If something sold out while the order waited, the dialog tells you which item and gives you Record anyway. That records the payment and books the item as a backorder, so its stock goes below zero. Send it when you restock, or refund the customer.

Reminders

About halfway to the pay-by date, ShopEazy emails the customer one reminder with your bank details and their reference. With the standard 48 hours, that's after about a day. Reminders only go out between 7am and 8pm, South African time.

You can also click Remind to pay on the order. For an EFT order, the reminder includes your bank details. You can send up to three reminders per order, at least 24 hours apart, and the automatic one counts towards the three. If you've already sent one yourself, the automatic reminder isn't sent.

Overdue orders

An EFT order that's still unpaid 48 hours after it was placed becomes overdue. Its badge changes to EFT overdue, and you get a notification: "EFT overdue · ORD-00042".

Nothing is ever cancelled automatically. Customers sometimes pay late, so you decide what to do:

• Wait or remind them. Click Remind to pay on the order.
• Cancel one order. Open it and click Cancel. This only works while nothing has been paid on it.
• Cancel all overdue orders at once. On the Waiting for EFT panel, click Cancel [number] overdue, then Cancel orders. This cancels only overdue EFT orders with nothing paid.

Each customer whose order is cancelled gets an email saying so, and any booking or discount code they were holding is freed up.

Changing your bank details

Open Settings → Payments and click Edit under Bank transfer (EFT). Change what you need, check the preview, and click Save bank details.

Every time the bank, account holder, account number or branch code changes, we email the business owner a security alert. The subject starts "Security: EFT bank details changed", and the email shows the old and new account with only the last four digits. It goes out even when the owner made the change, so a change never goes unnoticed. Changing only your note for customers doesn't send one.

If you get that email and didn't expect it, switch EFT off straight away, change the details back, and change your password.

New orders use the new details. Orders already waiting for payment keep the details the customer was given, so money for those orders may still go to the old account.

The alert goes to the owner's email address. An owner who signs in with a phone number only has no email address on file, so they won't get it.

Fees

EFT money goes straight from your customer into your bank account. No payment provider pays it out, so it won't appear in any provider payout, and ShopEazy never touches it.

The ShopEazy platform fee still applies to EFT sales, at your plan's rate, once you mark the order paid. It's a fee for selling on ShopEazy, not a processing fee, so it's the same whichever way the customer pays. It's billed to your card with your other platform fees, never taken from the payment. See Your plan, billing and platform fees.

Your bank may charge its own fees for payments coming in. Those are between you and your bank.

EFT sales show on your Money page like any other sale. Open one and its Provider reads eft, so you can tell it apart from a card payment.

Refunds

ShopEazy can't send an EFT refund for you. Pay the customer back from your own bank account first, then record it on the order with Refund. See Refund an order, in full or in part.

Instant EFT is different

Instant EFT services, like Ozow and Stitch, work through a payment partner. The customer pays on the partner's page, the partner confirms the payment automatically and pays it out to you, just like a card payment. They'd be connected under Card payments, not here, and they're listed there as Coming soon.

The Bank transfer (EFT) setting is a plain bank transfer: the customer pays from their own banking app, and you confirm it yourself.

If something goes wrong

"Only the owner or an admin can change how you get paid." You're not an owner or admin. Ask one of them to add the bank details or switch EFT on.

"Choose your bank." / "Enter your bank's name." Pick your bank from the list. If you chose Another bank, type its name in Bank name.

"Enter the account holder's name." Account holder is empty or too short.

"An account number is 6 to 16 digits." Check the account number. Spaces and dashes are fine, but letters aren't.

"A branch code is 6 digits." Check the branch code. If you're not sure, choose your bank again to fill in its universal branch code.

There's no toggle to switch EFT on. The toggle only appears once you've saved your bank details.

A customer says they can't place an EFT order. If they see "You've placed several bank-transfer orders recently", they've placed three EFT orders with the same email address in the last 24 hours. They can pay for those first, try again later, or pay by card if you offer it.

A customer paid, but I can't match the payment. Look for the order number as the reference on your statement. If they used a different reference, search your orders by the customer's name or the amount, then use Mark EFT received and put what you saw on your statement in Reference.

I marked the wrong order as paid. Refund it with Refund and choose whether to restock, then mark the right order paid. A paid order can't be cancelled. See Refund an order, in full or in part.

Still stuck? Email support@shopeazy.co with your store name and the order number, or browse more guides at shopeazy.co/help. Never send us your full bank details by email.

Related

• Connect a payment provider
• Order statuses explained
• Your plan, billing and platform fees