A payment request is a structured instruction or customer-facing notice asking a payer to pay a defined amount for an invoice, order or obligation. It may be delivered through a link, message, portal or API.
What should a payment request contain?
Include payer, payee, amount, currency, purpose, invoice or order reference, due date, supported methods and expiry where applicable.
Payment request versus invoice
An invoice documents a billing claim and may have tax or legal requirements. A payment request is the operational mechanism or message used to collect it.
When is it completed?
Creation or payer acceptance does not prove funds settled. Track initiation, authorization, processing, settlement and reconciliation.
What controls are important?
Protect links, prevent unauthorized amount changes, verify merchant identity, expire obsolete requests and block duplicate payment against a paid obligation.
What should the record show?
Keep creator, delivery channel, payer, request version, attempts, provider references, fees and final balance.
