Payment methods on file, and auto-charge
A client can save a card or a Canadian bank account, and you can then charge an invoice rather than waiting to be paid. They enter the details themselves — you never handle them.
Chasing an invoice a client always intended to pay is wasted time on both sides. A client who has left a method on file can be charged instead.
Getting a method on file
You cannot enter a client's card details, and you should not want to. Instead, Send a link to add one emails them a link where they enter it themselves. The page says so plainly: Your details are entered with Stripe. We never see your card or account number.
They can save Credit or debit card or a Canadian bank account. Later, Send a link to replace it swaps it and Remove takes it off.
Two things have to be true first: Stripe is connected, and the client has a portal link already — which means you have sent them an engagement. Vylan tells you if either is missing rather than failing quietly.
Charging one
With a method on file, an unpaid invoice offers Charge now. A card settles in seconds. A bank debit does not — Charge accepted. Bank debits take a few business days to clear. — and sits at Processing meanwhile.
A Processing bank debit is not a promise. It can still come back as Payment failed days later, so do not treat it as money in the bank until it clears.
When a charge is declined
Nothing happens automatically. There is no retry schedule, and Vylan does not email the client about it. You get Try again and Ask client to update payment method, and the decision is yours.
That is deliberate. An automatic retry loop against a client's bank account is the kind of thing that gets a firm phoned.
Charging without being asked
Charge invoices automatically is per client and off unless you turn it on. The other two settings are Ask me before charging and Send it and chase, which is the ordinary behaviour.
Ask me before charging means exactly what it says and no more: nothing is charged on its own. It does not put the invoice in a queue, create a task, or notify anybody — so if you choose it, the prompt to act comes from you looking, not from Vylan.
A method saved while Stripe was in test mode cannot take real money, and Vylan says so on the card rather than failing at the charge. Ask the client to add it again.