Overview

Luminous can generate a unique, shareable payment link for any invoice. When a customer opens that link, they see a hosted payment form (served through your B2B portal URL) where they enter their card details. Luminous charges the card through your configured Authorize.net gateway and immediately sends the customer a confirmation email. This article explains each step.

Part 1 — How the Invoice Payment Link Works

What it is

Each invoice can have one active payment link. The link points to a secure page on your B2B portal where the customer can pay the invoice's full outstanding balance by credit card — without needing a B2B portal account.

Links are valid for 6 months. If you generate a link for an invoice that already has an unexpired link, the existing link is returned (it is idempotent — no duplicate links are created).

  1. In Luminous, navigate to Sales → Invoices.
  2. Find the invoice you want to share.
  3. Open the row action menu (the ⋮ or action button on the invoice row).
  4. Click Generate Payment Link.
  5. The link is instantly copied to your clipboard. Paste it into an email or message to your customer.

You can configure Luminous to create payment links automatically whenever an invoice is created or updated:

  1. Go to Settings → Invoicing.
  2. Scroll to the Invoice Emails section.
  3. Toggle on either or both options:
    • Auto-generate invoice pay link when an invoice is created — creates a link each time a new invoice is saved.
    • Ensure invoice pay link exists when an invoice is updated — creates a link (if one does not already exist) each time an invoice is edited.
  4. Click Save.

Requirement: Automatic link generation only works when a payment gateway (Authorize.net or CyberSource) is already configured in Settings → General → Payment Gateway. If no gateway is active, the auto-generate step is silently skipped.

What the customer sees

When the customer opens the link, they see a payment form that asks for:

  • Card number, expiration date, and CVV
  • Billing address (name, address, city, state, ZIP, country)
  • Optional payment notes

On submission, Luminous creates a customer profile and payment profile in Authorize.net, then submits an auth-and-capture transaction for the invoice's full net total. After a successful charge, the invoice is automatically marked as fully paid and the payment link is expired so it cannot be reused.

Part 2 — Enabling the Credit Card Form in the B2B Portal

The credit card form used by the payment link (and during regular B2B portal checkout) is controlled by two settings in the B2B portal configuration.

Prerequisites

Before enabling the form, make sure a payment gateway is configured:

  1. Go to Settings → General and open the Payment Gateway tab.
  2. Select Authorize.net (or CyberSource).
  3. Enter your Login ID, Transaction Key, and Auth.net Key (Authorize.net only).
  4. Set Test Mode to off when you are ready for live payments.
  5. Save.

Enable the credit card form

  1. In Luminous, go to Settings → B2B Portal.
  2. Open the Cart & Checkout tab.
  3. Scroll to the Cart & checkout permissions section.
  4. Turn on Allow no-payment checkouts — this toggle must be on for the next row to appear.
  5. Turn on Show credit-card form (appears directly below the toggle above).
  6. Click Save.

Once all three conditions are met (gateway configured, Allow no-payment checkouts on, Show credit-card form on), buyers will see the credit-card entry section during checkout and on any invoice payment link.

Note: "Allow no-payment checkouts" and "Show credit-card form" are independent settings. Enabling the credit card form does not force all customers to pay by card — it only makes the form visible. See the related article linked below for a detailed explanation of what each toggle does.

Part 3 — Who Sends the Payment Confirmation Email?

Luminous sends the confirmation email automatically — not Authorize.net.

After the card charge is approved:

  • Luminous immediately sends an email with the subject "Payment Successful" to the email address the customer entered on the payment form.
  • The email is sent in your company's name (pulled from your Luminous company settings).
  • It confirms the invoice number, amount paid, and payment date and time.

No action is required from your team — the email fires in the same transaction that processes the payment.

Quick-Reference Checklist

StepWhereRequired for
Configure Authorize.net credentialsSettings → General → Payment GatewayEverything below
Turn on Allow no-payment checkoutsSettings → B2B Portal → Cart & CheckoutSeeing the credit-card form toggle
Turn on Show credit-card formSettings → B2B Portal → Cart & CheckoutCard form at checkout and on payment links
Enable auto-generate payment links (optional)Settings → Invoicing → Invoice EmailsAutomatic link creation
Manual link generationSales → Invoices → row action menuOne-off link sharing