Overview
Luminous supports end-to-end credit-card payment for invoices through Authorize.net (and Cybersource). There are three connected pieces: the invoice payment link, the payment confirmation email, and the B2B portal credit-card form.
1. Invoice payment links
What is a payment link?
When a payment link is generated for an invoice, Luminous creates a unique, secure URL that leads the customer to a self-service payment page hosted on your B2B portal. The link is valid for 6 months from creation. Once a customer successfully completes payment through that link, it is immediately expired so it cannot be reused.
How payment links are generated
A payment link can be created in two ways:
Automatically (recommended)
- Go to Settings → Invoicing.
- In the Invoice Emails section you will find two toggles:
- Auto-generate invoice pay link when an invoice is created — Luminous automatically creates a payment link each time a new invoice is saved.
- Ensure invoice pay link exists when an invoice is updated — Luminous checks for (and creates if missing) a payment link every time an existing invoice is updated.
- Enable one or both toggles and click Save Settings.
Prerequisite: A payment gateway (Authorize.net or Cybersource) must be configured in Settings → General → Payment Gateway before these toggles take effect. If no gateway is active, the auto-generation is skipped silently.
Manually You can also generate a payment link for an individual invoice on demand from the invoice detail view.
Including the payment link in invoice emails or PDFs
If you use HTML invoice templates, you can embed the payment link anywhere in the template using the {{paymentLink}} placeholder. Luminous will substitute the live URL when the invoice is rendered or emailed.
How the payment is processed
When a customer opens the payment link they see a secure form. They enter their:
- Credit card number, expiry, and CVV
- Billing name and address
Luminous creates a customer profile in Authorize.net, tokenizes the card, and runs an auth-and-capture transaction for the full invoice balance. If the transaction is approved, the invoice is automatically marked as fully paid and the payment link is expired.
2. Payment confirmation emails
As soon as a payment succeeds through the link, Luminous sends a "Payment Successful" email to the address the customer entered on the payment form. The email is sent by Luminous using your company name (taken from your System Settings) as the sender identifier. It contains:
- The invoice number that was paid
- The amount paid
- The payment date and time
- A transaction reference number from Authorize.net
There is no separate configuration step required — the confirmation email fires automatically on every successful link payment.
3. Enabling the B2B portal credit-card form
The credit-card form at B2B portal checkout is controlled by a separate toggle from the standalone payment link above.
Step-by-step
- Go to Settings → B2B Portal.
- Open the Cart & Checkout tab.
- Scroll to the Cart & checkout permissions section.
- Turn on Allow no-payment checkouts.
- This toggle must be on for the next row to appear.
- The Show credit-card form toggle now appears directly below it. Turn it on.
- Click Save Settings.
Why is "Show credit-card form" hidden?
The "Show credit-card form" row is intentionally invisible until "Allow no-payment checkouts" is enabled. Once you enable the prerequisite, the credit-card row appears immediately in the same settings panel.
Quick checklist
| Step | Where |
|---|---|
| Configure Authorize.net credentials | Settings → General → Payment Gateway |
| Turn on Allow no-payment checkouts | B2B Portal → Cart & Checkout tab |
| Turn on Show credit-card form | B2B Portal → Cart & Checkout tab (visible only after step above) |
| Click Save Settings | Same page |
Once all three conditions are met, buyers will see the credit-card entry section during B2B portal checkout.
Summary
| Feature | Where to configure |
|---|---|
| Auto-generate payment links on invoice create/update | Settings → Invoicing → Invoice Emails section |
| Payment gateway (Authorize.net credentials) | Settings → General → Payment Gateway |
| B2B portal credit-card form | Settings → B2B Portal → Cart & Checkout tab |
| Payment confirmation email | Automatic — no configuration needed |