We are bringing the debtor management experience into OnboardMe so your team, and your clients, stay on one platform tied to the bills you already raise. More control, more time to get back.
When your firm opts in to the new automated payments in OnboardMe, you get a single place to look after debtors: who owes what, what will be collected, what was paid, and how it lands in Xero. You no longer need to split your day between OnboardMe and the Pinch Merchant Portal just to understand collections and cash in the bank.
This is optional. Firms that do not turn on automated payments keep billing in OnboardMe as you do today. Firms that do opt in get the full debtor workflow built in: saved payment methods, scheduled collections, client emails, statements, settlements, and Xero reconciliation, without a second login for day-to-day collections work.
For firms using Apxium Payments, no changes occur to how the Apxium integration works.
Why firms asked for this
Most firms already live in OnboardMe for proposals, onboarding, and bills, and in Xero for the ledger. Collections used to sit elsewhere: the Pinch merchant portal for transfers and failures, spreadsheets for follow-ups, and manual matching when money hits the bank. That made it hard to answer simple questions: Will this client pay on the due date? Did the debit fail? Is this settlement reconciled?
This will be available from 01/10/2026, for early access now please email [email protected].
One platform instead of two
After you opt in to automated payments, Bills & Payments becomes your collections HQ:
See every bill, what is due, and whether a card or bank account is on file.
View scheduled payments before they run, pause or release them, and deal with failures in context (client name, bill, amount).
Review payments taken and drill into attempts, receipts, and linked invoices.
Open settlements when the money hits your bank account, with lines matched back to OnboardMe payments.
Pinch still powers the actual debits and card processing behind the scenes. What changes is that you manage debtors in OnboardMe. The Pinch Merchant Portal remains available if you prefer to use it, but routine debtor work should not require switching products.
Built for Xero from the start
Opting in works best with Xero Ledger connected. Bills, branding themes, and invoice status stay aligned with what you expect:
Collect on due date from the client's saved method, with automated marking of the invoice paid in Xero when payment succeeds.
Sync Unpaid Invoices from Xero and let OnboardMe automate reminders and use payment methods collected from customers to reduce outstanding debtors.
Branding themes give you control over which debtors are enrolled automatically, which clients receive payment emails, and when they receive them.
Settlements reconcile into Xero: Clearing account, fees, and the bank deposit tied to the transfer you see in OnboardMe, with statuses when something needs attention.
Your ledger and your collections live in one place: raise and sync bills in OnboardMe, collect and reconcile without exporting lists between systems.
A better experience for clients
Clients already use OnboardMe for entering payment details and paying upfront. With automated payments opted in, that experience extends naturally:
Clear emails when a payment is scheduled, coming up, or received (you choose which types to send).
Gentle prompts to add a payment method when a bill is unpaid and nothing is on file.
Pay Now links that take customers directly to the OnboardMe customer portal where all outstanding invoices live.
Unpaid invoice reminders for overdue bills, respecting your rules and each bill's branding theme.
Statements for period summaries (activity or open items), sent from OnboardMe with optional Pay Now when something is still owing.
Payment plans let clients spread their balance across instalments, collected automatically using the same payment rails as one-off debits.
Fewer "please call the office" moments; more self-service that matches the bill they see in the portal.
What your team gains day to day
Before money moves, the Scheduled queue shows what will run, what you put on hold, and what will not collect (and why): wrong theme, no method, outside your catch-up window, and similar. Catch-up for recent overdue bills can be configured so you still get a day to review before debits go out.
When something fails, you see it on the bill and in the queue, clients get a portal link to fix their details, and you can receive a daily summary of failures instead of discovering them in a separate merchant report.
On each bill, a Reminders view shows whether overdue reminders are active, what was sent, and what is next, so client facing staff are not guessing.
After money lands, settlements tie provider transfers to your Xero bank account reconciliation path, so bookkeepers are not manually matching batches from a CSV export.
How you opt in
Automated payments are off until you turn them on under Settings > Payments. The setup walks you through collection rules, which Xero branding themes to include, your settlement bank account, and which emails to send. Saving activates collection and reconciliation from that point forward (earlier settlements stay historical only).
You’ll still need an approved OnboardMe Payments connection with Pinch Payments. Xero Ledger is strongly recommended for mark-paid updates and settlement reconciliation. Without it, you can still create bills and collect payments in OnboardMe, but the full “single platform with Xero” experience is designed for firms with the connection enabled.
What stays the same
Creating bills, recurring schedules, and template bills in OnboardMe.
Choosing not to opt in: no automatic debits, no settlement reconciliation workflow in OnboardMe, the Pinch Merchant portal continues to work as before.
This will be available from 01/10/2026, for early access now please email [email protected].
Client Subscriptions with Payments
Client subscriptions work with the new OnboardMe Payments seamlessly. We've just simplified the payment management process within one platform.
Surcharging Ban Update
If you have been watching the news about Australia's card surcharge changes, you are probably wondering what it means for your business. From 1 October 2026, businesses will no longer be able to surcharge card payments. The Reserve Bank of Australia concluded that surcharging no longer works as intended and has agreed to allow card networks to enforce no-surcharge rules from that date.
Surcharging functionality for Australian customers will be disabled automatically from 1 October; no changes are required from your end.
Keep an eye out for updates to your payment rates when using OnboardMe.
Learn more
We will publish step-by-step guides when automated payments are generally available. Until then, this page describes the experience your firm can opt into.
Still need help?
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