Recording Client-Reported Payments

Most travel agencies take payment outside of card processors — Zelle, wire transfer, check, ACH — and the client tells the advisor when they've sent it. JourneyFuse closes that loop directly inside the portal: clients submit a "Record a payment" form with the amount, method, date, and a note, and the agent gets an email so they can verify against their bank and confirm.

Until the agent confirms, the payment shows as pending. Nothing gets credited to the trip balance until then.

What the Client Sees

On the portal trip page, below the traveler completion banner, there's a card:

Record a payment — Sent us a check, Zelle, or wire? Log it here and your advisor will confirm once funds arrive.

Tapping it opens a dialog:

• Amount (USD) — defaults to the current balance due if any
• Method — Zelle / Venmo / Wire transfer / ACH / Check / Cash / Other
• Date sent — defaults to today
• Notes (optional) — reference number, confirmation, etc.

When the client submits, JourneyFuse:

1. Creates a payments row attached to the trip with status='pending' and the client's info appended to the notes.
2. Auto-links the payment to the trip's open invoice if there's exactly one (otherwise leaves invoice_id empty for the agent to assign).
3. Emails the assigned advisor with the amount, method, date, and note.
4. Returns the client to a "Thanks — payment recorded" confirmation screen.

What the Agent Does

Two paths:

• Quick confirm from email — the notification email contains the trip name and amount. Open the trip's Payments tab, find the pending row, and mark it paid once the bank confirms.
• Bulk reconcile — at the end of the day, sort all pending payments by date and confirm what cleared.

The payment doesn't credit the trip balance until you change its status to paid. That's deliberate — too many agencies have been burned by a client claiming to have sent funds that never actually arrived.

Why "Pending" Is the Default (Not "Paid")

We talked to ten host agencies before building this. The unanimous request was "do not auto-credit." The cost of a false-positive (crediting a payment that didn't actually arrive, then the client thinks they're paid in full when they aren't) is much higher than the cost of a 24-hour confirmation step. The flow is built around your bank, not around the client.

Surfacing What's Pending

Pending client-reported payments show up in two places:

1. The trip's Payments tab — same row as any other payment, just with a pending status badge.
2. The Client Portal Tasks widget on the dashboard — counted in the "Payments" category if the due date is within the next 30 days (so urgent ones stay visible).

What This Doesn't Do (Yet)

• Auto-charge a saved card. Today the portal supports card authorization (we capture a card on file) but doesn't trigger a charge from the client side. The client-reported flow is the right one for Zelle/check/wire — for card-on-file charging, the agent triggers it from inside the app.
• Photo/screenshot upload. If you need clients to attach a Zelle confirmation screenshot, ask them to email it after submitting the record — or send them a form designed for it.
• Automatic bank reconciliation. We don't yet connect to your bank to verify the deposit landed. That's manual today.

FAQ

Can the client edit a payment they already recorded? No. Once submitted, only the agent can edit or delete. If the client made a typo, they can submit a new one and tell you about it in a note.

Does the client see all payments on the trip? Yes — the existing Payments panel on the portal already showed payment history. The new "Record a payment" card is a separate action.

What if the trip has multiple open invoices? The auto-link logic only fires when there's exactly one open invoice. Multi-invoice trips: the payment gets created without an invoice_id and the agent picks the right one when confirming.

Does the agent get notified for every record? Yes — every client-reported payment triggers an email to the trip's assigned agent. If you'd rather batch them, contact us — a "digest at 5pm" option is a small build.

Can clients use this to claim discounts / promo codes / credits? No — this is for recording money you actually received. For credits, run them through your invoicing flow.