Payments for contractors
Getting paid should be the easy part.
The job’s done, the customer’s happy — and now you’re chasing a check. Texting “just following up on that invoice.” Driving back across town for a deposit. For work this big, getting paid is somehow the most awkward part of the job.
Plinth makes paying a big-ticket job as easy as paying for lunch: a deposit up front, the balance when the work’s done — card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or bank — landing straight in your own account.
Included in every Plinth plan — not a separate payments tool to buy.
How a job gets paid
From quote to paid, without the chase
You send the quote
The customer gets it by text, in the same conversation they've had with your business since their first message — not an invoice email headed for spam.
They tap to pay the deposit
A couple of taps on their own phone — card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or bank transfer. No app to download, no account to create, no check to write.
The balance follows the work
When the job's done, they pay the rest the same way. And if they're slow, Plinth sends the polite reminder — so you never have to text “just following up on that invoice” again.
Built for big-ticket work
Made for $8,000 jobs, not coffee shops
Generic payment tools are built for small, instant purchases. Trade work is different: a deposit to lock the job, a balance tied to finished work, and totals big enough that how you ask matters. Plinth’s payments are built around that reality.
Deposits that lock the job in
Ask for the deposit the moment the quote is accepted — while the yes is fresh. A paid deposit is a customer who doesn't shop the other bids.
Pay-by-text, not invoice-by-email
The payment link rides the text thread the customer already trusts. No portal logins, no attachments, no “I never got the invoice.”
Bank transfer for the big totals
On four- and five-figure balances, customers can pay straight from the bank — easy for them, lower processing cost on the total for you.
Reminders you never send
Unpaid balances get an automatic, polite nudge. The awkward chasing — the part contractors hate most about getting paid — just stops being your job.
A clean record for your books
Every payment lands with a clear record you (or your bookkeeper) can reconcile — Plinth's numbers stay a subset of your processor's, never a competing total.
One system, not another login
Payments live in the same dashboard as your leads, conversations, and appointments — because they're the same job, start to finish.
Your money, your account
Plinth never holds your money.
Payments run through your own connected account, powered by Stripe — the same payment infrastructure behind millions of businesses. The funds land with you, not us. You share a small piece only on the jobs Plinth actually caused, and only after the customer pays — everything else is 100% yours.
Fees, plainly: standard card processing runs about 2.9% with any processor — that’s not a Plinth fee — and Plinth adds only a small (~0.4%) markup on payments run through us. See exactly what counts as a job we caused.
The part no payments tool does
The moment a job is paid, two things happen that a card processor can’t do: Plinth asks your customer for the Google review — at the exact moment they’re happiest — and the dollars land in your attribution dashboard, traced to the lead, the source, and the conversation that earned them. A processor takes a fee. Plinth’s payments feed the machine that wins your next job.
Fair questions
Straight answers about the money
Where does the money go when a customer pays?
Straight to your own account — Plinth never holds your money. Payments run through your own connected account, powered by Stripe, so the funds land with you, not us. Plinth's job is making the payment easy and recording what it proves — not sitting between you and your money.
Do my customers need an app or an account to pay?
No — just the link Plinth texts them. They open it on their own phone and pay in a couple of taps with a card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a bank transfer. If they can pay for lunch with their phone, they can pay you.
Do I need a card reader or any new hardware?
No — no reader, no terminal, nothing to carry. The customer pays from their own phone through the link. There's nothing to install and nothing for your crew to learn.
What does taking payments through Plinth cost?
There's no separate payments subscription — it's part of the one system, from $199/month. Standard card-processing fees (about 2.9% — the same with any processor) apply when a customer pays by card; that's not a Plinth fee, and Plinth adds only a small (~0.4%) markup on payments run through us. Jobs Plinth actually caused carry the small share, only once the customer pays — see exactly what counts at joinplinth.com/pricing.
I already invoice from QuickBooks or Jobber — does this replace that?
No — your books stay yours. Plinth collects the money from capture to paid, and every payment exports cleanly so your bookkeeping reconciles against your processor. Keep the tools that run your back office; Plinth handles the part where the customer actually pays.
Why take payments through the same system that answers my leads?
Because that's what makes the revenue provable. When the booking and the payment run through one system, every paid job traces back to the lead that started it — which marketing, which conversation, which dollar. A card processor takes a fee; Plinth's payments feed the proof of what actually made you money.
Win the job. Collect the deposit. Get paid the day it’s done.
And see exactly which leads the money came from — payments are one piece of the system that answers, books, collects, and proves.
Not ready for a demo? Drop your email and we’ll keep you posted.