Alternative Payments Invoicing

Alternative Payments Invoicing

Overview

Invoices are the billing records in Alternative Payments. Each invoice belongs to a customer, carries one or more line items, and has a due date. Once an invoice exists you can fetch a hosted payment link (a URL the customer visits to pay) and a PDF link (a signed download of the invoice document).

Separately, payment requests are standalone hosted payment links that are not tied to a stored invoice — useful for ad-hoc charges and follow-ups.

The key posture: hosted payment links and payment requests let the customer choose to pay. Generating a link does not charge a card or move money — it simply produces a URL. This integration never executes a direct charge. See Alternative Payments API Patterns for why POST /payments (direct charge) is excluded by design.

Anti-triggers

• The invoice as an accounting document — these invoices are collection artefacts with no GL coding, tax treatment, or aging; use xero-invoices or qbo-invoices.
• Whether the invoice was paid and where the money settled — use alternative-payments-payments.
• Charging a card or bank account directly — no such tool exists here by design; a hosted link is the only collection mechanism, and the reasoning is in alternative-payments-api-patterns.

Core Concepts

Invoice Status

Archiving uses DELETE /invoices/{id} and is destructive — confirm before running.

Hosted Links vs. Direct Charges

Field Reference

Invoice Fields

Line Item Fields

Payment Request Fields

API Patterns

All requests carry a bearer token (Authorization: Bearer <token>). See Alternative Payments API Patterns for the OAuth2 token flow, the 5 req/sec rate limit, and cursor pagination.

List Invoices

curl -s "https://public-api.alternativepayments.io/invoices?limit=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}"

Responses are cursor-paginated — items in data[], with next_cursor / has_more. Pass after=<cursor> for the next page.

Get a Single Invoice

curl -s "https://public-api.alternativepayments.io/invoices/${INVOICE_ID}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}"

Create an Invoice

Required: customer_id, currency, due_date, and a non-empty line_items[].

curl -s -X POST "https://public-api.alternativepayments.io/invoices" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "customer_id": "'${CUSTOMER_ID}'",
    "currency": "USD",
    "due_date": "2026-07-05",
    "reference": "June 2026 Managed Services",
    "line_items": [
      {
        "description": "Monthly Managed Services - Acme Corp (25 endpoints)",
        "quantity": 1,
        "unit_amount": 2500.00
      },
      {
        "description": "Microsoft 365 Business Premium (25 users)",
        "quantity": 25,
        "unit_amount": 22.00
      }
    ]
  }'

Get a Hosted Payment Link

Returns a URL the customer visits to pay the invoice. No charge occurs until the customer completes payment.

curl -s "https://public-api.alternativepayments.io/invoices/${INVOICE_ID}/payment-link" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}"

Get a Signed PDF Link

curl -s "https://public-api.alternativepayments.io/invoices/${INVOICE_ID}/pdf-link" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}"

Archive an Invoice (Destructive — Confirm First)

DELETE /invoices/{id} archives the invoice. Confirm with the operator before running it.

curl -s -X DELETE "https://public-api.alternativepayments.io/invoices/${INVOICE_ID}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}"

A 204 No Content indicates success.

Create a Hosted Payment Request

A standalone hosted link, not tied to a stored invoice. Required: amount, currency, redirect_url. The response includes a hosted URL — the customer chooses to pay; the integration does not charge them.

curl -s -X POST "https://public-api.alternativepayments.io/payments/request" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "amount": 2500.00,
    "currency": "USD",
    "redirect_url": "https://portal.example-msp.com/thanks",
    "reference_id": "MS-2026-06-ACME"
  }'

Get a Payment Request

curl -s "https://public-api.alternativepayments.io/payments/request/${REQUEST_ID}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}"

JavaScript Example

async function createInvoiceWithLink(token, invoice) {
  const base = 'https://public-api.alternativepayments.io';
  const headers = {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  };

  const createRes = await fetch(`${base}/invoices`, {
    method: 'POST', headers, body: JSON.stringify(invoice)
  });
  const createText = await createRes.text();
  if (!createRes.ok) throw new Error(`Create invoice failed (${createRes.status}): ${createText}`);
  const created = JSON.parse(createText);

  // Fetch a hosted link the customer can use to pay — no charge happens here.
  const linkRes = await fetch(`${base}/invoices/${created.id}/payment-link`, {
    headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}` }
  });
  const link = JSON.parse(await linkRes.text());
  return { invoice: created, paymentLink: link };
}

Common Workflows

Monthly MSP Billing Cycle

1. Create invoices for each managed services customer with their line items
2. Generate hosted payment links and email them to the customer's users
3. Track payment via read-only transactions (see Payments & Payouts)
4. Follow up on overdue invoices with a fresh payment link

Ad-hoc Charge Follow-up

When chasing an outstanding balance that isn't a formal invoice, create a payment request with the amount, currency, and a redirect_url, then send the hosted link. The customer pays at their discretion.

Error Handling

Common validation causes: empty line_items[], missing due_date, an unknown customer_id, or a missing redirect_url on a payment request.

Best Practices

1. Always include line items — line_items[] must be non-empty.
2. Use clear references — include the billing period and service in reference.
3. Send hosted links, not charges — let the customer pay via the payment link.
4. Set a reference_id on payment requests — makes reconciliation clean.
5. Confirm before archiving — DELETE is destructive.

Endpoint Reference

Related Skills

• Alternative Payments API Patterns - Auth, pagination, rate limits
• Alternative Payments Customers - Customers and their users
• Alternative Payments Payments & Payouts - Read-only transactions and payouts