System Overview

This section describes the overall types of information stored in Bill & Pay that can be inserted, updated, and retrieved through the Web API.

Customers Customer information includes full contact information as well as current account balance dollar amount.

Invoices Invoices are bills that are sent to customers for money they owe the business and which customers can pay electronically online.

Invoice Attachments Attachments allow additional files to be attached to invoices stored in Bill & Pay. Attachments are then available for the customer to see and download through the secure customer website.

Transactions Transactions are electronic payments made by or on behalf of a customer using Bill & Pay. Transactions are made using either ACH (checking or savings account) or a credit card. Transactions will also have a payment record once the transaction credit has been synchronized with the biller's account system.

Payments Payments are credit records for payments that a customer has made on their account. Payments can be attached to a transaction or also be a payment recorded through some other means in the biller's account system.

There are three Bill & Pay products that can be used with the Web API:

Easy Invoice Easy Invoice is a web-based accounts receivable system built into Bill & Pay. It does not synchronize with an external accounting product. Instead, biller's create their customers and invoices using the Bill & Pay web site. The Web API can be used to add, update, and delete customers and invoices when the biller is using the Easy Invoice product.

QuickBooks Customers and invoices are synchronized from QuickBooks into Bill & Pay. With this product, QuickBooks is the only source of new customers and invoices being added to the biller's Bill & Pay account. Therefore, the Web API does not allow customers and invoices to be added, updated, or deleted in biller accounts using the QuickBooks product. Some portions of the Web API allow adding and updating of information that is not contained in QuickBooks such as invoice attachments. The Web API can also be used to read customer and invoice information from Bill & Pay that has been synchronized from the biller's QuickBooks.

Payment Portal Bill & Pay is used to present a Make a Payment web page to the customer and the payment is processed. The biller's web server needs to create the payment session by making API calls to Bill & Pay and then redirecting their customer to the Bill & Pay web site. Bill & Pay will make calls back to the biller's web server to notify them of events related to the payment.

Third-party developers can also access the API through a special developer class. See the next article "Developers & Apps" for more details.

Customers	Customer information includes full contact information as well as current account balance dollar amount.
Invoices	Invoices are bills that are sent to customers for money they owe the business and which customers can pay electronically online.
Invoice Attachments	Attachments allow additional files to be attached to invoices stored in Bill & Pay. Attachments are then available for the customer to see and download through the secure customer website.
Transactions	Transactions are electronic payments made by or on behalf of a customer using Bill & Pay. Transactions are made using either ACH (checking or savings account) or a credit card. Transactions will also have a payment record once the transaction credit has been synchronized with the biller's account system.
Payments	Payments are credit records for payments that a customer has made on their account. Payments can be attached to a transaction or also be a payment recorded through some other means in the biller's account system.

Easy Invoice	Easy Invoice is a web-based accounts receivable system built into Bill & Pay. It does not synchronize with an external accounting product. Instead, biller's create their customers and invoices using the Bill & Pay web site. The Web API can be used to add, update, and delete customers and invoices when the biller is using the Easy Invoice product.
QuickBooks	Customers and invoices are synchronized from QuickBooks into Bill & Pay. With this product, QuickBooks is the only source of new customers and invoices being added to the biller's Bill & Pay account. Therefore, the Web API does not allow customers and invoices to be added, updated, or deleted in biller accounts using the QuickBooks product. Some portions of the Web API allow adding and updating of information that is not contained in QuickBooks such as invoice attachments. The Web API can also be used to read customer and invoice information from Bill & Pay that has been synchronized from the biller's QuickBooks.
Payment Portal	Bill & Pay is used to present a Make a Payment web page to the customer and the payment is processed. The biller's web server needs to create the payment session by making API calls to Bill & Pay and then redirecting their customer to the Bill & Pay web site. Bill & Pay will make calls back to the biller's web server to notify them of events related to the payment.