Setting Up Direct Pay on Leaf Trade
Process payments faster and more securely directly through Leaf Trade. Direct Pay uses ACH bank transfers via Plaid — eliminating the need for cash or check and giving you full visibility into every transaction.
Note: Direct Pay must be enabled on your account before setup. Contact your Leaf Trade Customer Success Manager to get started. |
Why use Direct Pay?
Direct Pay is available at no additional cost and gives your team:
Benefit | What it means for you |
Predictable payments | All transactions enter your bank account within one business day — no more waiting for payments in transit. |
Easy reconciliations | Automatically track and reconcile every payment in a centralized platform, saving time and reducing manual data entry. |
Safety and reliability | Transactions are backed by trusted financial institutions — no worrying about collections or funds lost in transit. |
Centralized accounts receivable | Reduce repetitive AR tasks and keep track of all payments from buyers through a single dashboard. |
Cost savings | Eliminate check deposit expenses by switching from cash or check to direct ACH through Leaf Trade. |
Setting up Direct Pay — Sellers
Follow these steps once your account has been enabled with Direct Pay.
Step 1 — Set user permissions
Non-admin users need Payment Account permissions enabled before they can access the setup screens.
Navigate to Admin → Users.
Select the user you want to give access to and click to edit their profile.
Select the Permissions tab. (Note: this tab only appears for non-admin users.)
Scroll down to Payment Accounts and check both checkboxes.
Click Save. This user can now access the Payment Accounts screen.
Admin users can skip this step — admins have access to Payment Accounts by default. |
Step 2 — Navigate to Payment Accounts and accept the terms of service
Navigate to Payments → Payment Accounts in the sidebar.
The first time anyone at your organization visits this page, the Direct Pay Terms of Service will appear.
Scroll to the bottom of the modal and check the box confirming you have read the terms.
Click Accept to proceed.
Important: The terms of service must be accepted by an authorized representative of your organization before Direct Pay can be used. |
Step 3 — Link a bank account via Plaid
On the Payment Accounts screen, click Add Account.
The Plaid modal will open. Follow all prompts to select and link a bank account.
After adding the account, it will appear on the Tokens tab.
If you see "Validating, please wait…" wait a few seconds and refresh the page.
Step 4 — Associate accounts to locations
Once your bank account is validated, click the Locations tab.
For each vendor location, select the appropriate bank account from the dropdown.
Once set, that account will automatically be used for all orders made from that location.
You can update which account is assigned to a location at any time. Note that orders already created using the original account will need to be updated manually. |
Step 5 — Configure customer settings
You can control Direct Pay settings per customer from the customer management page.
Navigate to Customers → Management.
Find the customer you want to configure and open their record.
Here you can set the following per customer:
Basis Date — the date payment terms are applied to (e.g. "Upon Delivery" means terms count from the delivery date).
Payment Terms — the number of business days from the basis date before payment is due (e.g. Net 15).
Billing Status — whether this customer is current on payments.
Payment Status — whether this customer is required to use Direct Pay. If set to off, their orders will not be processed via Direct Pay.
These settings apply to all locations under a customer — they cannot be set per individual location. |
How orders work with Direct Pay
Placing orders
Once everything is configured, orders for Direct Pay customers will automatically use the correct linked bank account for payment. No additional steps are required at the time of ordering.
If a customer hasn't set up their payment account
If a retailer has not yet configured a payment account in Plaid and Direct Pay is required on your storefront:
They will see a banner on your storefront prompting them to add a payment account.
They can create a cart and reach the checkout screen, but they will not be able to place the order.
If you attempt to create an order on their behalf, you will receive an error indicating the customer has not configured a payment account.
Payment processing
An order must be in Completed status before it is eligible for payment processing.
Leaf Trade submits payments for processing at 3PM CST on the payment due date.
Orders completed after 3PM CST on the due date will be submitted for processing the following business day.
Payment notifications
Automated email notifications are sent to the Accounting Contact for both the payer and payee organizations when:
A payment is submitted for processing.
A payment has been successfully processed.
Make sure your Accounting Contact information is up to date in your account settings so payment notifications reach the right person. |
Need help?
If you have questions about Direct Pay or need to get your account enabled, reach out to your Leaf Trade Customer Success Manager or contact our support team via the Intercom chat in the bottom right corner of your Leaf Trade window.