What are manual payments?
Manual payments are for customers who do not use one of the integrated payment methods (like card, Vipps, or Klarna). Instead of Sesamy collecting the payment automatically, you handle the billing yourself - through your own invoice system, a bank transfer, a cash payment, or whatever works for your customer.
Sesamy still takes care of the scheduling. When it is time to charge a customer, Sesamy creates a manual bill and lets you know. You then send the bill to the customer using your own method, and mark it as paid in the portal once payment is received.
Manual payments work with both digital and print subscriptions. There is no difference in how they are handled.
Where to find manual payments.
In the Sesamy portal, go to Contracts in the main menu.
Click Manual payments.
You will see your manual bills grouped into tabs. Bills that need your attention appear first.
A red indicator with a count appears next to "Manual payments" in the menu whenever there are new bills that need handling. This is your signal to check in.
How manual bills are created.
You do not need to create manual bills yourself. Sesamy creates them automatically using the same scheduling system as other payment methods.
Recurring subscriptions generate a new manual bill at each billing interval (monthly, quarterly, yearly - whatever the product is configured for).
One-off or fixed-term subscriptions (like a 1-year subscription) generate a single manual bill.
This means that once a customer is set up with manual payment, the bills will keep appearing for you to handle - no need to remember when each one is due.
How to set up a customer with manual payment.
When creating a new contract in the portal, you choose "Manual" as the payment method. No extra setup is needed.
Go to Contracts and start the regular Create contract flow.
Fill in the customer details and choose your product as you normally would.
When you reach the payment method step, select Manual from the dropdown.
That is it. Sesamy will now create manual bills for this customer according to the product's billing schedule. The first bill will appear in your Manual payments view.
How to handle a manual bill.
Each manual bill goes through three stages: unsent, sent, and paid. You move bills through these stages as you handle them.
Step 1: Find your unsent bills.
Go to Contracts > Manual payments.
Look at the unsent tab. These are bills that are ready for you to send to your customers.
Each bill shows the customer information, the product, the amount, and the due date.
Step 2: Send the bill to your customer.
Send the bill using whatever method you prefer - your own invoicing system, email, post, or any other way. Sesamy does not set payment terms or due dates on manual bills, so you can set your own terms when you create the invoice or send the payment request.
Step 3: Mark the bill as sent.
Once you have sent the bill to your customer:
Find the bill in the unsent tab.
Click the actions dropdown in the top right of the bill.
Select Mark as sent.
The bill moves to the sent tab.
Step 4: Mark the bill as paid.
Once your customer has paid:
Go to the sent tab.
Find the bill and click the actions dropdown in the top right.
Select Mark as paid.
The bill moves to the paid tab. The customer's subscription stays active, and your records are up to date.
What happens if a bill is not marked as paid.
Sesamy handles unpaid manual bills the same way as other payment methods. By default, your customer gets a long grace period - their subscription will not be turned off straight away.
If the grace period expires without the bill being marked as paid, the bill status changes to expired and the customer's subscription is turned off.
Good to know: You can still mark an expired bill as paid after the fact. When you do, the customer's subscription turns back on again automatically.
If you want to adjust the length of the grace period, contact Sesamy support.
Grace periods are configured at the vendor level and our team will set this up for you.
Switching payment methods.
If a customer wants to switch away from manual payment to an integrated method like card or Vipps, they will usually need to do this themselves through "My Pages", since these payment methods require identity verification.
You can switch a customer to some other payment methods from the portal, but for most integrated methods the customer needs to handle the switch on their end.
Tips for keeping things running smoothly.
Check the red indicator regularly. When you see the red badge on "Manual payments" in the menu, new bills need your attention.
Always follow both steps: send, then mark as paid. Skipping the "mark as sent" step or forgetting to mark bills as paid will leave your records out of sync. This affects both your reporting and the customer's subscription status.
Do not let bills sit in "sent" for too long. If a customer has paid but you have not marked the bill, their subscription could eventually expire when the grace period runs out.
Need help? Contact Sesamy support if you have questions about manual payments or want to adjust your grace period settings.