This guide is for course providers who want customers to book in Cademy but pay outside it, for example by bank transfer, cash or an invoice from another system. The payment method is called Manual Payment Handling / External Invoicing.
A System Admin sets up the account’s payment method. A System Admin or Course Owner can enable it on a course they can edit. Enabling the account feature requires the Pro plan or a higher plan. On a lower plan the switch cannot be changed and a Cademy Pro Feature badge is shown above it. See Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees.
This is different from External Bookings, which sends customers to another booking website. Manual payment keeps checkout in Cademy. For an external booking destination instead, see Send Course Bookings to an External Website.
Understand booking, approval and payment
With manual payment, the customer submits the booking without Cademy collecting the outstanding amount online. You arrange collection separately and record money actually received against the correct Cademy invoice.
An order is the purchase record. A registration is a participant’s place on a course. Approval is your decision to accept the order; it is not evidence that the customer has paid.
Manual payment does not always mean immediate confirmation. If Require Admin Approval for Manual Orders is enabled, or a selected course requires approval, the order waits for approval. The course-access setting does not bypass that requirement.
An order with money still due can show Awaiting Payment even after approval. Check the approval, payment balance and participant registration separately. A confirmation email alone does not prove payment or access.
Set up the account payment method
Open the Admin Dashboard as a System Admin. Select Settings, then Payments.
Expand Manual Payment Handling / External Invoicing.
Turn on Enable as a payment method on checkouts, if the account’s plan permits it.
Set Require Admin Approval for Manual Orders according to whether these orders must wait for your approval.
Set Allow course access before manual payment is marked paid. This controls payment-related access, not approval or other course restrictions. The switch is shown on even when it has never been saved. If you want access before payment and have never changed this switch, turn it off and then on again here, so that Save in step 7 stores it.
Enter the customer-facing payment method name in Label, and payment instructions in Notice.
Select Save beneath this section. Reopen the section and check the saved settings.
Choose the access setting deliberately. Cademy has one such setting for each of two payment methods. Allow course access before manual payment is marked paid is in this section. Allow Course Access Before Invoice Is Paid is under Invoices & Receipts on the same page, shown when invoice payment at checkout is enabled, and applies to orders paid by invoice. The manual-payment switch is shown on until you turn it off. The invoice switch is off until you turn it on.
Cademy reads the manual-payment setting when the order is placed, or when you approve it if it waits for approval. If the switch is on and has been saved at that moment, learners on the approved order can open course content while the order is unpaid, for as long as the switch stays on. Otherwise they wait until the order’s payment status is Paid or Partially Refunded.
A switch that only shows on is not enough. For new orders, Cademy allows access before payment only after you have changed this switch yourself and saved it. If you have never changed it, follow step 5 above. Saving the switch does not change orders that were placed without needing approval, or that you approved, before you saved it. Learners on those orders still wait until the order’s payment status is Paid.
Do not rely on a part payment to open or keep access. If you record only part of the amount and a learner on that order cannot open lessons, contact Cademy Support and give the order number.
Other conditions still apply, including the learner having an active registration and access not having expired. An admin’s ability to preview a course is not proof of the learner’s access.
Enable it on the course
In the Admin Dashboard, select Courses and open the intended course.
Select Edit Course, then Settings, then Payments.
Under Payment Methods, select Manual Payment Handling. Keep any other methods you want to offer selected.
Select Save at the top of the course editor. Reopen Settings > Payments and check that Manual Payment Handling remains selected.
The account method must be enabled and the course must allow it. For a checkout containing several courses, check every selected course. The manual option is not offered for deposit or monthly-instalment payment plans, which use their own online-payment flow.
If the option is missing, check the account setting and plan first, then the course’s Payment Methods. Do not switch on a different method simply to make checkout continue.
Explain what the customer sees
At checkout, customers choose the payment method using your Label and see your Notice. The button is Confirm Booking, not a button that collects the external payment. If Label is empty, the default is In-person Payment; if Notice is empty, the form says Pay the organizer on the day. Enter your own text if those defaults do not match your process.
Approval-required orders wait for approval. Orders that do not require approval follow the manual booking-confirmation process, but a queued email does not prove delivery. Ask customers to follow your payment instructions and keep their order reference.
An order placed with this payment method is a manual-payment order from the moment the customer books. The checkout confirmation has no Download Invoice or Download Receipt button. The customer’s order page in their account does not show its INVOICES section, so Download PDF and Pay Invoice are not there, before or after you record the payment. If the customer needs the invoice, open the order, expand Invoices & Payments, open the issued invoice’s More menu, select Download PDF and send them the file yourself.
This is not a guarantee that an invoice can never be opened: later-issued split invoices and deliberately shared invoice or payment links are separate routes. Do not describe manual payment as a privacy control for invoice records.
If a learner cannot open course content, check the order’s approval and payment information, the participant’s registration and its access expiry. If these do not explain it, contact Cademy Support with the order reference, course, learner and the message shown. Do not record money that has not arrived merely to unlock access.
While a learner waits, the Content page and each lesson show one of two messages. Your Place Is Awaiting Approval is shown while the learner’s place is not yet active. That includes an approved order that is waiting for payment, although the message speaks only of approval, so tell customers who ask that it can mean the payment has not been recorded yet. Please Complete Payment is shown when the place is already active but the payment condition is not met, for example after you turn the access setting off for orders that were placed while it was on.
Know which emails can be sent
When a customer books with manual payment and the order does not need approval, Cademy starts the booking confirmation email to the Order Contact, the customer the order belongs to, at once. This does not depend on the access setting. The people in your team who receive order notifications get an email whose subject starts “New order from”. If the order needs approval, the Order Contact first gets an email headed Your order is being processed, and your team gets one whose subject starts “New order request from”. The booking confirmation and the “New order from” email follow when you approve the order. Orders you create yourself also depend on the confirmation choice made when creating them.
The ordinary initial invoice-payment request is not sent just because an order uses manual payment. That does not make the entire order silent. Course emails, staff notifications, deliberate sends and later invoice events have their own rules. When an order that a customer placed with manual payment is later marked paid, Cademy does not send the booking confirmation again, and your team does not get the email with a subject starting “Order paid” that an invoice order produces.
Do not promise that recording a payment or selecting Mark as Paid can never send an email. Check the order’s existing payment arrangement and relevant email history. Those actions are not a way to disable customer communications.
If an order uses A Separate Invoice for Each Course, later draft invoices can be issued on their scheduled dates. Issuing a later draft starts an invoice email to the Order Contact, with a copy to the saved billing email where supplied. Issue Now also starts that email process. See Split or Schedule Invoices for an Order before changing the schedule.
Turning automatic payment links off does not stop that invoice email or remove its invoice link. Its standard Pay Now button depends on payment links and an enabled online payment method. Overdue reminders are a separate setting. See Set Up and Manage Invoices and Receipts.
Using one invoice avoids the later split-invoice issuing events, but it is not an all-emails-off setting. To inspect actual messages and delivery status, use View Email History for Contacts, Team Members, Orders and Registrations.
Record the payment when it arrives
The following Orders route is for a System Admin. If you are a Course Owner without that role, give a System Admin the order reference and confirmed payment details. Manual orders have internal invoice records even when the ordinary customer invoice controls are hidden. Check the correct invoice on the order before recording a receipt, especially where there are several invoices.
As a System Admin, select Orders in the Admin Dashboard, open the order and expand Invoices & Payments.
Check the invoice number, amount due and any payments already recorded. Confirm the money has actually arrived in your bank, cash records or external system.
For an issued invoice with money due, select its More menu, then Record Payment, to enter the amount and the actual receipt date. For the complete route, confirmation and multi-invoice precautions, follow Request a Payment or Record Money Received Elsewhere.
After recording, check that invoice’s payment entry and remaining balance. Check the order’s overall payment information separately.
Mark as Paid records the outstanding amount using today’s date. It is not a bank-transfer request and does not move money into your account. For a historical payment, use Record Payment with the actual date. If the invoice is still a draft, follow the issuing guidance first and account for its email consequences.
If Cademy’s balance does not match your records, check for a payment already recorded and the correct invoice before retrying. Ask Support with the order/invoice references if the result remains unclear; do not record the same receipt twice.
Where Xero is connected, eligible issued invoices can sync under the integration’s rules. Draft or void invoices are not ordinary sync candidates, and a Cademy order existing does not prove successful Xero sync. Check the invoice’s Xero record rather than assuming every manual order has synced.
Create an externally paid booking yourself
As a System Admin, for a phone booking or another order you enter yourself, use Create an Order and Request Payment for the complete creation steps. Course Owners without that role should ask a System Admin to create it.
For money you will collect later outside Cademy, set Payment Status to To be paid and leave Send payment request off. Choose the confirmation-email option deliberately. Check the invoice schedule before creating the order. With these choices, on a priced order with no payment plan, the final button reads Create Order. An order you create does not wait for approval. It is a manual-payment order, so the access setting described above applies to it, and the customer’s order page hides the INVOICES section in the same way.
Do not mark the order paid merely because you have sent an external invoice. Record payment only after it arrives. The confirmation option at creation is not a switch that disables all future emails.
Write clear payment instructions
Choose a Label customers recognise, such as Pay by Bank Transfer or Pay on Arrival. Use Notice to say how to pay, when payment is due, what reference to use, and whether approval or payment is needed before course access.
For example, if your process is bank transfer after an external invoice and access waits for payment: “We will send our invoice separately. Pay using the bank details and reference on that invoice. Approval and full payment are required before course access.” Use this only if it matches your actual process and settings. Other registration and access restrictions still apply.
Do not include bank details or invoice timelines you have not checked. A Notice explains your process; it does not create an external invoice or check your bank account.
Frequently asked questions
Does Confirm Booking collect the payment?
No. With manual payment, you collect the outstanding amount outside Cademy and record it after it arrives.
Is every manual booking confirmed immediately?
No. Account or course approval requirements can hold it for approval. Payment and access conditions are separate.
Why can I not see Manual Payment Handling on a course?
Check that the account’s plan includes the feature and the account payment method is enabled. Then check the course’s Payment Methods. Deposit and monthly-instalment checkout plans do not offer manual payment.
Can a customer ever open a Cademy invoice for a manual order?
Yes. Although the ordinary manual-order invoice controls are hidden, later-issued invoice emails and deliberately shared links are separate routes. Do not assume the invoice is private.
Does One Invoice for the Whole Order stop every email?
No. It avoids later split-invoice issuing events, not confirmations, course emails, staff notifications or deliberate sends.
Does recording a payment check my bank account?
No. Confirm receipt in your external records first. Recording the payment updates Cademy; it does not verify or collect the transfer.