Manual Payment Handling lets customers complete checkout without paying through Cademy - you collect the payment yourself, by bank transfer, external invoice, on arrival, or however suits your business. Confirmation is immediate; course access depends on your settings.
Manual Payment Handling is available on Pro plans and higher.
How it works
Bookings are confirmed at checkout with no payment collected in Cademy.
You collect payment externally, then record it in Cademy so the order shows as paid.
The payment status in Cademy is for your tracking; changing it sends no emails.
Whether customers can access course content before you mark them paid is controlled by a single account-level toggle.
Setting it up
Account level - go to Settings → Payments → Manual Payment Handling / External Invoicing:
Enable it for checkout.
Choose whether to Allow course access before manual payment is marked paid. Enabled (the default), customers get access immediately after checkout even while the status is Awaiting Payment; disabled, they're confirmed but can't open course content until you mark them Paid.
Set the checkout label customers will see - for example "Pay by Bank Transfer", "External Invoice", or "Pay on Arrival".
Add a checkout notice explaining what happens next - bank details, invoicing timelines, or payment instructions.
Course level - go to the course → Settings → Payments and enable it in the Payment Methods section. It can be the only payment method on a course or offered alongside card and Invoice. Both levels must be enabled for it to appear at checkout; the access toggle exists only at account level.
What the customer sees
At checkout, customers see your configured label and notice. The button says Confirm Booking rather than Pay Now, because the checkout confirms the booking - no payment is collected. They receive a confirmation email immediately.
If access before payment is allowed, they can open course content straight away. If not, the content shows an awaiting-payment notice until you mark them Paid - with no View Invoice or Pay Now buttons. Customers are not shown a Cademy invoice and have no invoice or receipt download for manual payments.
Which emails are sent - and the one exception
For manual orders, Cademy stays quiet by design:
A confirmation email is sent immediately at checkout (and for admin-created orders when you enable the confirmation toggle).
No payment request email is sent at creation.
Marking an order or invoice as Paid, or recording a payment, sends nothing.
There is one exception: multi-course orders using A Separate Invoice for Each Course. On those orders, later course invoices are issued automatically as each course approaches - and when a later invoice issues, the customer is emailed a payment-required email with its payment link. Overdue reminders can also apply to those invoices (per your Overdue Payments Reminder Emails setting).
If you want a manual order to stay completely silent, keep it on One Invoice for the Whole Order - you can set this per order when creating it, whatever your account default.
Invoices and payments in the admin area
Manual orders show Payment method: Manual with status Awaiting Payment by default. Although the customer never sees a Cademy invoice, the order has internal invoice records in your billing area, so it appears in the Invoices tab and syncs to Xero like any other order.
When the money arrives:
Record Payment - records the amount against the invoice (prefilled with its outstanding balance), with the date you received it. Partial amounts set the invoice to Partially Paid.
Mark as Paid - settles everything in one click; draft invoices are issued silently first, then settled.
Neither sends the customer any email.
Creating manual orders yourself
To create a manual order from the admin - a phone booking you'll invoice externally, for example - create the order as usual, set Payment Status to To be paid, leave Send payment request off, and choose whether to send the confirmation email. The customer gets the confirmation (if enabled) and nothing else; access follows the account-level toggle. See the guide to creating orders manually for the full flow.
Best practices for labels and notices
Use a label that matches how you actually collect payment.
Use the notice to explain exactly what happens next: bank details, when your invoice will arrive, or pay-on-arrival instructions.
Say whether access is immediate or comes after payment, so customers aren't surprised.
Frequently asked questions
Can customers see or download a Cademy invoice? No - with manual payment handling, no Cademy invoice is shown to the customer and there's no download option. The invoice records exist only in your admin area.
Why does the booking show "Awaiting Payment"? The status is for your internal tracking. The same status labels are used across payment methods, but email behaviour depends on the payment method - a manual order in Awaiting Payment emails nothing, while an Invoice-method order does.
If I change the status to Paid later, is another email sent? No. For manual orders, marking as paid sends nothing. (Invoice-method orders are different: they follow a pay-then-confirm flow, so marking those paid does email the customer.)
Does it work with external accounting systems? Yes - it's designed for external invoicing workflows, and the internal invoice records mean the order still syncs to Xero if you use the integration.