Client payments

Setting Up Payouts

Before a client can pay you, connect a payout account:

1. Log in to your Bridge dashboard
2. Go to Settings → Payout settings
3. Click "Set up payouts" and complete Stripe's onboarding
4. Come back when Stripe has verified you — the row then reads "Payouts connected"

Until that is done, a client who tries to pay is told the designer has not set up payments yet. The same page lets you set what your client sees on the Stripe payment page; leave it blank and Stripe uses whatever you gave it during setup.

Pricing a Task

A task is priced in dollars from its detail panel: type the amount in the "Price" field and click "Save". You can also set a price as you create a task — the "New task" form has an optional price field.

The price is always yours to set. A client raising a request through the widget or the portal can describe the work, but never puts a number on it.

Fixed and Hourly Billing

A task can be flat-priced, timed, or both — they are not modes you have to choose between up front:

• Fixed: agree a figure and type it into the price field
• Hourly: run the task timer while you work, then click "Apply" to price the task from the time logged at your hourly rate

Your hourly rate comes from the project if it has one of its own, and otherwise from the default rate on your account under Settings → Payout settings. Turning time into money is always an explicit click, so a running timer can never quietly change what a client owes.

Requesting Payment

Pricing a task is not the same as asking to be paid for it. Until you click "Request payment" in the task's detail panel, your client sees the amount as an estimate rather than something outstanding. Requesting payment is what turns it into a bill and gives them a way to settle it.

How Your Client Pays

Your client can pay from either side of Bridge:

• In the widget: the Tasks tab shows a "Pay" button with the amount on any priced task you have requested payment for
• In the client portal: the same button sits on the task

Either one opens a Stripe checkout page for that task, which handles the card details — they never pass through Bridge. Tasks are paid one at a time, and each one shows whether it is paid or unpaid.

After the Payment

Bridge checks the payment with Stripe as your client comes back from checkout, and marks the task paid once Stripe confirms it — you and your client both see it as paid from then on. The money goes to the Stripe account you connected, and payouts to your bank follow Stripe's own schedule. Bridge takes 2% of what your client pays you on Link and Connect, and 1% on Atlas. Stripe's own processing fee comes out of the payment as well.

Tip: Price the work while the task is still fresh and request payment when you mark it resolved. Your client then has the description, your replies and the amount in one place, which is a great deal easier to say yes to than an invoice that arrives weeks later.