Invoices concept
Last updated
Last updated
Crypto invoices are electronic bills issued by merchants to their customers for goods or services, with payment expected in cryptocurrency rather than traditional fiat currency. These invoices typically include details such as the amount due, the accepted cryptocurrency for payment, the payment address and QR code, and a provided by Txn exchange rate locked in for a 20-minute period, during which the end user is expected to pay the invoice.
For better context, below is a diagram illustrating the invoice payment flow for each party involved in this process.
The complete list of supported cryptocurrencies and tokens can found on the Supported currencies page.
You can find invoice minimum and maximum amount settings per currency on the Invoice limitations page.
Invoice exchange rates are valid for 20 minutes.
An invoice remains valid for 20 minutes, during which end users should send a cryptocurrency transaction to the invoice's address.
Please refer to the Invoice status flow page in this documentation.
Once a cryptocurrency transaction is detected at the invoice's receiving address, Txn updates the invoice status from pending to processing.
The time it takes for Txn to complete the invoice depends on how quickly the transaction is included in a block on the blockchain. If the network experiences congestion during spikes in activity, it may take a bit longer. Normally, payments are processed within minutes. However, payments on the Bitcoin blockchain may take a bit longer due to the design of the Bitcoin blockchain, which produces a new block approximately every 10 minutes.
As soon as the cryptocurrency transaction is included in a block, Txn updates the invoice status from processing to completed.
After the invoice expires, meaning no cryptocurrency transaction has been sent by the end user to the invoice address during the invoice validity period, Txn continues to monitor the invoice address for the next 7 days. If your customer sends their cryptocurrency transaction after the invoice expires, Txn will process it and update the invoice status accordingly.
After 7 days from the invoice creation date and time, Txn stops monitoring the invoice address. If any transaction is sent after 7 days, Txn will receive the transaction, but the payment will not be reflected on the corresponding invoice. This 7-day limitation is set due to the large number of cryptocurrency receive addresses our platform generates and monitors. Additionally, in our experience, it is an extremely rare case when end users send funds after 7 days.
Normally, end users send the exact amount of cryptocurrency they are asked to send to the invoice address to complete their payment.
However, sometimes, end users send slightly more or less cryptocurrency because they either didn't pay enough attention during the withdrawal process from their wallet provider or their wallet provider wasn't clear enough with the end user on how they charge network fees. These two reasons are primarily what cause underpayments and overpayments.
If your end users end up sending less or more cryptocurrency, Txn will process such transactions as normal, except that a spot exchange rate will be applied when converting crypto to fiat and crediting the payment to your account on Txn. You can expect the final invoice status to be completed in this scenario.
Alternatively, if you do not want to accept a payment and wish to return funds back to your end-user instead, please have a read the Invoice Refunds documentation.
