How to Accept Payments for Custom Orders: Venmo, Zelle, PayPal or Card

Short answer: take payments for custom orders through a business account, not a personal one. Offer two methods. Use a free or cheap method, such as Zelle or a Venmo business profile, for customers you know. Use a card invoice from PayPal, Square or Stripe for new customers and big orders. Ask for the deposit in writing, and record each payment against its order on the day it arrives.

Most people who make things to order do not have a checkout. A customer sends a message, and you agree on the design, the price and the date. Then you ask for money. That is where the questions start. Which app should you use? Is it all right to use your personal Venmo? What does each one cost on a $120 deposit? And what happens if the customer changes their mind?

This guide answers those questions with the rules and fees each company publishes. It uses US apps and prices, checked on November 1, 2026. Fees change, so check the linked pages before you decide.

1. Move off your personal account

It is easy to start by taking money on the same app you use to split dinner with friends. The companies behind those apps say this is not allowed for sales.

• Venmo says you cannot accept payments for goods or services unless Venmo has authorized it. The usual way to get that is a Venmo business profile. Venmo also warns that it may not be able to recover money lost on purchases it has not approved.
• PayPal splits payments into “goods and services” and “friends and family”. Since July 28, 2022, a US business account cannot receive friends and family payments from US senders. PayPal made the change so that purchases are covered by its Purchase Protection.
• Zelle works through your bank. To use it for your business, your bank must offer Zelle for your type of business account. Some banks charge a fee for business use and some do not, so ask your bank.

There is a second reason to move. A business account keeps your order money apart from your personal money. That makes tax time much easier, as section 7 explains.

2. Know what each option costs and how it protects you

Each way to get paid differs in three ways. It has a cost to you, a speed, and a rule on whether the customer can get the money back. The table puts the common options side by side.

Two things in the table matter more than the percentages.

A payment that cannot be reversed protects you, but it asks the customer to trust you. Zelle says its payments cannot be cancelled once the person receiving them is enrolled. It also tells people to send money only to friends, family and businesses they trust. A customer who found you on Instagram yesterday may not want to take that risk on a $300 order.

A card payment protects the customer, and that has a cost for you. A customer who pays by card or PayPal can open a dispute. PayPal lists a standard dispute fee of $15. Stripe says card networks usually give cardholders 120 days to dispute a payment. When a dispute starts, Stripe takes the amount and a dispute fee from your balance. This is the price of a payment that new customers feel safe making.

3. Work out the fees on a real order

Percentages are hard to compare in your head. So here is one illustrative order. It is a custom cake for $240, with a $120 deposit and a $120 balance at pickup.

The numbers show a few useful things:

• The deposit costs you very little extra. Two payments instead of one add one more fixed fee. That is 10 cents on Venmo, 30 cents on Stripe or Square, and 49 cents on PayPal. That is a small price for having money in hand before you buy materials.
• Paid as a deposit and a balance, the card options differ by $1.80 at most on this order. Pick the one your customers trust and find easy, not the one that saves the last dollar.
• Your own costs set the size of the deposit, not the app. For help with that number, see how much deposit to take on a custom order or use the advance payment calculator.

4. Choose one main method and one backup

Do not offer six apps. Each new method is one more place to check when you want to know who has paid. Two is enough for most sellers.

• Main method: the one most of your customers already use. For local customers in the US, that is often Zelle or Venmo. For customers who order from far away, or find you on social media, a card invoice is easier to trust.
• Backup: the other kind. If your main method is Zelle, your backup is a card invoice, and the other way around.

You can also decide by order size. For example, you can take Zelle or Venmo for small orders. Above a set amount, such as $200, you send a card invoice. A customer spending more wants more protection, and you want a written record of what they agreed to.

5. Ask for the deposit in writing

A clear payment message saves days of back and forth. Send it after the customer agrees to the price and the date. Put everything in one message. Give the amount, how to pay, what to write in the note, and when the balance is due.

Three small details make this work:

• A reference in the note. An order number or your customer’s name in the payment note lets you match the payment to the order later.
• A date for the deposit. Without one, a customer can hold your Saturday for weeks without paying.
• What happens next. “I will start your order as soon as the deposit arrives” tells the customer why the deposit matters. It does this without any pressure.

If you send a formal invoice, show the deposit and the balance as separate lines. The custom order invoice guide has a template. Your cancellation and refund rules belong in your custom order terms, sent before the customer pays.

6. Record every payment the day it arrives

The money is the easy part. The hard part is knowing, three weeks later, which customer paid what. This is where it is easy to lose track. The payments sit in two or three apps, and the orders sit in chats.

Write down five things for each payment. They are the date, the amount, the method, the order it was for, and the balance still owed. A notebook works. So does a spreadsheet with one row per payment.

40 of 435

Split payments are common in our own data. We looked at 731 orders from 155 sellers using WISMO. Of the 435 priced orders with any payment recorded, 40 were paid in more than one installment. And of the 67 orders that were part-paid, 48 were past their due date with a balance still owed. A balance that nobody wrote down is a balance that nobody asks for. If one is already late, see what to do when a customer will not pay the balance.

7. Keep the records your taxes need

This section is general information, not tax advice. Please ask a tax professional about your own business.

Payments for things you make and sell are income. The IRS says you must still report your income on your tax return, whether or not you get a Form 1099-K. Form 1099-K is the report that payment apps and card companies send about payments for goods or services. They file it when your payments go over $20,000 in more than 200 transactions in a year. The IRS also says you may get one below that level.

Money a friend sends you as a gift, or to pay back a shared dinner, is not taxable income. The IRS says it should not be reported on a Form 1099-K. This is one more reason to keep order money in a business account. When personal and business payments are mixed, it is hard to show which is which.

8. Refund the same way the customer paid

Sometimes an order is cancelled and money has to go back. Refund through the same method the customer used, so the record is clean on both sides.

Expect to lose the fee. Venmo says it cannot refund its business profile fees. Stripe says its processing fees on the original payment are not returned when you refund. A payment by Zelle or cash will not come back by itself. So you send it back yourself and keep a screenshot. For how much to refund at each stage, see how to handle order cancellations.

Common mistakes

• Selling on a personal account. Venmo and PayPal both say their personal payment types are not for sales. If something goes wrong, you may have no help.
• Too many methods. Five apps means five places to check before you can say who has paid.
• No note on the payment. A $120 payment from “M. Johnson” with no note is hard to match to an order a month later.
• Starting work before the deposit arrives. Wait for the money. Then buy the materials.
• Keeping payment records only in the apps. Each app shows its own payments. None of them shows what each order still owes.

How WISMO helps you keep track of payments

WISMO does not take payments. Your customer still pays you by Zelle, Venmo, card or cash. WISMO keeps the record of each payment next to the order it belongs to.

Each order in WISMO has a price, a due date and a payment status: Unpaid, Advance or Paid. When money arrives, you add it to the order with its method: Cash, Digital wallet, Bank transfer, Card or Other. An order can have more than one payment, so a deposit and a balance sit together. You can see what is still owed. The Unpaid filter shows every order that still needs money. WISMO can also send you a reminder about unpaid orders once a day at 1 pm, your local time. When you need an invoice, you make one from the order with one tap. Payments, invoices and reminders are free on every plan.

Your first 30 orders are free. WISMO Pro is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and you can try Pro free for 7 days. For more on tracking who owes you money, see customer payment tracking.