The billing area is where you keep your payment card up to date, review every invoice raised against your account, and settle anything that is still owing. Your card details are entered straight into Stripe (our secure payment provider) from your browser, so DMARCER never sees or stores your full card number: we only keep the card brand, the last four digits and the expiry date so you can recognise it.
Where to find billing
Billing is organised into a row of tabs at the top of every billing page: Overview, Invoices, Payment method and License usage. The two that matter for this article are Payment method (where your card lives) and Invoices (where your billing history lives). You can switch between them at any time using the tabs.
If your account is ever suspended for non-payment, the billing pages stay available on purpose, so you can still update your card and clear the balance. Background monitoring of your domains keeps running while access is paused, so nothing breaks once the balance is settled.
Adding or replacing your card
Open the Payment method tab. If no card is saved yet you will see a No card on file row with an Add card button. If a card is already saved you will see it listed (brand, last four digits and expiry) with a Replace card button instead.
- Click Add card (or Replace card). A small panel opens with a single secure card field.
- Enter your card number, expiry and security code. This field is provided by Stripe, so your details go directly to them and never pass through DMARCER.
- Click Save card. If there is a problem with the card, the message appears just beneath the field so you can put it right.
- Once Stripe confirms, the page refreshes and your new card shows in the Card on file row. You can use Cancel at any point to close the panel without saving.
Once a card is on file, invoices are charged automatically when they are raised, so you do not normally need to do anything more. Having a card on file is also needed before you can add domains beyond your plan's limit or let a plan run into overage.
[Screenshot: the Payment method tab showing the Card on file row and the Add or Replace card button]
Viewing and downloading invoices
The Invoices tab lists every invoice raised against your account, newest first. Each row shows the invoice number, the billing period it covers, the date it was issued, its status, and the net, VAT (where it applies) and total amounts.
The status badge tells you where each invoice stands:
- Paid: the invoice has been settled.
- Issued: the invoice has been raised and is awaiting payment.
- Payment failed: a charge was attempted but declined, and the reason is shown beneath the badge.
- Overdue: the invoice is past its due date and the account may be heading towards suspension.
- Draft or Voided: an invoice that is not yet finalised, or one that has been cancelled.
Once an invoice has been finalised, a PDF button appears at the end of the row. This downloads the document straight from our accounting system (Xero), branded and laid out as a valid VAT invoice that you can keep for your records.
Below the invoice list you may also see a Queued for next bill section. These are charges that have built up since your last invoice (for example, anything added part way through your cycle). They are not payable yet and will be added to your next invoice at your renewal date. They are shown here so you can see them, and need no action.
Clearing an outstanding balance
If a payment declines, the balance becomes overdue straight away (we do not offer credit terms), and a warning banner appears across the billing pages. When you have a saved card and your account is linked to our accounting system, the banner offers a Settle outstanding now button. If the account is already suspended, the same action appears as Pay outstanding balance now to restore access.
Clicking it opens a short confirmation dialog asking you to confirm the charge. Once you confirm, DMARCER charges your card on file for the full outstanding amount, checks the result with Stripe and updates the page within a few seconds, so you can see straight away whether the payment went through. If your account was suspended, access is restored automatically once the payment lands.
Common pitfalls
- No Settle button: the Settle outstanding now button only appears when there is a card on file and your account is linked to our accounting system. If you have no card, add one first.
- Permission to manage payment: adding, replacing or charging a card needs the billing permission for managing payments, which administrators have. Without it you will see a message asking you to contact your system administrator rather than the card form.
- A recent payment not showing: a payment made in the last 60 minutes may not be reflected in the outstanding balance just yet. It will update shortly, so there is no need to pay again.
- Test mode: if the platform is in test mode you will see a banner saying so. Cards added in test mode go into Stripe's test environment and real cards are not charged. This is for our internal testing only.
- PDF not available: the PDF link only appears once an invoice has been finalised in our accounting system. A very recently raised invoice may take a moment before its PDF is ready.