Manual & offline payment methods

A manual payment method is any way of getting paid that doesn’t run through a connected gateway — Cash on Delivery (COD), a NEFT/IMPS bank transfer, a manual UPI collect, plain cash, or an external card terminal. Sellerlane records the order and tracks the money; you confirm the actual collection yourself.

Everything here lives under Settings → Payments, alongside your gateway accounts. For connecting Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree, or another supported gateway, see Payments — this page is the deep dive on the manual side.

When to use a manual method

Reach for a manual method whenever the money moves outside a gateway, or when you want to reconcile it yourself:

• Cash on Delivery — the courier collects on the doorstep; you mark it paid after delivery.
• Bank transfer (NEFT / IMPS / RTGS) — you publish your account details and the buyer transfers, then quotes the UTR.
• Manual UPI collect — you show a UPI ID or QR and the buyer pays from any UPI app, quoting the transaction ID. (This is separate from gateway UPI, which clears automatically through a connected gateway.)
• Cash at counter — in-store POS sales settled on the spot.
• External terminal — a standalone card/UPI machine you already own; the order is marked paid once the machine approves.

Note

A manual method is a record-keeping tool, not a processor. Sellerlane never contacts a bank or UPI network for it — you decide when each order is actually paid. For automatic clearing, connect a gateway instead.

Add a manual method

1. Go to Settings → Payments.

2. Click Add manual method (top right, or in the Selectable payment methods card). The Add manual payment method form opens.

3. Fill in the fields below and click Create method.

New methods are created Inactive by default, so nothing goes live at checkout until you deliberately activate it.

The form, field by field

Field	What it does
Display name	The name buyers see at checkout (e.g. Cash on Delivery). Required.
Kind	Custom (your own method) or Suggested. This is just a label for your own organisation.
Short description	One line shown next to the option at checkout.
Payment instructions	Longer text shown to the buyer after they pick the method — put your bank account, UPI ID, or “pay the rider” note here.
Status	Active or Inactive. Inactive methods are kept for history but hidden from checkout and POS.
Settlement policy	Pending until confirmed or Mark paid immediately — see Settlement policy.
Online checkout / POS	Per-channel visibility toggles. An Active method must be enabled on at least one of the two.
Require reference	Ask the buyer for a UTR, transaction ID, or other reference at checkout.
Reference label	The label for that field (e.g. UTR / Reference number). Required when Require reference is on.
Minimum / Maximum amount	Restrict the method to an order-value range, entered in cents.
Position	Sort order among your methods. Lower numbers appear first.

Settlement policy

The Settlement policy is the most important choice on the form — it decides whether the order is treated as paid the moment it’s placed.

Pending until confirmed

The order is created awaiting payment: it is not marked paid, and fulfillment is not released. The payment shows as processing until you confirm collection.

Use it for anything you collect later:

• Cash on Delivery (collected at the door)
• Bank transfer (you wait for the UTR / the funds to land)
• Manual UPI collect
• Invoices and other pay-later arrangements

This is the default for new manual methods.

Mark paid immediately

The order is treated as paid at checkout and fulfillment is released right away. Use it only for money you’ve already collected at the point of sale:

• Cash at the counter
• An external card/UPI terminal that just approved the charge

Caution

A Mark paid immediately method is not available on public online checkout — it’s effectively POS-only, even if you leave the Online toggle on. That’s deliberate: you should never auto-mark a remote web order as paid before any money has changed hands. For online stores, use Pending until confirmed and mark each order paid once you’ve collected.

Require a reference

Turn on Require reference to capture a transaction identifier from the buyer — ideal for bank transfers and manual UPI where the UTR or transaction ID is your proof of payment.

1. Enable Require reference.

2. Set a clear Reference label — for example UTR / Reference number or UPI transaction ID. The label is required when reference is on; if you leave it blank it falls back to Reference.

At checkout the buyer is asked for that value, and it’s stored on the order so you can match it against your bank or UPI statement when you confirm payment.

Payment instructions shown to the buyer

Whatever you type in Payment instructions is shown to the buyer after they select the method — this is where you tell them how to pay. Good examples:

• “Transfer to A/c 1234567890, IFSC HDFC0000123, then enter the UTR above.”
• “Pay to UPI ID store@hdfcbank and enter the transaction ID.”
• “Pay cash to the delivery agent on arrival.”

Keep it short and specific. Leave it blank for COD, where the buyer simply pays on delivery.

Minimum and maximum order amount

Use Minimum amount and Maximum amount to limit a method to a value range — for example, cap Cash on Delivery so it’s only offered up to a certain order total.

Note

Amounts are entered in cents (the smallest currency unit). For INR, ₹1 = 100, so ₹500 is 50000. Leave a field blank for no limit. The maximum must be greater than or equal to the minimum.

Limits are enforced on the order’s amount due at checkout. If the total falls outside the range, the method simply isn’t offered (online) or selectable (POS) for that order — buyers don’t see an error, the option just isn’t there.

Show online, at POS, or both

Each method has independent Online checkout and POS toggles:

• Online checkout — shows the method on your storefront checkout.
• POS — shows it in POS checkout for in-person sales.

An Active method must be on for at least one channel; if you switch a method to Inactive, both toggles turn off and it disappears everywhere. Remember the settlement rule: Mark paid immediately methods only work at POS regardless of the Online toggle.

You can also flip these toggles directly from the Selectable payment methods table on the Payments page without opening the editor.

Reorder, activate, deactivate, archive

From the Selectable payment methods card:

• Reorder — use the up/down arrows on each manual method to set the order buyers see them in at checkout.
• Activate / Deactivate — deactivating hides a method from checkout and POS but keeps its history intact; reactivate any time.
• Edit — open the ⋮ menu (or the Edit button) to change any field on an existing method.
• Archive — hides a method from normal settings lists while preserving its order history and analytics.

Caution

Never try to delete a method that has past orders against it. Deactivate or Archive it instead — both keep the records and analytics your reports depend on.

What happens after an order is placed

For a Pending until confirmed method, the order arrives unpaid and waits on you to confirm the money. Once you have the cash, the transfer, or the UPI landing:

1. Open the order under Orders.

2. In the Payments section, click Mark paid. (The button appears when the order used a manual method, still has an amount due, and isn’t already paid.)

3. In Mark manual payment paid, confirm the Amount, optionally set Paid at, and enter the Reference (e.g. the UTR the buyer gave you) and an internal Note. Click Mark paid.

The order is then marked paid and fulfillment is released, exactly as if it had cleared through a gateway.

Tip

To clear several COD or bank-transfer orders at once, select them on the Orders list and choose Mark manual payments paid from the bulk actions.

A Mark paid immediately method skips this step — the POS order is already paid the moment it’s placed.

Refunds on manual orders

Refunds work the same as gateway orders: issue a full or partial refund from the order page. Because the money was collected outside Sellerlane, the recorded refund is your instruction to return funds by the same channel (hand back cash, reverse the bank transfer, or send a UPI refund). See refunds and returns for the full procedure.

India examples

Cash on Delivery

• Display name: Cash on Delivery
• Settlement policy: Pending until confirmed
• Require reference: off
• Channels: Online (and POS if you also sell in person)
• Maximum amount: optionally cap COD at, say, ₹10,000 → 1000000

Mark each order paid from the Payments section once the courier remits.

Bank transfer (NEFT/IMPS)

• Display name: Bank transfer (NEFT/IMPS)
• Settlement policy: Pending until confirmed
• Payment instructions: your A/c number, IFSC, and beneficiary name
• Require reference: on, label UTR / Reference number
• Channels: Online

Confirm against the UTR when the funds land in your bank.

Manual UPI collect

• Display name: UPI (direct)
• Settlement policy: Pending until confirmed
• Payment instructions: your UPI ID (or describe a QR you display)
• Require reference: on, label UPI transaction ID
• Channels: Online

Use this only if you reconcile UPI by hand. For automatic UPI clearing, connect Razorpay, PayU, or Cashfree instead.

Troubleshooting

• My method isn’t showing at checkout — confirm it’s Active, toggled Online, and that the order total is within any min/max limits. A Mark paid immediately method will never appear on online checkout.
• The amount limit isn’t working — remember the value is in cents: ₹500 is 50000, not 500.
• I can’t see a Mark paid button — it only appears for manual orders that still have an amount due and aren’t already paid. Mark paid immediately orders are paid on placement and won’t show it.
• An old method has orders — don’t delete it. Deactivate or Archive to keep history.

Next steps

Payments overview

Connect a supported provider and manage gateway accounts and POS actions. Payments

Shipping & checkout

Configure delivery and the checkout buyers complete payment in. Shipping and checkout

Refunds & returns

Issue refunds and run returns from the order page. Refunds and returns

Orders & fulfillment

Mark payments paid and fulfill orders end to end. Orders and fulfillment