Ask Your Accountant to Enter Payment Details
You do not have to hold the company card to pay for Outermind. From the Subscription page you can email your accountant, bookkeeper or finance contact a secure link that collects payment details for your subscription, and nothing else.
Overview
The person who runs Outermind is often not the person who pays for it. Rather than forwarding an invoice, chasing a card number over chat, or handing out a console login, send a payment request. Your billing contact gets one email with one link. Opening it shows them your company name, the plan and the price, and lets them pay by credit card.
They never get an Outermind account, never sign in, and never see anything else about your workspace.
Where to find it
Go to Administration > Subscription and scroll to the Payment details requests card.
Anyone who can open the Subscription page can see the card and the history of requests. The Send request button is enabled only for users who hold the billing write permission; without it the button is disabled and reads "Ask a billing manager to send this request."
The card is available whatever state your subscription is in. Which kind of request you can send depends on that state, and the send window tells you which options apply.
Sending a request
Select Send request and work down the form.
1. What should they do?
| Option | Offered when |
|---|---|
| Pay for a subscription | You are on a trial or have no live subscription, and the plan you pick is sold in your currency |
| Update our payment card | You already have a paid or trialing subscription whose card needs replacing |
The option that does not apply is disabled with the reason shown next to it. If your Outermind is billed through a partner, neither option is available and payment is handled by your partner.
2. Plan
For a new subscription, choose the plan and whether you are billed monthly or annually. The price shown is the real price in your currency, and it is the price your accountant will see.
For a card update there is nothing to choose. Your current plan, price and renewal date do not change; only the card on file does.
3. Billing contact
Enter the email address of the person who should pay. A name is optional. You can CC up to five more people, for example a second approver or a shared finance mailbox.
An address at a consumer mail provider such as Gmail or Outlook.com raises a gentle warning. It is only a warning, since plenty of bookkeepers use one, and the request sends normally.
4. Note to your billing contact
The note is written for you already. It explains what the email is, what the link does, that the charge appears on the card statement as OUTERMIND, INC., and that Outermind's W-9 is attached. Your company name is filled in automatically.
Edit it freely up to 1000 characters. It is quoted in the email and attributed to you by name, so it is the right place for a PO number, a cost centre, or a line about who approved the spend. If you change the request type before editing the note, the note updates to match; once you edit it, your wording stays.
5. Link valid for
Choose 7, 14 or 30 days. The default is 14. After that the link stops working and has to be resent.
What gets emailed
Your billing contact receives one email from Outermind, with your CC list copied and replies directed to Outermind support. It carries:
- A short explanation naming you and your company.
- The plan, billing cycle and price, or a note that this is a card update.
- Your note, quoted.
- The secure link and the date it expires.
- Outermind's Form W-9 as a PDF attachment, which is what most accounts payable teams ask for before paying a new vendor. Every request email carries it, including resends.
Tracking and managing requests
The card lists every request for your subscription, newest first, with when it was sent, the type, the plan, the recipient, the status, the expiry, and who asked for it.
Statuses read plainly: pending until the link is opened, opened once it has been, processing while payment is being set up, completed once it is done, and expired or revoked when the link is no longer usable. A failed send is shown too, with the reason on hover.
Resend issues a fresh link, resets the validity window and immediately kills the previous one. Use it when the email was missed, went to the wrong address, or the link expired.
Revoke kills the link for good. Use it if you sent the request to the wrong person or no longer want it paid. A revoked request cannot be resent, so send a new one instead.
You can have one live request of each type at a time. Sending a new request of the same type automatically revokes the previous one.
Requests sent by Outermind support
If Outermind support sent a payment request on your behalf, it appears in this same list with Outermind support in the "Requested by" column. You can resend or revoke it exactly like your own, because it concerns your subscription.
A request created by Outermind support may also offer your accountant the option to be invoiced on 30 day terms instead of paying by card. That option can only be granted by Outermind and is marked "invoicing allowed" in the list. It is never available on a request you send yourself.
Limits
You can make at most 10 send or resend attempts in any rolling 24 hours. The count includes attempts that fail, so a mistyped address still uses one. The limit exists so that a compromised account cannot turn this into an outbound mail channel carrying the Outermind name. If you hit it, wait for the window to roll forward.
What your accountant sees
The link opens a single Outermind page showing your company name, the plan, the billing cycle, the price per cycle in your currency, your note and the expiry date. A plan with no published price in your currency reads "as agreed with Outermind".
From there they either continue to Stripe to pay by card, or, when Outermind has allowed it, fill in a short billing address form to be invoiced.
The page does not sign anyone in, does not link into Outermind, and does not show your CC list or anything about your workspace, your users or your data. It closes with a line saying exactly that.
What happens after payment
For a card payment, Outermind waits for Stripe to confirm the payment before marking the request complete. That normally takes seconds. Your accountant sees a short confirming step and, if Stripe is slow, a note that the payment was received and confirmation will follow by email.
If you are converting from a trial with more than 48 hours left to run, you keep it. The card is saved now and first charged on your trial end date.
Once the request completes, your billing contact and everyone CC'd get a confirmation, and your workspace admins are notified in their own email.
FAQ
Does my accountant need an Outermind account? No. The link is the only credential, it works once opened in any browser, and it grants no access to Outermind.
Can I see or copy the link myself? No. The link exists only in the email, which keeps it out of chat logs and screenshots. Use Resend to deliver it again.
Can my accountant choose to be invoiced instead of paying by card? Only if Outermind support created the request and granted that option. Requests you send from the console always collect a card. Contact Outermind support if your organisation needs invoicing.
I sent it to the wrong address. Use Resend and correct the recipient, or Revoke and send a new request. Either way the old link stops working immediately.
The request says expired. The validity window elapsed before anyone opened it. Resend it, and consider choosing 30 days if your finance team works on a monthly cycle.
Can I apply a discount code through this? No. Discount and promotion codes are not accepted on the payment request page. Speak to Outermind support before sending the request.