Collecting naira invoice payments online
How a Nigerian business collects naira invoice payments through Paystack, Flutterwave or bank transfer, and how each payment is confirmed and recorded.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
Every Nigerian business owner knows the screenshot. A customer sends a picture of a "transfer successful" screen, asks you to release the goods, and the money never arrives. Even honest customers' transfers sometimes take hours to land, leaving staff unsure whether to mark an invoice paid.
Online payment on the invoice itself takes the guesswork out, as long as each payment is confirmed with the gateway rather than taken on trust. This article explains how a Nigerian business collects naira payments on its invoices in Achekam, how each one is confirmed, and how it reaches the books.
Paystack and Flutterwave with your own keys
A Nigerian business can collect its customers' payments through Paystack or Flutterwave, using its own merchant keys, or by bank transfer that a person marks as paid.
Your own keys means your own merchant account: the money settles with the gateway under your business's agreement, not through Achekam. A workspace administrator enters the keys in Settings under Payment Gateways & Checkout, and can test the connection with a real call to the gateway before any customer sees a pay link. For Paystack, you also paste the notification address Achekam gives you into your Paystack dashboard, so Paystack knows where to report payments.
Once a gateway is set up, you can create a payment link for any issued invoice, copy it into a message or e-mail it with the invoice. The customer pays on a public page showing your business's name and branding. A link lasts 14 days by default; there is no link for a draft or voided invoice.
Verification before a payment is recorded
Nothing is recorded because a customer says they paid, or because the pay page said "thank you".
- Paystack. Each payment is confirmed with Paystack's verify service, which checks the amount, the currency and the reference, before it is recorded.
- Flutterwave. Each payment is re-verified with Flutterwave before it is recorded.
Achekam also checks the amount against what the pay link asked for, and a repeated notification never pays an invoice twice. Paystack's own guide to verifying payments lists the transaction statuses it returns and explains how to verify a payment before giving value.
Notifications do sometimes go missing. For Paystack, a payment whose notification never arrived is still picked up, because the server asks Paystack about open payments on a schedule and while the pay page is open. So a customer who paid during a network hiccup does not end up chased for money they have already sent.
Bank transfer marked paid by a person
Many customers will still prefer a direct transfer. The pay page can show your bank details and a payment reference. Bank transfers send Achekam no notification, so a staff member marks the payment received once it shows on the bank statement.
The key words are "on the bank statement". Not a screenshot, not a forwarded SMS, not a customer's assurance. Make it a rule that only someone who can see the business's bank account marks a transfer as received, and that they check the amount and reference before they do. Each bank account you list takes one currency, so keep your naira account details on naira invoices.
How the receipt reaches the books
A verified gateway payment is recorded as a receipt against the invoice. The journal debits that gateway's clearing account and credits trade receivables, and the invoice shows as paid or part-paid.
The clearing account is where the gateway's money waits between the customer paying and the gateway settling to your bank. Payouts from each gateway are recorded against that gateway's clearing account together with its fees, either by hand or from Paystack's and Flutterwave's own payout lists. Reconcile each gateway's clearing account every month, so that what customers paid, what the gateway kept in fees and what reached your bank all agree.
One limit for Nigerian businesses: the ledger screens currently show every amount in rand, and the chart of accounts is stored in ZAR, even for a Nigerian business. Your naira receipts are recorded, but the ledger screens label them as rand. Bear that in mind when you read or share reports from the ledger.
Refunds are handled outside Achekam. A refund of an online invoice payment is made in the gateway's own dashboard and then recorded in Achekam by a person.
Gateways that cannot settle naira are refused
A naira invoice can be paid online through Paystack or Flutterwave, or by bank transfer. Achekam refuses a gateway that does not settle the invoice's currency. The grouping of gateways by country on the settings screen restricts nothing on its own; the currency check is what decides.
So if you have also connected a gateway that takes other currencies, such as one you use for overseas customers, it is refused for a naira invoice. That protects customers from being sent to a checkout that cannot take their payment.
Setting it up
- Open a merchant account with Paystack, Flutterwave or both.
- Enter your keys in Payment Gateways & Checkout and test the connection.
- For Paystack, paste Achekam's notification address into your dashboard.
- Add your naira bank account for customers who prefer to transfer.
- Send a small real invoice to yourself and pay it, to see the whole path.
For a walk-through of the settings screen, read setting up your payment gateway. Gateway fees and payouts deserve their own routine, covered in gateway payouts and fees. And if some of your customers are abroad, billing overseas customers explains which gateways take which currencies.
Start with one gateway and your bank account on the pay page. Once your team trusts the verification, the screenshots stop mattering.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
