Setting up online payments
Open your centre's payments account so families can pay invoices and top up by direct debit from their bank account.
Updated 18 October 2026
Why this exists
Chasing families for bank transfers and matching payments by hand takes hours each week. Online payments let families pay invoices and top up by direct debit, straight into your centre's own payments account. Money comes in on time and each payment is matched to its invoice for you.
Families pay invoices and top up their account by direct debit from their bank account, straight into your centre's own payments account. Your centre is the merchant.
Before you start
You need the integrations.manage permission. The page is Settings > Online payments. Set-up takes about fifteen minutes on Airwallex's own pages: your business details, the people who own and run it, and the bank account payouts go to. Have your ABN and a photo ID ready.
Steps
- Open Online payments.
- Choose Set up online payments and complete Airwallex's pages.
- Come back to the portal. The page shows where you are:
- Action needed: Airwallex needs something more. Choose Continue setup with Airwallex.
- Under review: this can take a few business days.
- Active: families can pay invoices and top up online.
- Read What a payment costs you. Your centre sees one all-in rate per payment method.
How families pay
Under How families pay, your centre's admins choose the provider families use. Choosing needs two-step sign-in and is recorded. Pinch or Stripe on your centre's own account are offered only where the platform has allowed it for your centre. Changing provider cancels nothing: each family sees their old method on their billing page and removes it.
Good to know
- Families set up direct debit from their Billing page. Card payments are not available at launch.
- Anything that needs a person, such as a chargeback or a failed refund, shows under Needs attention on this page.
- A refund always goes back through the provider that took the payment.