GoHighLevel Text 2 Pay: SMS Invoicing Setup (2026)

By Dr Priya Jaganathan, GoHighLevel Certified Admin · HL Growth Partner, Australia · Updated 17 September 2026 · 8 min read

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GoHighLevel Text 2 Pay is the fastest way to turn a finished job into money in the bank, because it drops a payable link straight into the SMS thread the customer is already reading. No emailed PDF, no "I'll do a bank transfer tonight", no chasing.

This guide is written for Australian trades, mobile services and small agencies who bill after the work is done. I'll cover what has to be connected before HighLevel SMS invoicing will send at all, how Text 2 Pay differs from a full invoice and a payment link, how to fire it automatically from a Workflow, and how the money lands back in Xero without double handling.

What GoHighLevel Text 2 Pay actually does (and what it doesn't)

Text 2 Pay builds a small, itemised invoice inside the SMS composer and sends the customer a hosted payment page as a link. They tap it, pay by card or wallet, and the record updates in Payments > Invoices.

It is not a separate product you buy. It is a send method that sits on top of the same invoicing engine you get when you set up GoHighLevel payments with Stripe, which is why the prerequisites are identical.

Where you send it from

Open the contact in Conversations, switch the channel picker to SMS, and click the dollar-sign icon in the composer. Add line items with names and prices, apply discount or tax if the job needs it, set a link expiry, and the link drops into your draft message ready to send.

The single biggest reason Text 2 Pay beats emailed invoices for trades is that the tradesperson can do it on-site from the LeadConnector mobile app, before they get back in the ute. The job is fresh, the customer is standing there, and the payment happens while goodwill is at its peak.

What the customer sees

A short SMS from your business number with a branded checkout link. No login, no account creation, no app download — which matters enormously for the 60-plus demographic that dominates a lot of home-services work.

What you must connect before HighLevel SMS invoicing will send

Three things have to be live in the sub-account, and Text 2 Pay simply will not appear in the composer until they are. HighLevel's own Text-to-Pay documentation lists them explicitly.

1. A payment integration

Stripe is the default and the one I recommend for Australian sub-accounts. PayPal and NMI are also supported, but the invoice experience, the wallet support and the reconciliation story are all cleanest on Stripe.

Connect it at the sub-account level, not the agency level, and make sure the Stripe account is Australian and set to AUD. Getting this wrong is a painful unwind — I've covered the currency traps in the guide on multi-currency and GST for Australian accounts.

2. A compliant sending number

You need an active phone number in the sub-account with SMS enabled, and you need two-way threading working properly so replies land back in the inbox. If that isn't sorted, start with the setup for two-way SMS in Conversations.

If you send to US recipients, brand and campaign registration under A2P 10DLC is mandatory — and as an Australian entity you register using your ASIC ACN rather than a US EIN (industry registration guidance, 2026).

For Australian numbers texting Australian customers, 10DLC doesn't apply — but the Spam Act 2003 does. The ACMA's guidance on avoiding sending spam requires consent, clear identification of the business that authorised the message (legal name or ABN), and a low-or-no-cost unsubscribe on commercial messages — a reply SMS is acceptable.

3. At least one active product

Text 2 Pay pulls from your product catalogue. Build a handful of generic ones — Labour (hourly), Call-out fee, Parts, Service — so you always have something to itemise against rather than creating products on the fly.

Text 2 Pay vs invoices vs payment links: which one to use when

These three get muddled constantly, and choosing the wrong one is how businesses end up with reconciliation they can't untangle. Here's how I brief clients.

The practical rule: Text 2 Pay for completed work, invoices for anything that needs to look like a document, payment links for repeatable offers.

Not on HighLevel yet? Start with a free 30-day trial here — long enough to build everything in this guide before you pay a cent.

Automating Text 2 Pay from a Workflow when the job is done

Sending manually works, but it depends on a tired tradesperson remembering. Automation removes that dependency entirely.

Pick a trigger that actually fires

The two triggers I use most are an opportunity moving into a "Job Complete" stage, and a tag being applied by the field team from the mobile app. Both are reliable because they are things the business already does.

• Opportunity Stage Changed — the cleanest option if your pipeline stages mirror your real job lifecycle.
• Contact Tag Added — good when work is tracked outside the pipeline and the crew just taps a tag on their phone.
• Appointment Status Changed to Showed — suits fixed-price service appointments where the amount never varies.
• Form or survey submitted — useful when a completion checklist doubles as the sign-off.

Use custom values, not hard-coded amounts

Store the job total in a contact custom field and reference it in the workflow so one automation covers every job size. Hard-coding a dollar figure into a workflow action is how you end up with eleven near-identical workflows nobody can maintain.

Add a short Wait step — fifteen to thirty minutes — so the payment request doesn't arrive while the technician is still packing up. It reads as organised rather than grabby.

Chase the ones that don't pay

Build a follow-up branch that checks for payment after 24 and 72 hours and sends a polite nudge if nothing has landed. The mechanics are the same as an overdue invoice reminder workflow, just compressed into days instead of weeks.

Two well-timed reminders recover most of what would otherwise become debtor-chasing, and they cost you a few cents in SMS. Cap it at three touches, then route to a human task — automation should never nag indefinitely.

Getting Text 2 Pay payments back into Xero without double handling

Money collected in HighLevel still has to appear correctly in your books. The payment lands in Stripe, Stripe pays out to your bank in a batch, and the batch has to reconcile against individual invoices.

The cleanest pattern for Australian businesses is to treat HighLevel as the collection layer and Xero as the ledger, syncing paid transactions across so GST is captured on the right side. I've set that out step by step in the GoHighLevel to Xero integration guide.

Two things to decide up front: whether the Text 2 Pay line items carry GST, and whether Stripe's processing fee is booked as a separate expense. Settle both with your bookkeeper before you send a hundred of these, not after.

Where Australian trades and service businesses get paid faster with it

Text 2 Pay earns its keep wherever the work finishes in front of the customer and the amount is known on the spot.

• Plumbers, electricians and HVAC — call-out plus parts, invoiced at the door instead of from the office three days later. Most of this is pre-built in the GoHighLevel tradies snapshot.
• Mobile mechanics and detailers — no EFTPOS terminal to carry, no surcharge argument in a driveway.
• Cleaners and lawn care — recurring visits with variable extras that a fixed subscription can't capture.
• Allied health and clinics — gap payments after an appointment, sent before the patient reaches the car park.
• Agencies and consultants — deposits and scope variations, approved and paid in the same thread as the conversation that agreed them.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Sending payment requests without documented consent. Even transactional-feeling messages should sit on a consent trail — the ACMA expects express or clearly inferred consent and correct business identification.
• No expiry on the link. An open-ended payment link that gets paid five weeks later, after you've already re-invoiced, creates duplicate-payment refunds.
• Connecting Stripe at agency level instead of the sub-account. Funds land in the wrong entity and the fix involves refunds and re-sends.
• Automating with no human fallback. If the amount needs a judgement call, route it to a task rather than guessing from a custom field.
• Ignoring reconciliation until BAS time. Stripe payouts are batched; matching them retrospectively across hundreds of jobs is a genuinely awful weekend.
• Treating Text 2 Pay as a substitute for a tax invoice. If the customer needs a compliant document, send the invoice as well.

If you want Text 2 Pay wired into your GoHighLevel workflows so invoices go out the moment a job is done, book a strategy call with the HL Growth Partner team.

Book Your Strategy Call →

Or if you just need the software first: grab the 30-day HighLevel trial and book us when you're ready to scale it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Stripe to use GoHighLevel Text 2 Pay?

You need an active payment integration in the sub-account, and Stripe is the most common choice. PayPal and NMI are also supported connections. Without a live payments connection, an active phone number and at least one active product, the Text 2 Pay option will not appear in the SMS composer.

Can I send a Text 2 Pay link from the LeadConnector mobile app?

Yes. The mobile app gives field staff access to the same Conversations inbox, so a technician can itemise and send a payment request from the customer's driveway. This is the main reason trades adopt it over emailed invoicing.

What is the difference between Text 2 Pay and a GoHighLevel invoice?

Text 2 Pay is a fast, SMS-first payment request built at send time for one customer. An invoice is a formal hosted document with due dates, terms, reminders and optional recurring schedules. Use Text 2 Pay for completed jobs and invoices when the customer needs a proper tax document.

Can Text 2 Pay collect recurring payments?

No. Text 2 Pay is designed for one-off payment requests. For subscriptions or retainers, use recurring invoices or a payment link tied to a subscription product.

Do Australian businesses need A2P 10DLC registration for Text 2 Pay?

Only if you are sending SMS to recipients in the United States. A2P 10DLC is a US carrier requirement, and Australian entities registering for it use their ASIC ACN instead of a US EIN. For Australian numbers messaging Australian customers, the Spam Act 2003 and ACMA guidance apply instead.

Does an invoice SMS need an unsubscribe line under the Spam Act?

The ACMA requires a functional unsubscribe on commercial electronic messages, and it must be easy and at low or no cost, with a reply SMS being acceptable. Purely transactional payment requests sit in a greyer area than marketing, so the safe practice is to keep consent documented and make opting out simple. Check your specific situation with your own adviser.

How do Text 2 Pay payments get into Xero?

Payments are captured by your processor, recorded against the transaction in Payments, and then synced or imported into Xero as paid invoices. Stripe pays out in batches, so decide early how GST and processing fees are booked. Setting this up properly at the start avoids painful reconciliation later.

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