Lupa Pay is the integrated payment platform built into Lupa. Once it's enabled for your practice, you can take card payments at the front desk via terminals, send payment links to clients, accept deposits on online bookings, and see every transaction, payout and dispute in a single dashboard — without juggling a separate payments login.

💡 In short: Setting up Lupa Pay is a one-time process led by Lupa. You provide business and banking details, Lupa activates your account, and you then configure how payments behave in Settings → Integrations → Payments.

Before You Begin

📍 Who can do this: A user with the Update Store Financial Information permission (typically Practice Manager, Owner, or Administrator roles). Once Lupa Pay is live, viewing the dashboard requires the Lupa Pay permission.

Lupa Pay onboarding is not self-serve. It is enabled per-practice by the Lupa team after a short onboarding conversation, because we need to verify your business details and banking information before you can accept payments. You should have the following ready before you contact us:

The legal name and registered address of the practice
Your practice's company / VAT number
The bank account you want payouts to land in (account name, sort code, account number)
ID documentation for the practice owner or directors
A brief description of the kinds of payments you'll be taking (in-person card, online booking, payment links) If you operate multiple sites, each site is set up as its own Lupa Pay account so payouts land in the correct bank account.

How to Set Up Lupa Pay

Step 1: Request enablement from the Lupa team

Lupa Pay requires a contractual agreement between the practice and Lupa and therefore is not turned on by default. To start, this will either be discussed in contracting or following your onboarding, message your Customer Success contact, or email [email protected], and let us know you'd like Lupa Pay enabled. We'll arrange a short call to walk through the application form, confirm which sites you want enabled, and check that your existing payment processor (if any) can be cleanly switched over without disrupting open invoices.

Step 2: Submit your business and banking details

After the call, you'll receive a short form (or guided form inside the Lupa app) that captures:

Business details — legal name, trading name, address, company number
Banking details — the account that will receive your payouts
Verification — ID for the practice owner or designated directors This information is reviewed by our payments partner. Most accounts are approved within 1–3 working days. We'll let you know if anything additional is needed.

Step 3: Confirm activation in your account

Once approval is complete, your Lupa contact will turn Lupa Pay on for your practice and terminals will be delivered to your practice. You will know it's live when:

Lupa Pay shows as a new app the Apps page (top-right of Lupa, Apps menu).
Once the terminals arrive in practice, charge them straight away and perform any required updates.

Step 4: Configure your in-app payment settings

With Lupa Pay live, decide how it should behave inside Lupa. Go to Settings → Integrations → Payments. The settings on this page are summarised in the table below.

Setting	What it does	Default
Online Booking Payments	Master toggle for whether clients are charged when booking online via your store. With this off, online bookings are placed without payment.	Off
Payment amount method	When online booking payments are on, choose between charging a fixed amount (e.g. £15) or a percentage of the appointment price (e.g. 25%).	Fixed amount
Amount / percentage value	The actual monetary amount or % to charge per online booking.	— (must be set if online payments are on)
Lupa Pay Terminals	Lists the card terminals registered to your account. Use this to refresh the list, rename a terminal so staff can identify it, or check connection status.	Empty until terminals are provisioned

✅ Save the page after changing any of these settings — they take effect immediately for new bookings and new terminal sessions, but already-issued payment links keep their original amount.

What Lupa Pay Unlocks

Once activation and in-app configuration are done, the rest of section 6 of the Help Centre describes how to use the platform day-to-day. The boundaries are:

Where to look	What it covers
This article	Initial enablement, business details required, who can configure it, and the settings on the Payments page
Transactions and payment links	Taking individual card payments, generating and sending payment links from invoices, refunds, and reading transaction history
Payment terminals	Pairing physical card readers, day-to-day terminal use, troubleshooting hardware issues
Payouts, disputes and reporting	Viewing payout schedules, responding to disputes, and downloading settlement reports

Tips

✅ Practical tips for a smooth setup:

Get your bank statement, ID and Companies House details in one folder before contacting Lupa — it shaves days off approval.
Decide before the onboarding call whether you want to charge for online bookings, and at what amount or percentage. It avoids back-and-forth later.
For multi-site groups, do one site at a time for the first week so you can validate end-of-day reconciliation before rolling out to the rest.
Give terminals clear names (e.g. Reception 1, Consult Room 2) as soon as they're provisioned — staff will see these names when starting a payment.
Keep Online Booking Payments off until your front desk has run at least a few in-person card payments, so you can train on one channel at a time.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
The Lupa Pay app card opens a "Lupa Pay is not enabled" screen.	Activation hasn't reached your store yet, or you're logged into a different store than the one that was activated. Log out, log back in, and confirm via the store switcher that you're on the right site. If the message persists, message Lupa.
I don't see a Payments tab under Settings → Integrations.	Your role doesn't include the Update Store Financial Information permission. Ask your practice administrator to grant it, or contact Lupa to update your role.
The Lupa Pay Terminals table is empty.	Either no card readers have been paired to your account yet, or the list needs refreshing. Click Refresh terminals. If still empty, see the Payment terminals article for pairing steps.
Online booking payments aren't being charged at checkout.	Open Settings → Integrations → Payments and check that Online Booking Payments is on, an amount or percentage is set, and the page has been saved. Bookings created before the change keep their original behaviour.
Approval is taking longer than 3 working days.	Almost always caused by a mismatch between the business name or banking details you submitted and what's held on file at Companies House or your bank. Check both records, then reply to your onboarding email with corrections.
A staff member can see Lupa Pay but can't refund a payment.	Refund actions are gated by separate financial permissions. Ask an administrator to review the staff member's role.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to use Lupa Pay, or can I keep my existing card processor?

You can keep your existing processor for in-person payments if you prefer, but features that depend on integrated payments — payment links, online booking deposits, and the unified Lupa Pay reporting dashboard — only work when Lupa Pay is enabled. Many practices run both during a switchover period.

How long does setup take?

From the first call to a live account is typically 2–5 working days, assuming your business and banking details are correct on first submission. Hardware terminals are shipped separately and usually arrive within a week of activation.

Can I set up Lupa Pay for a multi-site practice in one go?

Each site is configured as its own Lupa Pay account so that each location's payouts land in the right bank account and reporting stays clean. We can run the application forms in parallel during the onboarding call, but each site is approved individually.

What happens to clients with saved cards on my old processor?

Saved cards do not transfer between processors. Clients will be asked to re-enter their card details the first time they pay through Lupa Pay. Plan a short transition window where both providers can run side-by-side if you have a lot of saved cards.

Who at the practice can change Lupa Pay settings?

Anyone with the Update Store Financial Information permission. By default this is the Practice Manager, Owner and Administrator roles. The Lupa Pay permission is separate and controls who can view the dashboard and reports — you'll often grant this more widely.

Can I disable Lupa Pay later if it's not working for us?

Yes. Contact Lupa and we'll switch the integration off and help you migrate any in-flight transactions. Existing transaction history stays viewable in your dashboard for reporting and tax purposes.

Setting up Lupa Pay