SwiftFox Finance is an end-to-end finance system built into the CRM. It connects to your payment gateway and can integrate with Xero to generate and send invoices — all from inside SwiftFox. It centralises subscriptions (recurring payments), invoices, receipts, ticketing payments and donations against each contact's Financial tab, and gives you database-wide reporting through the finance Action Centres. Finance data also powers forms (join/renew) and the member portal.
What Finance does
- Payment processing — SwiftFox triggers your payment gateway for scheduled and one-off payments. SwiftFox itself does not take or hold money; the gateway moves the funds.
- Recurring payments (subscriptions) — contact-level subscriptions with a plan, fee level, interval, options/add-ons, payment method, start date and auto-renew.
- Invoices — every subscription period now generates an invoice (the invoice-first model). You can also create one-off invoices, approve, email and print them.
- Receipts — automatically generated on successful payments, plus manual one-off payments and refunds.
- Adjustments, write-offs and voids — explicit, audited changes to invoice balances.
- Reporting — finance Action Centres, built by your account from six finance Action Centre types (Receipts, Receipts summary, Receipt import, Invoices, Payroll and Batch), plus the Financial Summary formula field for statements.
- Self-service — form blocks and the member portal let contacts subscribe, update payment methods and download their financial documents.
The invoice-first model
SwiftFox uses an invoice-first finance model. The key rule: invoices are the financial source of truth.
- Every membership period produces an invoice.
- Payments reduce the invoice balance rather than directly updating arrears.
- Any financial change is recorded as an adjustment against the invoice.
- The subscription's Paid To Date, arrears and payment status are all derived from invoices.
This gives stronger financial tracking and auditing while still supporting your existing membership structures. Direct debit subscriptions receive invoices too, not just invoice-payment members.
Enablement & access
- The Financial tab and Finance features are back-end enabled by SwiftFox.
- Contact your account manager or SwiftFox Support to enable Finance, or to create or change subscription plan and fee configurations.
- Xero is connected through the Xero Integration; invoice method tracking shows whether each invoice was raised in SwiftFox or Xero.
How money actually moves
- Gateway methods (credit card / bank account) trigger a real charge or refund through your payment gateway.
- Invoice methods generate an invoice with a Pay Now link; no money is taken until the member pays.
- Placeholder methods (cash, cheque, bank transfer, payroll deduction) record information only — they track money handled outside SwiftFox and trigger no automated action. You manage your Payroll Deduction Payers yourself under Settings → Finance & usage → Payers: the page lists all payers, with Add payer to create one and an edit icon to rename an existing payer. Payers then appear when adding payers to individuals or creating payroll deduction batches.
- Payroll Deduction Payers are managed under Settings → Finance & usage → Payers, where you can view all payers in a table, add new payers and rename existing ones. Payers then appear when adding a payer to an individual or creating payroll deduction batches.
Where to go next
- To view a contact's finances, open their profile and use the Financial tab.
- To set up recurring billing, see the subscription guides.
- To report across the whole database, use the finance Action Centres (under the Financial group in the Action Centre).