How can I add and charge a customer's card on file for manual orders?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Merchants are requesting the ability to save customer credit cards on file and charge them for manually created orders in Shopify, particularly for B2B transactions with variable order amounts. This functionality exists in competing platforms like Square and QuickBooks but is not natively available in Shopify.

Current Limitations:

  • Shopify only supports card-on-file through subscriptions or installment payment options
  • Draft orders require customers to complete checkout themselves via invoice
  • Shop Pay stores customer payment info, but customers must authorize each new charge
  • The “Charge vaulted card” staff permission only applies to pre-orders or try-before-you-buy products

Workarounds Mentioned:

  • Processing payments through external systems (Square, QuickBooks, Authorize.net) alongside Shopify for inventory/sales tracking
  • Using Shopify Plus with New Customer Accounts to save cards on the front end for B2B company locations
  • Third-party solution: Easy Pie Checkout (Stripe-powered) with future payment features

Status:
Multiple feature requests have been submitted since 2022, but Shopify staff cannot provide updates on implementation. The lack of this feature is causing frustration among merchants, with some reconsidering their platform choice. Several businesses note this is a dealbreaker for B2B operations where customers expect to authorize charges over phone without re-entering card details.

Summarized with AI on October 29. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
7

Hi, @MrHatt !

The staff permission “Charge vaulted card” applies to products that were purchased through an option like pre-orders or try before you buy. With these purchase options, there will be a scheduled date to automatically collect the payment. If payment needs to be collected early, that is handled through a button on the order details page.

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