Run your own layaway. The installments collect themselves.
FinanceLayer is scheduling software for layaway you operate yourself. The customer signs a plan, authorizes a debit from their bank account through Stripe Financial Connections, and every installment pulls on the schedule you set. You hold the goods until the final installment posts. That's the part that keeps this out of credit: nothing is extended, no interest is charged, and no underwriter sits in the middle. Plans default to 4 installments, which keeps them outside the Truth in Lending Act's definition of "credit."
Layaway for your store.Without the 6% BNPL fee.
Your store runs the plan instead of a BNPL provider. You pick the terms, the customer pays you by ACH, and the goods stay on your shelf until the last installment clears. No Affirm, no Klarna, no Afterpay taking a percentage on the way past.
Four payments every two weeks, or a deposit up front and three monthly pulls after it. A $1,000 order can go out as 4 × $250 without anyone else's approval rules getting a vote.
Email the customer their plan. They read the terms, sign, and pay the deposit in one sitting. No account to create first, no app to install.
Due dates, what's been paid, what's left. When a plan goes past due, you see it on the list instead of finding out at month end.
Deposits and installments arrive over ACH through Stripe at 0.8%, capped at $5 per installment. The same money on a card costs you 2.9% + $0.30.
Offer a payment plan. Get paid on schedule.
Four steps, and only the first one needs you. You write the plan; after that the agreement, the ACH pulls, and the match-up against your Stripe deposits take care of themselves. The goods stay on your shelf until the final payment posts.
You write the plan
Pick how many installments, how far apart, and how much comes up front. Nobody else's approval rules apply.
The customer signs
They e-sign the schedule and the ACH authorization in one pass. Stripe verifies the bank account behind it.
I authorize ACME Co. to debit $250 bi-weekly from my Chase account (••••4827).
The debits run themselves
Stripe pulls each installment on its due date. A failed pull gets flagged so you can follow up. Auto-retry and payment reminders are coming soon.
Keep the margin
Every installment lands in your own Stripe account. Nobody takes a cut on the way through.
See every plan. Get paid on time.
Every open plan, what you've collected, and what's gone late, on one screen inside Shopify Admin. You never leave the tab you were already working in.
- Copy the agreement linkGrab it off the plan page and drop it into the email thread you're already in.
- Auto-retry failed ACH (coming soon)When a debit bounces for insufficient funds, we'll re-run it for you instead of leaving it on your list. Not shipped yet.
- Due-date reminders (coming soon)We'll email the customer ahead of each installment. Also on the way, not here today.
- Every payment ties to a Stripe transferYou stop matching deposits to plans by hand at the end of the month.
Your customer signs your agreement, not Klarna's.
Every plan is an ACH authorization they e-sign: the amounts, the dates, and the account it comes out of, all on one page. Your store name sits at the top of it, and there's nothing for them to sign up for.
- E-SIGN Act compliantWe record the signer's name, the timestamp, and the IP address on every agreement, so you can show who agreed to what and when.
- Your store name, not a BNPL logoThey see who they're actually buying from. Nobody else's brand is on the page.
- They can sign it on a phonePhone, tablet, laptop, whatever they open the email on.
This agreement authorizes ACME Supply Co. to collect installment payments via ACH bank transfer.
IP 174.21.•••.24
Same payment plan. A sixth of the cost to you.
Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay underwrite the loan, and their fee comes out of your order to pay for it. FinanceLayer isn't lending. You write the terms, the customer's bank pays you directly, and the fee is $9 a month however big the order gets.
You keep 99% or more of the order
You set the installment terms
Paid by bank transfer, not card
Your store name on the agreement
Your customer signs up for nothing
Flat monthly fee, no cut per order
E-signed ACH authorization on file
Works on every Shopify plan
What it costs you on a $1,000 order
Merchant fees sourced from public pricing pages (affirm.com/business/pricing, klarna.com/business, afterpay.com/merchant, shopify.com/shop-pay-installments) as of April 2026. Shop Pay Installments merchant fee estimated from Shopify's stacked Payments + Affirm rate disclosures. Compliance note: FinanceLayer is scheduling and documentation software, not a lender. Merchants using 5+ installments or charging interest should consult counsel on TILA and state RISA requirements.
We run FinanceLayer for engagement ring customers at Hitched. A ring is almost never an immediate purchase, so a payment schedule fits the way people actually buy one. And customers love that there's no credit check and no application. They pick a plan, sign it, and the installments just run.
Our recommendation: hold the goods until the plan is paid in full. That's how we run it at Hitched, and it's what keeps layaway simple: no credit is extended, so there's nothing to underwrite and nothing to chase. FinanceLayer never releases or ships anything automatically. Whether you fulfill earlier on a partially paid plan is your choice to make against your own risk profile, and the balance is still owed either way.
Start with one plan
Request early access, then write your first plan for the customer who's been asking to pay it off in pieces.
One app. Three modules.
Card fees, no bank-transfer option, BNPL taking a cut of your biggest orders. One module each. Stack all three for flat pricing with no volume caps.