# Take a payment for a customer

> Take a payment on your customer's behalf with Staff Payment, for example while they're on the phone.

A staff payment is one that you or a team member takes on your customer's behalf, for example when a customer phones to pay an invoice.

Always use **Staff Payment** for these, not the customer's payment link. It marks the payment as taken by staff, so the right security checks are used and you won't be asked to complete a 3D Secure challenge meant for the cardholder.

You need the Admin or Support role. See [Team management](/merchants/merchant-portal/teams/).

## Take a staff payment

1. Select **Payment Links** in the menu.
2. Next to the multi-use link the payment is for, select **Staff Payment**.
3. Enter the details, then select **Next**:

   | Field | What to enter |
   | --- | --- |
   | Reference | The invoice number or other reference |
   | Amount | The amount your customer wants to pay |
   | Name | Your customer's full name |
   | Email | Your customer's email address (optional) |
   | Phone | Your customer's phone number (optional) |

   ![The Staff Payment form with Reference, Amount, Name, Email and Phone](/_astro/cdn/595d7f777d/staff-payment-details.png)

4. Enter your customer's payment details in the payment window, and complete the payment.

   ![The payment window over the Staff Payment form](/_astro/cdn/817592ae18/staff-payment-card.png)

To check the payment went through, open **Activity**. See [Activity view](/merchants/merchant-portal/activity-view/).

To take card payments over the phone without the card details reaching you or your staff, see [Twilio](/merchants/twilio/intro/).