How to Add Manual Payment Method in Shopify, Set up Custom Methods Easily 2026

From your Shopify admin, go to Settings and select Payments. Scroll past your main payment provider setup and payment capture method — which controls when card payments are actually charged — to the Manual payment methods section. This is a separate list from Shopify Payments or any third-party gateway, specifically for orders that get paid outside your online store's automatic checkout flow, like cash handed over on delivery or a bank transfer confirmed manually.

Click Manual payment method to open a dropdown with a few ready-made options — Money Order and Cash on Delivery (COD) are built in and only need you to confirm you want them enabled. If none of those fit, choose Create custom payment method instead, which is the option to use for a bank transfer, pay-at-store pickup, or any other offline arrangement specific to how you actually take payment.

The Set up manual payment method form asks for three things: a Custom payment method name — what customers see at checkout, so make it clear, like "Bank Transfer" or "Pay on Pickup" rather than something vague; Additional details, shown to customers while they're choosing a payment method, useful for a short note like which bank or what to bring; and Payment instructions, which only display after the order is placed — this is where you put full account numbers, exact pickup hours, or step-by-step instructions for completing the payment. Click Activate once everything's filled in.

Back on the Payments settings page, your new method now appears in the Manual payment methods list alongside any others you've already set up, each with its own Edit link for adjusting the name or instructions later. There's no limit to running several manual methods side by side — a store might reasonably offer Bank Deposit, Cash on Delivery, and a Pay at Store option all at once, letting the checkout page present whichever ones apply to a given customer or region.

An order paid through a manual method doesn't get marked as paid automatically the way a card transaction does — Shopify explicitly notes that orders paid manually must be approved before being fulfilled. That means someone on your team needs to confirm the cash was received or the bank transfer actually landed, then mark the order as paid in the admin before it ships. Skipping this check is how stores end up shipping product for a bank transfer that was never actually sent.

Because manual methods rely on trust and a manual follow-up step, be explicit in your Payment instructions about deadlines — for example, giving a bank transfer 48 hours to arrive before the order is automatically canceled, or a cash-on-delivery order having a limited redelivery window. This protects you from holding inventory indefinitely against an order that never gets paid, and it sets a clear, fair expectation for the customer from the moment they choose that option at checkout.