---
title: "Create a payment instruction"
description: "How an offline payer is told where to send the money."
canonical_url: "https://twominutebilling.com/help/developers/api-reference/payment-instructions/create-a-payment-instruction"
---
# Create a payment instruction

> How an offline payer is told where to send the money.

<api-operation method="POST" path="/v1/businesses/{biz}/payment_instructions">
<template v-slot:docs="">

Printed on invoices; see the Documents settings for whether they are sent at all.

## Path parameters

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Parameter
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Type
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Required
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Description
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        biz
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <strong>
        yes
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Business id (biz_…)
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

## Headers

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Parameter
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Type
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Required
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Description
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        Idempotency-Key
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      no
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Safely retry writes — repeats return the original response. If a write FAILED after it had already taken effect, that failure is what repeats: the key is spent, and a new attempt needs a new key.
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

## Body

The request body is **required**.

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Field
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Type
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Required
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Description
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        kind
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <strong>
        yes
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The kind of payment instruction, such as a bank transfer. One of <code>
        bank_transfer
      </code>
      
      , <code>
        paypal
      </code>
      
      .
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        section_title
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <strong>
        yes
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The heading of the section.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        section_id
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      no
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The merchant's own reference for this block. Theirs, opaque to us.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        description
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      no
    </td>
    
    <td>
      PLAIN TEXT. Printed into a customer-facing PDF and HTML view, so markup would be an injection surface.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        fields
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        array of object
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      no
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The label/value list a bank block is printed from (Account name, IFSC, SWIFT …). Ordered, merchant-defined, never parsed by us.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        fields.label
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <strong>
        yes
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The label of the line, e.g. <code>
        Account number
      </code>
      
      .
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        fields.value
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <strong>
        yes
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The value of the line.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        currencies
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        array of string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      no
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Empty (the default) applies to every invoice; a non-empty list narrows to these.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        countries
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        array of string
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      no
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Empty (the default) applies to every invoice; a non-empty list narrows to these.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        position
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        integer
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      no
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The section's sort position; lower numbers come first.
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

## Status codes

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Status
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Meaning
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        201
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Created
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        400
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Invalid body, or too many fields
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <code>
        409
      </code>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Idempotency-Key conflict — the key is already in flight, or was reused with a different request payload.
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</template>

<template v-slot:request="">

```bash [Request]
curl -X POST "$TMBILLING_URL/v1/businesses/biz_XXXXXXXXXXXX01/payment_instructions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TMBILLING_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "kind": "bank_transfer",
    "section_title": "Bank transfer",
    "description": "Everything a growing team needs."
  }'
```

</template>

<template v-slot:response="">
<code-group>

```json [201 Created]
{}
```

```json [400 Bad Request]
{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request_error",
    "message": "Invalid body, or too many fields"
  }
}
```

```json [409 Conflict]
{
  "error": {
    "type": "idempotency_error",
    "message": "Idempotency-Key conflict — the key is already in flight, or was reused with a different request payload."
  }
}
```

</code-group>
</template>
</api-operation>


## Sitemap

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