Overview
This article explains the fundamentals of Automated Payment Plans, a feature which extends the functionality of the payment plans module to automate the creation of the payment plan when an invoice is approved.
It mimics some of the behaviour seen in services like AfterPay, to enable customers to defer the payments for products and services and pay the amount off over time.
While the setting is Enabled:
- for a service provider, the system will set up payment plans for each invoice raised for all customers.
- for an account, the system will set up payment plans for each invoice raised for the customer.
Automated Payment Plans and its related settings are account attributes so adopt the standard account attribute inheritance rules. This means that:
- No payment plans will be created for invoices that have already been approved.
- The setting can not be applied retrospectively
Interactions With Other Modules
Like payment plans, it relies on the use of the customer's automated payment method, therefore a payment gateway needs to be set up and working.
Payment plan events can be utilised to automate the communications about the payment plan to the customer.
Service Provider Default Settings
The system can be configured to create payments plans for all customers by default under the Admin area.
The system will create a payment plan for each invoice based on the Payment Plan Frequency and Number of Payments configured in the service provider's default settings. Just like any payment plan, the amount outstanding on the invoice is divided by the number of payments to obtain each individual payment amount.
Enable the setting at the service provider-level with caution. From the time this setting is switched ON, the system will create a payment plan for all customers each time an invoice is approved.
Unless this is your objective, configure all other attributes but leave the toggle OFF or OFF (System Default).
Customer-Level Settings
This feature's default settings can be overridden for an individual customer.
Other Settings
The following additional settings need to be configured for this feature to work correctly.
- Minimum Payment Amount for EPS
- Default Payment Plan Retry Days
- Default Payment Plan Maximum Retries
The customer will also need to have an payment method configured and enabled in the Customer > Payment Methods tab.
Visual Indicators
If the service provider setting is On and the customers is without an automated payment method configured and enabled the following notification will show on the account.
Account has Auto Payment Plan Invoices enabled, however the customer's automated payment status is not correctly configured. Payment Plans will not be created for invoices automatically until this is resolved. Please see the Payment Methods tab.
In addition, a message is printed on the customer level override screen
This account's automated payment configuration is not enabled or is invalid. Payment Plan Invoices will not be created for this account, even if this feature is turned on, until a payment Method is configured in the Payment Methods tab
When the feature is On for a customer, regardless of it being inherited from the provider-level or applied directly, the following customer notification will be displayed at the top of the account.
Account has Auto Payment Plan Invoices enabled. Payment Plans will be created for all invoices that are approved