Installment and Scheduled Payments

Offer an installment payment plan on select programs or manually schedule future payments to automatically charge the credit card on file.

These scheduled payments and installment payments features are available only with certain software subscription plans. Not sure if your center qualifies? Ask your friendly support guru.

Manually schedule future payments - as an Admin User with appropriate permissions, you may manually schedule future payments on a registration. The card on file will be automatically charged on the scheduled date.

Installment payment option - when configuring a Program, on the Pricing tab, you may choose to Allow Balance to be Paid in Equal Installments. When enabled, this will present a new option to the person completing the online registration form. 

 

Manually schedule future payments

Consider this example. You offer a Fall-Winter Meditation Series at your center for $2100 per person, all-inclusive. You have configured the program to allow either a 10% deposit or payment in full when registering.

Chris registers with a $210 deposit (10% of $2100) and asks if the $1890 remaining balance can be paid off over time. You say, "Yes!"

Viewing Chris' registration:

Manually schedule a payment

From the Edit Registration view, choose Add a payment - Credit card. A new window will open to display Add Transaction.

The following entries are made:

1. We checked Send payment email so that Chris will receive a notification when the scheduled payment is processed.
2. We entered $1000 as the first scheduled payment amount.
3. We added a description to identify this as the first of two installments.
4. We checked Schedule payment and entered a Payment Date - the amount will be automatically be charged to the credit card on file on this date.
5. And finally, we added a comment (optional).

Click Schedule Card Payment to update the registration.

To schedule the second installment, choose Add a payment - Credit card. A new window will open to display Add Transaction. Enter the details for this scheduled payment in the same manner as completed for the first scheduled payment.

When the second scheduled payment has been configured, view the updated registration.

The registration now indicates that the total is $2100, that $210 in payments have been received, and that $1890 in payments have been scheduled. The balance due after the scheduled payments will be zero.

The BALANCE DUE (after scheduled) should be zero

Best practice is to always confirm that the BALANCE DUE (after scheduled) is zero. If that amount is greater than zero, you need to schedule an additional payment. If that amount is less than zero, you need to reduce the total value of the scheduled payments - your scheduled payments exceed the balance due.

Prior to the scheduled date for a payment, you may Edit or cancel that scheduled payment. For example, if Chris wishes to pay off all or part of the balance due earlier than scheduled, you will need to adjust the scheduled payments.

Following our example, let's say that Chris contacts you to pay $890 earlier than the first scheduled payment date. After manually entering the $890 payment, the registration looks like this.

The BALANCE DUE (after scheduled) is ($890.00), a negative number. This means that the total of payments received plus payments scheduled exceeds the registration total. Unless you modify the scheduled payments, Chris will be charged too much.

In our example, you could just cancel the Second of two installments, a scheduled payment of $890, because it happens to equal the amount that Chris paid early.

If this wasn't the case, you could cancel one of the future scheduled payments, recalculate the balance due, and create a new scheduled payment for the correct amount. If you've entered the correct amounts for scheduled payments, the BALANCE DUE (after scheduled) should be zero.

Installment Payments option

When configuring a Program, on the Pricing tab, you may choose to Allow Balance to be Paid in Equal Installments. When enabled, this will present a new option to the person completing the online registration form.

This installment payment feature can be enabled on a program-by-program basis.

Go to Programs > (Choose a program to Edit) > Pricing > Installment Payments.

For the Deposit, choose People can pay a deposit or the total from the drop-down.

Check Allow Balance to be Paid in Equal Installments, choose the installment payment frequency, for example, Monthly.

Configure when the final payment will be due, for example, 3 days before the program start date. The frequency is based on the date the registration takes place, for example, if a guest registers on the 18th of the month and opts for monthly installments, the next installment will occur on the 18th of the following month unless the deposit cut-off date is within that month.

To be eligible for installment payments, the guest must register at least one installment payment cycle before the deposit cut-off date.

The deposit cut-off date is configured at Reg Settings > General > Payment > Deposit Default.

For example, let's assume that you have configured the Monthly option for installments and configured the deposit cutoff as 10 days before the program start date. To be eligible for installment payments, the registration must be received 30 + 10 days (40 days) prior to the program start date.

Let's also assume that you have configured the full payment to be due 3 days before the program start date.

If registration is completed between 40 days (installment term + deposit cutoff) and 10 days (deposit cutoff) before the program start date, a deposit will be accepted and the final payment will be automatically scheduled for 3 days prior to the program start date.

When the scheduled date is reached, the card on file will be automatically charged for the appropriate amount.

Check the box next to Send payment notification email to automatically send the guest notice of the processed payment.

Alternative payment

If you have enabled alternative payment and that payment option is selected by the person completing the online registration form, the installment payment option will automatically hide (for that registration). 

For example, if for Program XYZ you enable installment payments and enable alternative payment (naming the alternative payment as personal check), and personal check is selected as the payment method during the online registration process, the person will be asked to mail a check for the amount of the required deposit - no installment payments will be scheduled.

Reporting on scheduled payments

From Transactions view > Filters and Reports enter the Scheduled Dates for your reporting period.

The results will show the payments scheduled to occur during the date range that you specified.