WHAT IS A PAYMENT SCHEDULE?

Payment Schedules--recurring payment plans--are an efficient way for you business to collect payments from customers who have larger balances or need to pay installments on the amount owed. As a business, you determine the amount and the frequency of each payment which automatically processes at each interval until the balance has been paid in full. Each payment schedule can be authorized electronically using a Flow. It is recommended each schedule be authorized via a Flow to reduce chargebacks and remain compliant.

HOW DO I CREATE A PAYMENT SCHEDULE?

Click the New Schedule option in your account's primary navigation. You will be brought to a screen with two columns. On the left, you will have a form that collects all the necessary information to set the schedule up and to decide which actions to trigger, for example, you can send a Consent Request via a Flow to gather payer authorization. On the right, there is a preview of the schedule you are creating that will update as details are entered into the left column.

As you fill out the form on the left, you will notice the form is very similar to a standard payment form. However, there are a few fields that are unique to a payment schedule:

• Account Number: The recurring payment engine will search the database for any existing schedules with this account number. If another schedule is found with this account number, a box will appear under the field highlighting that another schedule was detected. You can continue to create the schedule if desired, or you can click the link in the box which will let you view the existing schedule to confirm if the new schedule you are attempting to set up will be a duplicate.
• Amount Owed: This is the balance that needs to be paid.
• Adjustment: Any amount entered in this field will be deducted from the amount owed to create the schedule. 
• Amount Remaining: This is the amount the system will use to calculate the schedule's payments. Nothing is entered in this field as it is simply a calculation of the Amount Owed minus Adjustment.
• Schedule Interval: The frequency of each payment to process. Available options include monthly, bi-monthly, weekly, bi-weekly, and daily.
• Increment Option: Allows you to create the schedule based on an individual payment amount or number of payments in months. Please note that some values may not be allowed due to the maximum terms and/or minimum payment configurations.
• Payment/Number of Payments: This is a variable field that changes based on the selected increment amount. If payment is selected you enter a payment amount and the system will generate a schedule that pays off the balance according to the Amount Remaining and the Schedule Interval with each payment being equal to the entered amount. If the Number of Payments option is selected then the schedule generated will split the Amount Remaining into the selected number of payments so that at the completion of the schedule the Amount Remaining is paid in full. 
• First Payment: The date the first payment on the schedule will process
• Send Consent Request: Tells the system to send a Flow to request authorization.
• PIN Description: This defines the PIN that a customer should enter to access the Flow and complete the requested authorization. This might be "Last 4 numbers of your account number," "The last 4 numbers of your credit card number," or another shared secret. 
• Verification PIN: The PIN the customer will have to enter in order to begin the authorization process.

*NOTE: Administrators may configure these fields so that some options aren't available or may have field titles.

Once all the fields are filled out and the schedule's preview has been generated, you can click Save or click Save as Draft. Save will activate the schedule immediately if Sent Consent Request and Request Payment Data are both set to No. If either Send Consent Request or Request Payment Data are set to Yes then a Flow will be sent to the recipient and the schedule will be updated to an inactive status until the Flow is completed successfully. Once the Flow is completed successfully then the schedule will automatically be updated to active status and payments will process as scheduled. IF THE CONSENT REQUEST IS NOT COMPLETED, DECLINED, OR EXPIRES NO PAYMENTS ON THE SCHEDULE WILL PROCESS. 

When Save as Draft is clicked, the schedule will be saved as a draft that can be accessed via Reporting > Schedules to be completed at a later time.

WHO CAN CREATE A PAYMENT SCHEDULE?

Users who are assigned to a Security Group that has the Services - Check Schedules role and/or the Services - Card Schedules role can access the New Schedule page and create new schedules.