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?

In the dashboard, click the "SCHEDULES" dropdown and click "NEW SCHEDULE". You will be brought to a screen with two columns. On the left you will have a form which collects all the necessary information to set the schedule as well as options to trigger certain system action such as a flow for authorization. On the right, there is a preview of the schedule you are creating as data is entered in 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 few fields which 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. 
• Schedule Amount: This is the amount the system will use to create the schedule. Nothing is entered in this field as it is simply a calculation of the Amount owed minus the 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 schedule amount and the schedule interval with each payment being equal to the entered amount. If Number of Payments is selected the system will generate a schedule that pays off the balance according to the schedule amount and the schedule amount until the number of desired payments is achieved. 
• First Payment: The date the first payment on the schedule will process
• Send Consent Request: Tells the system to send an authorization request to the customer.
• Pin Description: This tells the customer what pin to enter when receiving the authorization request. This could be an account number, last 4 of a card number, or a birth date. 
• Verification Pin: The pin the customer will have to enter in order to begin the authorization process.

*NOTE: Administrators configure these fields and some of the options above may not be available or may have different names.

Once all the fields are filled out and the schedule preview has been generated, you can click save or click save as draft. Clicking save will activate the schedule immediately if a consent request has not been sent. If a consent request has been sent the schedule will still be saved but it will be in an inactive status. Once the request is completed, the schedule will automatically switch to an active status and payments will process as intended. IF THE CONSENT REQUEST IS NOT COMPLETED, DECLINED, OR EXPIRES NO PAYMENTS ON THE SCHEDULE WILL PROCESS. 

When clicking save as draft, you are saving a draft of the schedule that you can access at a later time to complete and save.

WHO CAN CREATE A PAYMENT SCHEDULE?

Users who have either or both of the Services - Check Schedules permission or the Services - Card Schedules permission can create a Payment Schedule.