The Goal: Know exactly when members’ stored cards and bank accounts are charged, send members an invoice before the charge if you want to, and change the card on an invoice that’s already scheduled.
Before You Begin:
- Two settings decide the charge date: Use Automated Billing and Invoice Before Autopayment. Both are on the General Billing Settings page, at Finance > Administrative > Billing Settings.
- Only members with a stored payment profile assigned to their fees are charged automatically. See Store and assign a payment profile.
- IMPORTANT: If Invoice Before Autopayment is off, running billing manually charges cards the same day. Check the setting before you run billing.
When stored profiles are charged
| How invoices are created | Invoice Before Autopayment | Card is charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Automatically (Use Automated Billing on) | On or off | The next bill date on the contact’s Billing Setup tab |
| Manually (you run Upcoming Billing) | Off | The day you generate the invoices (the invoice date). You’re asked to acknowledge this when you click Run. |
| Manually | On | The next bill date |
- To bill automatically, see Setup System to Automatically Generate Invoices for Scheduled Billing.
- Billing manually with Invoice Before Autopayment off, but not ready to charge cards? Run billing first for members without a payment profile, then run it for members with profiles on the day you want them charged.
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Billing manually with Invoice Before Autopayment on: you can change the scheduled date by selecting Advanced Options on the Run Upcoming Billing screen.
Send an invoice before charging (Invoice Before Autopayment)
This gives members time to check funds, update their card or turn off Autopay before they’re charged.
- Go to Finance, Administrative section, click Billing Settings and select General Billing Settings. Turn on Invoice Before Autopayment.
- Check your default invoice template on the same page. The default template includes merge fields for the scheduled payment date and amount; on invoices with no scheduled payment they simply stay blank, so one template works for both.
What happens next:
- With Automated Scheduled Billing on, invoices are generated at 5:30 am each day for next bill dates inside your lead-time window (set on General Billing Settings). Otherwise they’re generated when you run Upcoming Billing.
- The invoices go to Unsent Invoices. Deliver them as usual; see Deliver invoices by email or print.
- The member’s invoice says it’s scheduled to be paid automatically; they don’t need to do anything. The card is charged on the next bill date.
- To see what’s scheduled, click Reports in the left-hand rail, select Invoice Scheduled to be Paid, set your filters and click Run Report.
Change the card on a scheduled invoice
If a member wants a different card used before the charge date. This changes that one invoice only. To change future recurring charges as well, see Change or remove Autopay for a member.
- If the new card isn’t stored yet, add it on the contact’s record; see Store and assign a payment profile.
- On the contact’s Billing tab, click the ellipsis for the invoice.
- Click Edit Scheduled Payment.
- Choose the card from Scheduled Payment Profile.
- Click Done.
Emails sent when a profile is charged
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Charge succeeds: the member receives the Auto Payment Receipt message.
- Charge fails: the member receives GrowthZone Pay Charge Failed, with a link to pay or update their payment details.
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Staff: anyone subscribed to the Auto-payment Failed notification is emailed too.
Common Pitfalls
- Cards charged the same day billing was run: Invoice Before Autopayment was off. Turn it on before running billing if members should be invoiced first.
- Card change didn’t carry over to next year: Edit Scheduled Payment affects one invoice. Update the recurring schedule as well.
- Nobody knew a charge failed: subscribe staff to the Auto-payment Failed notification.