Sell on a Payment Plan

Who it's for and what you get

This use case is for businesses that sell over the phone, at a counter or in person, where the customer can't pay the full price at once.

When it is done:

• a store manager sets up a plan in one screen: the customer, the total, a down payment and the schedule;
• the down payment is taken by card on the spot, or with Apple Pay or Google Pay;
• the rest is collected in equal payments, weekly, every two weeks, monthly or quarterly, in one of two ways:
  • charged to the customer's card on each due date, with automatic retries if it is declined;
  • invoiced to the customer, with a link that pays it without signing in;
• the customer is reminded before each payment and gets a receipt after it;
• every payment appears under Commerce > Transactions and Commerce > Payments, where it can be refunded.

Before you start

You need	Who sets it up
The features Subscriptions - Installment Plans, Stripe, Transaction Reminders and Send Payment Receipts	Your administrator, in Tools > Features
Stripe connected, with your keys saved	Your administrator; see Payment providers
The site's Base URL set to its public address under Settings > General, so the links in reminders work	Your administrator
The permission Manage installment plans and charge customers' saved cards for whoever sets up plans	Your administrator; see Roles and permissions

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

Steps

1. Choose how payments are collected by default. Under Settings > Installment Plans, pick Charging the saved card on each due date or Invoicing the customer for each payment. Then set how many days after a declined card to try again. See Installment plans.
2. Check the reminders. Under Settings > Commerce > Transactions, check how many days before a due date the customer is reminded, and how often overdue payments are chased. See Transactions.
3. Brand the paperwork. Under Settings > Commerce > Receipts, enter your business name, logo and footer. They appear on every invoice and receipt. See Invoices and receipts.
4. Set up the plan. Open Subscriptions > Installment Plans and click New plan. Pick the customer, or create one from a name and email. Enter the Total, the Down payment today, the Number of payments after it, how often Payments fall due, and the First payment due date. Check the schedule preview, choose how the payments are collected, and click Continue to the down payment. See Installment plans.
5. Take the down payment. Enter the customer's card, or let them use Apple Pay or Google Pay on their phone, and click the Charge button. The plan becomes Active, and the customer is sent a receipt. See Installment plans.
6. Let it run. Charged payments are taken on their due dates. Invoiced payments are sent to the customer as invoices with a link that pays them. See Invoices and receipts.
7. Follow up. The Installment Plans list shows each plan's status. Filter it by Past due to find plans that need attention. On a plan, use Charge now to collect early or retry a declined card. See Installment plans.
8. Let customers choose installments themselves (optional). Under Settings > Installment Plans, in Installments at checkout, tick the kinds of balance in Offer for balances from and enter the Numbers of payments offered, for example 3, 6. A customer paying one of those balances then sees Choose how to pay at checkout. See Let customers choose installments at checkout.
9. Handle the exceptions. Record a payment the customer made by cash or bank transfer from its transaction. Use Cancel the plan to stop collecting. Refund a payment from Commerce > Payments. See Transactions and Payments and refunds.

Check that it works

Use Stripe's test mode and its test card, so no real money moves.

1. Create a plan for a test customer, with a first payment due tomorrow.
2. Take the down payment with the test card. The plan shows Active, the down payment shows Received, and a receipt is sent.
3. Open Commerce > Transactions and filter by Installment plan in Any source. You see the down payment as Paid, and one transaction for each scheduled payment.
4. On the plan, click Charge now on the first payment and confirm. The payment shows Received.
5. For an invoiced plan, send a reminder from the payment's transaction. Open the link in the reminder in a private window, and pay it with the test card.

Tips

• Nothing is scheduled until the down payment is received. A plan waiting for its down payment can be finished later with Take down payment.
• A customer you create gets an account with no password. They can set one with Forgot password when they want to sign in, but they don't need to: invoiced payments are paid from the link in the reminder.
• If the customer's card expires, the plan page warns you. Ask the customer to pay the next payments from their invoices, or set up a new plan.
• Canceling a plan stops future payments only. Money already received stays received, and you refund it separately from Commerce > Payments.