Allow your customers to pay a monthly/term fee in instalments.
Want to make your fees more flexible? Set a payment plan so that your customers can pay their invoices in instalments.
How can I set up a payment plan?
There are two ways on how you can set a payment plan for one user, and two ways how to set it for a group of customers.
Follow to 'Billing' > 'Payment plans' > 'Create':
You will need to select a customer for whom you'd like to set a payment plan:
Pick a suitable payment method for your plan:
Select the invoice or confirm the amount that needs to be paid:
Please pay special attention to this step as it is important to select the correct invoice. If you select 'Full Outstanding', the payment plan will be assigned to the latest approved invoice.
And finally, you will need to enter the number of instalments, the start date, and pick the desired instalment frequency - your customers can pay daily, weekly, fortnightly, and monthly:
The table will calculate the amount the customer needs to pay per instalment and the date of the last payment.
Alternatively, to create a plan for a particular customer, open their profile, go to the 'Payment plans' (Customer's tab):
Then 'Create':
And confirm all details of a new payment plan.
Payment plan for a group of customers
You can also create a bulk payment plan for a group of your customers by going to:
-
'Payment Plans > View All' and then 'Create Many' or:
-
'Customers', then select customers you want to set up a payment plan for, and then in 'Group action' choose 'Create Payment Plans'.
'Payment Plans > View All' and then 'Create Many' or:
'Customers', then select customers you want to set up a payment plan for, and then in 'Group action' choose 'Create Payment Plans'.
Please note that payment plans created in bulk will have the same outstanding amount and the same number of instalments for all selected customers.
Also, once a payment plan has been created, there is no possibility to update it, e.g. amend the number of instalments or an outstanding amount.
What happens next?
A customer will receive a notification once their payment is due. Then, depending on the selected payment method: a) the fee will be charged from their account/card; or b) they will need to pay with their card, in cash or send a bank transfer to your account.
Customers will be able to track the progress on the Parent portal, in the 'Billing > Plans' section:
What payment method can I use?
1. If you have enabled online card payments (all such transactions are processed by Stripe, here you can find more information on how to set it up), they would be able to pay via Portal.
2. If you want to collect instalments via direct debit, you would need to enable GoCardless and set mandates with your customers (this article has a step-by-step description on how to set this integration) and these payments will be taken on the agreed date.
*Please note: payment processors such as Stripe and GoCardless take additional fees for processing transactions. All approximate fees are explained in this article.
3. If you are not keen on using online payments, your customers can pay in cash or with a bank transfer - you would need to mark these instalments as 'Paid' manually.
What settings should be enabled to accept card payments and direct debits?
Before creating a new payment plan, make sure this customer has specific options enabled in the Settings of the customer's account.
You can find them if you go to 'Customers' > 'View all', find the customer who wants to pay in instalments and then open 'Settings':
Now you can check if payment collection is enabled on their account before you set a payment plan:
Please note: the customer would be able to update payment settings if they log into the portal. We would advise that you speak to customers before setting up any payment plans:
If payments are done via GoCardless, please make sure that the mandate has been fully activated for a customer before creating a payment plan. You may check the status of the mandate on the Direct Debit page in the customer's profile on Class Manager. If the mandate is not activated, GoCardless will not be able to start collecting payments according to the instalments in the payment plan.
Customers pay me in cash/ with a bank transfer. How do I enter their payments into the system?
You can mark instalments as 'paid' manually: you would need to open a customer's page, and then 'Billing':
Under 'Payment history' you would be able to find the first instalment:
If you click on it, you will be redirected to the following page where you can mark an instalment as 'Paid':
Then you will be asked to confirm the payment method and date and then proceed with 'Mark as Paid':
And this instalment will be shown as 'Paid':
Can I cancel a payment plan?
If you'd like to cancel a payment plan, follow these instructions:
1. If the customer has not paid any instalments yet, go into plan details and then 'Delete' and confirm that you want to delete this payment plan:
2. If some instalments are already marked as paid, there is no possibility to remove the plan, you can only disable it by going into 'Payment plan' details and then clicking 'Make inactive':
