Set up a recurring payment

Set up a plan that charges a customer automatically, on a schedule you define, until it reaches a fixed end or you stop it yourself.

Before you start

• You need the Charge action on the record's page layout — see Part 6 of the quick start guide if it is missing.
• The gateway you plan to use must support Installment or Subscription billing under its Supported Payment Modes. See the gateway reference.
• You need either a saved payment method for the customer, or you plan to charge by Payment Link instead.
• The background jobs must already be scheduled, or nothing you set up here will ever charge — see Part 7 of the quick start guide.

Steps

1. Open the record and click Charge.
2. Choose Card, Bank, or Payment Link as the payment type.

3. Choose Installment Plan or Subscription.

4. If you chose Installment Plan, choose how it should stop under Bill until: N payments, Total reached, or End date.

5. Choose a Frequency — labelled Bills Every if you chose Subscription.
6. If you chose Subscription, choose whether it ends under Ends: Never or On date.

7. Set the Start Date, and the field that matches the basis you chose:

   Basis	Field to fill in
   N payments	Number of Payments
   Total reached	Per-Installment Amount — the plan continues until the total amount already entered on the charge screen is reached
   End date	End Date
   Subscription, ending on a date	Subscription Ends On

8. Optional: enter an amount under Upfront Payment to charge something today, before the regular cycle begins.

9. Click Preview Installments or Preview Subscription.
10. Check the preview — it lists every charge by number, date and amount before you confirm anything.
11. Click Set Up Installments or Start Subscription to confirm.

What you should see

A new recurring payment record, showing the basis, frequency and next payment date you chose. If you set an upfront payment or a start date of today, the first charge processes immediately.

If you chose Payment Link instead of a saved payment method, no charge happens yet — ChargeOn emails the customer a link for the first amount due, and the plan waits for them to pay it.

The preview never lies

The dates, amounts and sequence shown before you confirm are exactly what gets scheduled — they are computed by the same logic that runs the plan, not a separate estimate.

If it does not work

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
Installment Plan or Subscription does not appear as an option	The selected gateway is not configured to support that mode	Check its Supported Payment Modes — see the gateway reference
The plan was created, but no charge has ever happened	The background jobs are not scheduled	Part 7 of the quick start guide
A charge came from a gateway you did not expect	The first charge failed over to a fallback gateway, and the plan is now permanently pinned to it	This is expected behaviour — see the warning in Recurring payments
A Subscription plan stopped charging on its own	Three consecutive declines paused it. Three is the default; your administrator can change the limit	Fix the payment method, then resume it
An Installment plan stopped early, with charges left unmade	Each genuine decline uses up one of the fixed number of charges, the same as a success	Check the plan's history for the declined cycle, and fix the payment method going forward