Updated April 16, 2024
You have the ability to require your clients to enroll in automatic payments for recurring invoices. Once enrolled in autopay, your client is automatically charged on the date of each invoice!
For information on payment plans, please see autopay on payment plans.
Autopay eligibility requirements and limits
Dubsado Payments
Users who are connected with Dubsado Payments can have Accept Credit Card Payments and/or Accept ACH Payments enabled, since Dubsado Payments allows for clients to enroll in autopay with either a credit card payment or a bank account payment.
To require your clients enroll in autopay, we recommend turning off PayPal as a payment option, since clients can bypass a required autopay by making a payment via PayPal.
Legacy Stripe or Square
If you have Legacy Stripe or Square connected, you must have your payment processor set up to Accept Credit Card Payments in Settings >> Payments and invoices for autopay to work on a recurring invoice.
If you want to require your clients to enroll in autopay, we recommend turning off PayPal and ACH (Legacy Stripe only) as payment options, since clients can bypass a required autopay using these. To prevent clients from bypassing autopay, only allow Accept Credit Card Payments.
Payment plans on a recurring invoice
If you have a payment plan within your recurring invoice, make sure you don't create more than one payment plan installment! If you have two or more, then autopay can’t be set up on the recurring invoice.
To create multiple payment installments, use a payment plan on an invoice instead. Please go to autopay on payment plans for more information.
Edit autopay settings
Change your autopay setting in Settings >> Payments and invoices. Any changes will take effect on the next invoice.
For detailed information, see autopay enrollment settings.
What stops autopay on a recurring invoice
If autopay is stopped, both you and your client will get an email. The email is auto-generated by Dubsado and can’t be edited.
The following actions will turn off autopay. Your client must manually re-enroll to go back on autopay:
You disconnect your payment processor (Dubsado Payments, Legacy Stripe or Square) from Dubsado.
You end a recurring invoice by clicking End Recurrence. You can’t edit a recurring invoice after it has started.
Your client manually stops autopay.
Client view of a recurring invoice
If autopay is set to Required, the following changes occur on the client’s recurring invoice:
The client can’t type in a custom amount to pay.
The Pay Now button next to an installment is removed.
Tipping is disabled.
Clients must accept the autopay enrollment terms before they can pay.
If you set autopay to Optional, the autopay enrollment terms will appear, but the client is not required to accept the terms to pay.
Client changing their payment method
Your client can go to an invoice at any time and click Change payment method to update the credit card or bank account on file. Payment changes won’t disrupt or cancel autopay.
Failed payments
Please see what happens with failed payments while on autopay.
Autopay emails
To customize your emails, go to Templates >> Canned Emails >> Edit Templates.
Send Invoice: Emails client of each new recurring invoice.
Autopay Failed: Emails client if an automatic payment fails.
Autopay Enrollment Confirmed: Emails client after enrolling in autopay.
Both you and your client will get an email if autopay is stopped on a recurring invoice. The email is auto-generated by Dubsado and can’t be edited.
Notification settings
Change your system notifications under Settings >> Notifications.
View the client’s autopay status
Client autopay status appears inside the client’s project under Invoices >> Recurring Invoices.
Override brand autopay settings
You have the option to override the autopay preference you chose in Settings. Override is useful if you want specific recurring invoices to have different autopay settings.
To override a recurring invoice within a project:
go to Projects.
choose your specific project.
click on Invoices.
click on the Recurring Invoices tab.
click Override.
Reset autopay back to brand settings
If you no longer need an overridden invoice, you can revert it back to what you have set in Brand Settings.
Go to the section containing the overridden autopay.
Click Edit.
Check Reset to brand setting.
Click Update autopay.
