Updated April 16, 2024
Adjust autopay enrollment settings so you can decide how you want your clients to pay their invoices. You can either require your clients to enroll in autopay, give them the option to choose whether they want to enroll, or remove the ability to enroll in autopay completely.
Requiring your clients to enroll in autopay means that your client agrees to enroll in automatic payment withdrawals — this helps to reduce missed payments from clients forgetting to pay an invoice!
Autopay enrollment settings can be used with both payment plans and recurring invoices. Please click the links for more specific information.
Edit autopay settings
You have the option to set an autopay setting that affects all future eligible payments and recurring invoices within your brand. This saves you time since you don’t have to change autopay settings for each new invoice.
To edit your autopay settings, go to Settings >> Payments and invoices and click "Edit autopay" in the Default autopay setting area.
Your options are:
Disabled: Clients won’t see the option to enroll in autopay on any invoices. Your clients must manually pay each invoice.
Optional (default): Your clients will see the ability to enroll in autopay and they can choose whether or not they want to enroll in automatic payments.
Required: You are requiring your clients to enroll in automatic payments. In order for your clients to proceed with paying an invoice, they must agree to enroll in autopay.
⛔ Heads up! Changing autopay settings only affect future enrollments. Changing the autopay setting won’t interrupt or change clients already on autopay. For active invoices, clients will be prompted to enroll in autopay the next time a payment is due.
Autopay eligibility requirements
The autopay eligibility for different payment methods will vary depending on which payment processor that you have connected.
Dubsado Payments offers the most flexibility with autopay, since both credit card payments and bank payments (ACH) can be accepted when clients are enrolling in autopay.
Note that ACH payments are more likely to fail than credit card payments, since the client's bank account must have enough funds to cover the payment. For this reason, we recommend using payment reminder emails, so that your clients can ensure their account is properly funded before an automatic payment is scheduled to process. Failed ACH payments will result in a fee.
See below for details regarding autopay eligibility with different payment methods for each of our current payment processor options:
Payment Processor | Autopay on Credit Card Payments | Autopay on ACH Payments |
Dubsado Payments | Yes | Yes |
Legacy Stripe | Yes | No |
Square | Yes | No |
PayPal | No | No |
Whether you have Dubsado Payments, Legacy Stripe, or Square connected, you will need to have a few things set up in Dubsado for autopay to work. The requirements for autopay differ slightly depending on whether you want to use autopay for a payment plan or a recurring invoice.
Find your connected payment processor below for details on autopay with payments plans and recurring invoices.
Autopay eligibility for Dubsado Payments
To allow autopay on payment plans, make sure the following is set up in Dubsado:
Dubsado Payments must be configured to Accept Credit Card Payments and/or Accept ACH Payments.
Payment plans must have two or more installments and these installments must have a due date specified. This is because autopay tracks when an invoice is due based on the due date, which it can’t do with TBD dates or Relative dates without a date mapped.
To allow autopay on recurring invoices, make sure the following is set up in Dubsado:
Dubsado Payments must be configured to Accept Credit Card Payments and/or Accept ACH Payments.
A recurring invoice that continues long enough to create at least two recurrent invoices. This means that you either don’t set an end date on the recurring invoice or the end date is far enough in the future to create two invoices.
Autopay eligibility for Legacy Stripe or Square
To allow autopay on payment plans, make sure the following is set up in Dubsado:
Your payment processor must be configured to Accept Credit Card Payments.
Payment plans must have two or more installments and these installments must have a due date specified. This is because autopay tracks when an invoice is due based on the due date, which it can’t do with TBD dates or Relative dates without a date mapped.
To allow autopay on recurring invoices, make sure the following is set up in Dubsado:
Your payment processor must be configured to Accept Credit Card Payments.
A recurring invoice that continues long enough to create at least two recurrent invoices. This means that you either don’t set an end date on the recurring invoice or the end date is far enough in the future to create two invoices.
Requiring clients to enroll in autopay
If you would like to require that clients enroll in autopay when they make their first payment on an invoice, you will want to double check your settings depending on your connected payment processor.
With Dubsado Payments connected:
You can accept credit cards, ACH payments, or both.
Do not connect to PayPal.
Connecting PayPal in addition to Dubsado Payments would allow clients to bypass required autopay by making a payment through PayPal, since PayPal payments can't be enrolled in autopay.
With Legacy Stripe connected:
Only allow credit card payments; make sure "accept ACH payments" is unchecked.
Do not connect to PayPal.
Allowing ACH payments or connecting to PayPal in addition to Legacy Stripe would allow clients to bypass required autopay by making a payment by ACH or PayPal, since ACH and PayPal payments can't be enrolled in autopay.
With Square connected:
Accept credit card payments.
Do not connect to PayPal.
Connecting PayPal in addition to Square would allow clients to bypass required autopay by making a payment through PayPal, since PayPal payments can't be enrolled in autopay.
What stops autopay
If clients are enrolled in autopay, their automatic payments may stop depending on actions made by you or your client. The following will stop autopay for both a payment plan or a recurring invoice, and your client will need to manually re-enroll to go back on autopay:
You disconnect a payment processor (Dubsado Payments, Legacy Stripe, or Square) from Dubsado.
Your client’s credit card fails. See failed payments.
Your client manually chooses to stop autopay. Even if you require autopay, your clients have protected rights that allow them to stop automatic payments at any time, even if they previously allowed autopay.
There are additional actions that may stop autopay specific to a payment plan or a recurring invoice. For additional details, see what stops autopay on a payment plan and what stops autopay on a recurring invoice.
Re-enroll in autopay
If autopay is stopped for any reason, your clients can re-enroll in autopay the next time a payment is due and it’s time to make a payment. Your clients aren’t able to re-enroll in autopay without first making a payment.
Payment reminder emails
Payment reminder emails scheduled to go out through a Payment Plan or Workflow will continue to send even if your client is on autopay.
If you don't want these emails to go out, we highly recommend that you manually remove these reminder emails before having your clients enroll in autopay on a payment plan or recurring invoice!
👋 Here's a tip... You can keep using the payment reminder emails, but change the wording to remind clients that they’re enrolled in autopay and no action is needed on their part.
Continuing to utilize payment reminder emails is recommended - especially when allowing clients to enroll in autopay with ACH payments. A payment reminder that is sent out before an automatic payment processes can give your client time to ensure their account is properly funded. Keep in mind that when a client pays via ACH, the payment will fail if their bank account is not able to cover the entire payment. See below for more information on failed payments.
For more information, see autopay emails and notifications on payment plans and autopay emails and notifications on recurring invoices.
Failed payments
If the credit card on file can’t be charged for an automatic payment, or the client's bank account can't be charged for an ACH payment, both you and your client get an email for the failed payment. The email to the client contains a link to the invoice so they can manually make a manual payment.
If the failed payment occurred on a payment plan, autopay automatically turns off.
Failed payments are not retried automatically. Your client would need to make a manual payment, and they can re-enroll in autopay if there are at least two unpaid installments after making a manual payment.
If the failed payment occurred on a recurring invoice, autopay does not automatically turn off.
Autopay stays enabled for subsequent invoices generated by the recurrence, even after a failed payment.
Failed payments are not retried automatically. Your client would need to make a manual payment on the invoice where their payment failed. When they make their manual payment, they can re-enroll in autopay and their new payment information will be used on subsequent invoices.
👋 Here’s a tip… You can edit or view the autopay failed payment email that goes to clients by going to Templates >> Canned Emails >> Edit Templates >> Autopay Failed.
⛔ Heads up! If an ACH payment fails, the merchant (Dubsado user) will incur a fee. Check out our article about Dubsado Payments processing fees for more information about connecting with Dubsado Payments, and head to the "Bank debits and transfers" section Stripe's payment methods page for more information about connecting with Legacy Stripe.
FAQ
Can I enroll on behalf of my client?
Can I enroll on behalf of my client?
No. Your client must accept the autopay terms.
Can a client stop a required autopay that’s already started?
Can a client stop a required autopay that’s already started?
Yes. This is because your clients have protected rights that allow them to stop automatic payments at any time, even if they previously allowed autopay.
In Dubsado, if your client wants to turn off a required autopay, they can do so at any time by going to an invoice and clicking Stop autopay at the bottom. You will be notified if this occurs.
Does changing the autopay setting affect clients who are currently enrolled in autopay?
Does changing the autopay setting affect clients who are currently enrolled in autopay?
No. Editing autopay enrollment settings only affects future autopay enrollments. To change current enrollments, you'll want to stop autopay then adjust the autopay setting or create a new invoice.
Can clients make manual payments if they are enrolled in autopay?
Can clients make manual payments if they are enrolled in autopay?
Yes. A client can make additional manual payments. Any open installments will automatically adjust the amount due so your client isn’t overcharged.
Where is my client's credit card information saved?
Where is my client's credit card information saved?
The payment processor (Dubsado Payments, Legacy Stripe or Square) connected to your account securely stores the credit card details needed to process the automatic payments. Dubsado never comes into contact with your client's payment information.