Recurring Billing

The easiest way to set up recurring payments is to use Chargent’s Payment Console. It is available on any page that includes Chargent Anywhere and allows you to process one-time payments and set up recurring payments directly from a Salesforce popup window. This makes it a convenient interface for call center agents, customer service, billing, or sales teams since it is able to initiate payments, receive tokens back from the payment gateway, and create transaction records associated with orders in Salesforce.

Most importantly, the Payment Console creates transactions and tokens without ever saving or storing cardholder account number information in Salesforce. Plus, you can set up recurring payments from any object where you have Chargent Anywhere.

Before You Begin #

Make sure your gateway is configured to allow recurring payments. Check the gateway setup guide to ensure you have selected the Show Setup Recurring Button for your gateway.

You must also set up a Recurring Billing Batch. This is typically created automatically the first time you run Chargent’s Setup Wizard. For more information, visit our Recurring Billing Batch page.

Creating Recurring Payments #

1. To initiate a recurring payment for a record, open that record. This record can be on any object you have Chargent Anywhere configured. For example, select Chargent from the App Launcher and choose the Chargent Orders tab and create a new order or select an existing order.
2. Click Payment Console. Billing information displays if it is incomplete.
3. Enter billing information if it is not already available and click Continue. This is required if you forgot a required field like State. 
4. Optionally, click Update to change billing information and Continue to return to payment details. Here, you can authorize or charge a single payment while the One Time button is highlighted.

The following options are only available if your gateway is configured for recurring payments.

5. Click Recurring and enter the following values for your recurring payment:

Card	Account Holder Name, Card Number, Expiration, and CVC (if configured to accept CVC)
Bank Account	Name on Account, Routing Number, Account Number, Bank Name, and Account Type
Initial Amount	Enter a one-time payment amount to be charged at the onset of the series, such as a down payment. You’ll be given the option to authorize this amount before charging the transaction if your gateway has configured it. Select Authorize Only to approve this amount without processing it. Note: this field does not show up if a recurring payment has already been applied to a record without an initial amount. To reset this, delete all recurring values, including the token, and it will redisplay.
Recurring Amount	Enter the amount to be charged repeatedly based on the recurring settings. If you change this amount, all future payments will be charged the new amount without changing previous payments. Note: when splitting payments between two parties (as in two parents who split child care payments), do not divide the recurring amount in half. Instead, create a separate recurring payment schedule for each party with a Bimonthly frequency.

6. Click Next to view recurring payment settings.

7. Enter the following settings for your series of recurring payments:

Frequency	Choose if you want this payment to recur Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. When you select any frequency besides Once, you also need to select an option in Payment Stop. Note: when splitting payments between two parties (as in two parents who split child care payments), create a separate recurring payment Chargent Order record for each party with a Bimonthly frequency.
Payment Start Date	Enter the date you want recurring payments to begin. Without this date, no charges will be attempted. Leave this blank until you are ready for payments to begin.
Fixed Day of Month To Charge This same field is labeled Charge Date on the Order object.	Enter the day of the month you want monthly or bimonthly charges to occur. Click here for more information on this setting.
Balance Due Amount	Chargent calculates this field based on the Total minus the total of all past transactions, including both charges and refunds.
Stop Rule This same field is labeled Payment Stop on the Order object.	Choose one of these options: Date allows you to select the last date to complete this recurring payment. Count allows you to enter the total number of recurring payments. Balance Due ends the recurring payments when a balance has been met. Unending means the recurring payments continue until you change the Payment Status to Stopped
Payment End Date	If Payment Stop is set to Date, enter the final date for this recurring payment. This is ignored and set to Unending if you choose Count as the Payment Stop option.
Number of Payments This same field is labeled Payment Count on the Order object.	Enter the total number of payments you want to recur.

Chargent sets default values for the following fields after you begin setting up a recurring billing record in the Payment Console:

Payment Status	Select Recurring. Click here to view other status definitions.
Payment Count	The total number of payments to be collected before a recurring payment stops.

8. Optionally, click Review to display the payment schedule or Payment Details to return to the previous page. 
9. Click Next to review the payment schedule. 
10. Verify that the frequency, amounts, and scheduled payments are correct. 
11. Click Charge next to the text that confirms your amounts to begin the new series of transactions.

Changing Recurring Payments #

Once you have set up recurring payments, you can make changes to amounts scheduled to payment in the future. All previous transactions will remain the same.

1. To edit a recurring payment series for a record, open that record. This record can be on any object you have Chargent Anywhere configured. For example, select Chargent from the App Launcher and choose the Chargent Orders tab and create a new order or select an existing order.
2. Click Payment Console. 
3. Optionally, click Update to change billing information and Continue to return to payment details. Here, you can authorize or charge a single payment while the One Time button is highlighted.

The following options are only available if your gateway is configured for recurring payments.

4. Click Recurring and review the amount scheduled for all future payments. Make any changes to the amount you want charged for future payments in the series.
5. Click Stop Recurring to discontinue the recurring payment series. Click Update Recurring to make changes to the series settings.
6. Make any changes to the recurring settings.
7. Click Next to review your changes.
8. Click Update Recurring Billing.

Stopping Recurring Payments #

To stop a recurring payment in Chargent Anywhere:

1. Click Payment Console. Billing information displays if it is incomplete.
2. Click Recurring.
3. Click Stop Recurring. A green confirmation image displays when your recurring payment has stopped.

Going forward, Chargent’s Recurring Billing Batch will exclude this Chargent Order record. One-time charges can still be collected, and you can also configure this record to collect recurring payments at a later time.

All the above procedures use the Payment Console because it is the quickest and easiest way to manage recurring payments. You can also complete these tasks on the Chargent Orders object itself. The Chargent Orders object stores all your payment details with links to transactions and payment requests, as well as options to void, refund, or start automated collections. Click here to read more about processing payments directly from the Chargent Orders tab.

Automation and Validation Rules #

Please be cautious if you use automation, validation rules, or required fields on Chargent Orders with recurring billing. Validation rules can prevent the Chargent Order from saving properly after a transaction occurs; because recurring transactions run in a batch, errors only display on the Apex Jobs monitoring page in Salesforce.

Certain validation rule problems can result in duplicate transactions, so please be sure to test any validation rules in Sandbox prior to deployment. Contact us for additional assistance.

Recurring Billing Declines #

If a card is declined as part of the scheduled Apex batch that runs recurring billing transactions, the payment status will be changed from “Recurring” to “Error.” If you’ve enabled the Automated Collections add-on and configured it to target this Chargent Order record, the Payment Status will update to “Automated Collection” upon a declined transaction.

If you’ve received a payment and need to manually update the Chargent Order record to resume the recurring payments:

1. Add updated billing information to the record.
2. Change the Payment Status back to “Recurring”.
3. If you have processed a charge manually outside of the recurring billing schedule by clicking the Charge button, be sure to set the Payment Start Date ahead to the next time the record should be billed to avoid a recurring charge the next time the batch runs.

See Also

Recurring Billing Batch
Chargent Payment Console
Chargent Anywhere
Processing Payments Using Chargent Orders