Automatic Charging

Automatic Charging allows you to set payment collection for your pet care business on autopilot and improves cash flow with automatic retries and support for multiple payment options. This toolset is designed to help pet care businesses get paid faster and easier so you have time to do more of what you love to do!

Overview

When enabled, Automatic Charging will run at the time you specify on the days of the week you have selected. You can set Automatic Charging to run only once per week, seven days a week, or anything in between.

Automatic Charging charges the balance due on an invoice on or after the invoice's due date. If changes to the invoice's scheduled events result in a change to the due date, the auto-charge date will also be re-calculated for that invoice. You can also manually edit or cancel the scheduled Automatic Charging date for any individual invoice from the Edit Invoice screen.

When Automatic Charging is first enabled, it will be enabled for all clients. However, you have the ability to enable and disable Automatic Charging for any individual client.

24 Hours Prior To An Automatic Charge

24 hours prior to a scheduled automatic charge, we will send an email to the client with a reminder that they will be charged tomorrow. This email will include

• Links to all invoices that are scheduled to be charged the next day.
• A button to "Add Tip" if you have tipping enabled in Settings > Client Settings > Portal Settings.
• If the client has any open payments or credits on their account, the email will include a message that the open payments and/or credits will be applied.

When Automatic Charging Runs

On the day and time Automatic Charging is scheduled to run on an invoice, the following actions will take place:

1. Any open payments and/or credits on the client's account will be applied to the invoice(s).
2. The charge will be attempted on up to three payment methods (whether or not multiple payment methods will be tried is configurable).
3. If all payment methods fail, the charge will be retried up to five times on future Automatic Charging dates.

Setting Up Automatic Charging

To begin, navigate to Settings > Invoicing & Payments > Automation and enable Automatic Charging:

Days Of Week

Select one or more days you want Automatic Charging to run every week:

Time Of Day

Determines the time of day Automatic Charging will run on the days specified above. This will also determine what time the 24-hour reminder email will be sent the day prior.

Invoices Must Be

This rule determines when an invoice should be automatically charged. The options are:

• Due Today - The invoice's due date must be today or earlier.
• Past Due - The invoice's due date must be yesterday or earlier.
• Past Due By - The invoice's due date must be a configurable number of days (1-30) in the past.

Default For New Clients

Any new clients added to your account will have Automatic Charging enabled or disabled based on this setting.

Charge Failed Email

Determines whether or not to send an email to clients notifying them that we were unable to successfully charge their invoice(s).

Payment Methods To Try

Determines whether we should try only one payment method or multiple payment methods (Automatic Charging will never try more than 3 payment methods).

Viewing Upcoming And Past Automatic Charges

From Settings > Invoicing > Automation, you can view all upcoming Automatic Charges under the "Upcoming" tab and a full history of previous attempts under the "History" tab.

The "Upcoming" tab will list every single invoice that is scheduled to be automatically charged. From this view, you can see the scheduled date and time of the charge, the invoice's due date, the total charges on the invoice, the amount still due to be charged (before any credits or open payments are applied), and the default payment method on file for the client.

The "History" tab will list all previous Automatic Charging attempts that have already taken place. You can filter these past charges by "Invoice Due Date" or "Payment Date" for any specific date range. From this view, you can see the invoice's due date, the date(s) of attempt, the amount attempted, and whether the attempt succeeded or failed.

Enabling And Disabling Automatic Charging For Specific Clients

In Invoicing> Automation > Clients tab, you can see a master list of your active clients and toggle Automatic Charging on and off for each of them. You can filter this list to show only clients with Automatic Charging enabled, disabled, or both.

Bulk Enable Or Bulk Disable Automatic Charging

In Invoicing> Automation > Clients tab, you can enable or disable Automatic Charging for all clients with just a few clicks. At the bottom of the client list, find the bulk action tool:

To enable Automatic Charging for all clients, select "Enable For All Clients" in the dropdown menu, then click "Perform Bulk Action". A popup window will display, asking for you to confirm.  

To disable Automatic Charging for all clients at once, select "Disable For All Clients" from the dropdown menu, then click "Perform Bulk Action". A popup will display asking for you to confirm. 

Auto Charge Invoice Statuses

An invoice that is eligible for Automatic Charging can have one of eight statuses. These statuses are visible in the "Edit Invoice" screen, directly under the due date. Here, we'll explain what each status means. 

Pending

The invoice is eligible for Automatic Charging, and a date is scheduled in the future. You can manually adjust the scheduled date by clicking on the pencil icon. You can also disable Automatic Charging by clicking on the pencil icon.

Skipped

The invoice no longer has a balance due, and thus no payment is required. This can be the result of a manual payment being made, events being canceled/deleted, a discount being applied, and various other reasons. If the invoice later becomes open and has a balance due, the invoice will be re-scheduled for Automatic Charging.

Failed But Will Retry

An Automatic Charging attempt failed at least once but will be retried on this date.

Failed

We have exhausted all retry attempts, and Automatic Charging has permanently failed for this invoice. This invoice is not eligible for Automatic Charging again. Instead, an admin will need to charge the client's card manually, an admin will need to add a manual payment (like cash or check), or the client will need to manually submit the payment via the client portal or the mobile app. 

Succeeded

Automatic Charging successfully ran. This invoice is not eligible for Automatic Charging again, even if the invoice becomes open again. If the invoice becomes open (like by adding additional events or editing existing charges), an admin will need to run the client's card manually, an admin will need to add a manual payment (like cash or check), or the client will need to manually submit the payment via the client portal or the mobile app. 

No Payment Method

The client does not have an accepted payment method on file, and we, therefore, cannot auto-charge this invoice. Once this client adds an accepted payment method, the invoice will be re-scheduled for Automatic Charging.

Too Far In Past

The invoice's due date is greater than 180 days in the past. If the invoice's due date changes to be less than 180 days in the past, the invoice will be re-scheduled for Automatic Charging.

Disabled

Automatic Charging has been manually disabled for this invoice. You can re-enable it by clicking on the pencil icon.

FAQs

Q: Can I set an invoice 180 days or older to Auto Charge? 

Invoices with a due date of greater than 180 days old are not eligible for Automatic Charging.

Q: Will Auto Charging run at the exact time of day I have set my Auto Charging to run? 

The "time of day" specified in your settings is when we will start Automatic Charging on each enabled day, but it does not guarantee that every client's charge will run at exactly that time. Due to throughput limitations on our payment providers, the number of charges you are running and the number of other Time To Pet customers configured to run at that same time will affect how close to that time each particular charge will be executed. We strive to execute each charge within 30 minutes of that window, but it is not guaranteed.

Q: If a client has multiple payment methods on file, in which order will they be run, or how is that determined? 

We determine which payment sources to run in which order with the following rules:

1. If you have ACH & Credit Cards types enabled, we first try all available payment methods of your company's preferred type.
2. We will start with the default payment method.
3. We will then try any additional methods available, starting with the most recently added first.
4. If all payment methods of that type have been exhausted, we will then move to the other type if enabled and repeat steps 2 and 3.

For example, if you have ACH and Credit Cards enabled, but Credit Cards are your preferred type, and a client has the following payment methods available:

• Visa 1234 (Default)
• Mastercard 4321
• Bank 123
• Bank 789 (Default)

We will try these payment sources in the following order (remember we will try at most 3 payment sources, so Bank 123 will not be tried): 

1. Visa 1234
2. Mastercard 4321
3. Bank 789

If, however, ACH is your preferred type, we will try the payment sources in this order:

1. Bank 789
2. Bank 123
3. Visa 1234

Q: I adjusted an Auto Charge date, but when I adjusted the Invoice Due Date, the Auto Charge Date was not re-adjusted.

If an auto-charge date has been manually overridden, we will not automatically re-calculate the auto-charge date if the invoice's due date is adjusted.

Q: How many times can an invoice be Auto Charged or fail Auto Charging? 

Once an invoice has been successfully charged, or if it has failed permanently (5 separate failed attempts were made), the invoice will never be auto-charged again. Instead, an admin will need to run the client's card manually, a manual payment will need to be made (such as cash or check), or the client will need to manually submit the payment via the Portal or App.

Q: How can my clients enable or disable Auto Charging?

Clients are not able to enable or disable auto charging; only an admin in your Time To Pet account can enable or disable Automatic Charging for a client.

Q: If I change a client from inactive to active, will their Auto Charging automatically re-enable?

When marking clients Active from Inactive, Auto Charging needs to be re-enabled in Invoicing > Automation > Clients tab. It will not re-enable automatically. 

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