Automatic Charging lets you set payment collection for your Facility business on autopilot, improving cash flow with automatic retries and support for multiple payment options. This toolset is designed to help businesses get paid faster and easier, so you have time to do more of what you love!
Note: Automatic Charging is only available for companies connected to our integrated payment processor - Time To Pet Payments. For information on credit card processing in Time To Pet and how to connect to Time To Pet Payments, check out our help documentation here: Facility: Credit Card Processing.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Check out this video from our Customer Experience team on Automatic Charging For Invoices In Time To Pet Facility!
Overview
When enabled, Automatic Charging will run on the days of the week you have selected at the time you have specified. You can set Automatic Charging to run once per week, seven days a week, or any frequency 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 recalculated for that invoice. You can also manually edit or cancel the scheduled auto-charge date for any individual invoice from the Edit Invoice screen for that invoice.
When Automatic Charging is first enabled, it will be enabled for all clients by default. However, you have the ability to enable and disable Automatic Charging for any individual client, which we'll cover in more detail below.
24 Hours Prior To An Automatic Charge
Twenty-four hours prior to a scheduled auto-charge, we will send an email to the client with a reminder that they will be charged tomorrow. This email will include the follwoing:
Links to all the invoices that are scheduled to be charged the next day
An Add Tip button if you have tipping enabled in the Settings > Client Settings > Portal Settings section of your account
If the client has any open payments or credits on their account, the email will include a message that those amounts will be applied
Note: You can add a custom message to this email in the Settings > Company Settings > Messaging section of your account. Look for the message titled Email - Automatic Charge Reminder.
When Automatic Charging Runs
On the day and time Automatic Charging is scheduled to run on an invoice, the following actions will take place:
Any open payments and/or credits on the client's account will be applied to the invoice(s).
The charge will be attempted on up to three payment methods (whether or not multiple payment methods will be tried is configurable).
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 the Settings > Invoicing & Payments > Automation section of your account and enable Automatic Charging:
Days Of Week
Select one or more weekdays that you want Automatic Charging to run on every week:
Time Of Day
This setting 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 (one to thirty) in the past
Note: The Invoices Must Be setting cannot override your Days Of Week setting. For example, if this is set to "Invoices Must Be Due Today", the invoice has a due date of Wednesday, and you only have Friday enabled for Automatic Charging, the invoice won't be auto-charged until Friday since Wednesday and Thursday are not enabled for Automatic Charging.
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):
Note: You can add a custom message to this email in the Settings > Company Settings > Messaging section of your account. Look for the message titled Email - Automatic Charge Failed.
Payment Methods To Try
Determines whether we should try only one payment method or multiple payment methods (Automatic Charging will never try more than three payment methods):
Note: Check out the FAQs at the bottom of this page for more details on the order in which payment methods will be tried.
Viewing Upcoming And Past Automatic Charges
From the Invoicing > Automation section of your account (which will only be made available to you once you have enabled Automatic Charging for your company), 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 lists every invoice 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 lists all previous Automatic Charging attempts. 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 the attempt, the amount attempted, and whether the attempt succeeded or failed:
Note: If you filter by Payment Date, the date of the most recent attempt will be used if there have been multiple attempts for the same invoice.
Enabling And Disabling Automatic Charging For Specific Clients
In the 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 the 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 pop-up window will appear, asking you to confirm this action:
To disable Automatic Charging for all clients at once, select Disable For All Clients from the dropdown menu, then click Perform Bulk Action. A pop-up will appear, asking you to confirm this action:
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 will explain what each status means.
Pending
The invoice is eligible for Automatic Charging, and a future date is scheduled. You can manually adjust the scheduled date or disable Automatic Charging for that specific invoice by clicking on the pencil icon next to the listed Auto Charge date:
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 cancelled or deleted, a discount being applied, and various other reasons. If the invoice later becomes open and has a balance due, the invoice will be rescheduled for Automatic Charging:
Failed But Will Retry
An Automatic Charging attempt failed at least once but will be retried on the current Auto Charge date listed:
Failed
We have exhausted all retry attempts, and Automatic Charging has permanently failed for this invoice. This invoice is no longer eligible for Automatic Charging. Instead, an Admin or Scheduler with the correct permissions will need to charge the client's card manually, an Admin or Scheduler with the correct permissions will need to log a manual payment (like cash or check) for the invoice, or the client will need to manually submit the payment through their Client App or Portal:
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 or Scheduler with the correct permissions will need to run the client's card manually, Admin or Scheduler with the correct permissions will need tolog a manual payment (like cash or check) for the invoice, or the client will need to manually submit the payment through their Client App or Portal:
No Payment Method
The client does not have an accepted payment method on file, so we cannot auto-charge this invoice. Once this client adds an accepted payment method, the invoice will be rescheduled for Automatic Charging:
Too Far In Past
The invoice's due date is greater than 180 days in the past. If it is updated to less than 180 days in the past, it will be rescheduled for Automatic Charging:
Disabled
Automatic Charging has been manually disabled for this invoice. You can re-enable it by clicking on the pencil icon and selecting a new Auto-Charge date:
FAQs
Q: Can I set an invoice 180 days or older to Auto Charge?
Invoices with a due date that is more than 180 days old are not eligible for Automatic Charging.
Q: Will Automatic Charging run at the exact time of day I have set my Automatic 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 thirty 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:
If you have ACH & Credit Cards types enabled, we first try all available payment methods of your company's preferred type.
We will start with the default payment method.
We will then try any additional methods available, starting with the most recently added first.
If all payment methods of that type have been exhausted, we will then move to the other type if enabled and repeat steps two and three.
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 three payment methods, so Bank 123 will not be tried):
Visa 1234
Mastercard 4321
Bank 789
If, however, ACH is your preferred type, we will try the payment methods in this order:
Bank 789
Bank 123
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 recalculate it when the invoice's due date is adjusted.
Q: How many times can an invoice be Auto Charged or fail Automatic Charging?
Once an invoice has been successfully charged, or if it has failed permanently (as in five separate failed attempts were made), the invoice will never be auto-charged again. Instead, an Admin or Scheduler with the correct permissions will need to run the client's card manually, a manual payment will need to be made (such as by cash or check) and logged for that invoice, or the client will need to manually submit the payment through their Client App or Portal.
Q: How can my clients enable or disable Automatic Charging?
Clients are not able to enable or disable Automatic Charging; only an Admin in your Facility account can enable or disable Automatic Charging for a client.
Q: If I change a client from inactive to active, will their Automatic Charging automatically re-enable?
When marking clients Active from Inactive, Automatic Charging needs to be manually re-enabled in the Invoicing > Automation > Clients section of your account by an Admin. It will not re-enable automatically.





















