Auto Charge is the easiest way to get paid on time, every time, because invoices get paid in full on their due date, directly from your customer's bank account or credit card. There are a couple different ways to set up Auto Charge; read more below to find the one that works best for you.
Tip: Set up recurring invoices to be automatically created by the system then Auto Charge can take care of the rest. See Resources below on how to set up recurring invoices!
Jump to:
- Set up Auto Charge for your customer
- Customer sets up Auto Charge on their own
- Turn off Auto Charge for individual invoices
- Past due invoices with Auto Charge
- Email reminder
- Things to know
Set up Auto Charge for your customer
If you have your customer's bank account or credit card info (and their written permission to make payments on their behalf), you can set up Auto Charge yourself.
- Select Customers in the navigation menu
- Select the Customer name
- Select More actions
- Select Auto Charge
- Select Authorized
- Select Save & Add a Bank Account or Save & Add a Credit Card
- Enter the details for the bank account or credit card
- Note: When entering bank account information, the bank account type will be required. If the account is a Personal Checking or Personal Savings, specify the type of authorization provided by the customer to charge their account.
- Select Save
- Select Back to Customer
- Select More actions
- Select Auto Charge
- Select Automatically Pay Bills
- Enter a Maximum Payment amount
- The Maximum Payment amount is the total amount that will be charged to the customer for each invoice, including convenience fees, if any. If the Maximum Amount is less than the total of the invoice, the invoice will be partially paid.
- Optional: Enter Pay on date
- the date the payment is to be debited from the customer's bank account (Credit card payments are processed immediately on the date the payment is scheduled)
- Select Save
Customer sets up Auto Charge on their own
The customer can set up Auto Charge themselves, from the portal where they log in to pay their bills to you. They can follow the directions below to turn on Auto Charge. Note: If you are using the new card payment experience powered by BILL, not Vantage, your customers aren't able to set up Auto Charge on their own yet. In the meantime, we advise you to set up Auto-Charge for them.
- Log in to the portal where they pay you
- Hover over the gear icon and select Auto Pay is Off
- Select the edit icon
- Select Automatically Pay Bills
- Enter the maximum to pay for any individual bill
- Enter bank account and/or credit card details
- Optional: Pay on date
- Enter how many days before or after the due date the payment should initiate
- Select Save
A customer's payment commitments can be locked in by disabling their ability to remove their credit card/bank information or turn off Auto Charge.
To Update your Receivables preferences, so your customers are locked into the billing agreement they made with you:
- Select Settings
- Select Preferences under Receivables
- Select No for Allow Customers to Change Auto Charge
- Select Save
Turn off Auto Charge for individual invoices
Having customers on Auto Charge is great! You get paid on time, every time. However, there may be times when an Auto Charge customer will have a one-off invoice that doesn't need to be paid automatically. There's an option to choose if an invoice should be auto-paid or not on a per-invoice basis.
When creating an invoice
When entering an invoice for a customer on Auto Charge, de-select Automatically pay bill at the bottom, before selecting Save.
Recurring invoices, or invoices already saved
Recurring invoices are set to Auto Charge by default and it can't be turned off when you set up a new recurring invoice. You can turn off Auto Pay for any individual invoice, even one created by a recurring invoice rule:
- Locate the invoice in Bill.com
- Select the edit icon
- Select or deselect Automatically pay this bill as appropriate
- Select Save
Past due invoices with Auto Charge
If a customer has overdue invoices when you enable Auto Charge, or if you create an invoice with a due date in the past, we'll initiate a payment for that outstanding invoice, up to the maximum amount set per invoice.
Credit Cards
The card on file will be charged immediately. The record of the payment will appear on the customer's record in Bill.com within 20-30 minutes of enabling Auto Charge.
Bank Accounts
The withdrawal for the payment will be made from the bank account on file on the next business day. The record of the payment will appear on the customer's record in Bill.com within 1-2 hours of enabling Auto Charge.
Email reminder
3 business days before an invoice's pay date (either the due date, or the number of days before/after the due date as specified in the Auto Charge settings), we'll email your customer a reminder and the payment will be scheduled. They need to make sure they have enough money in their bank account (or credit limit on their credit card) to pay, or they should cancel the payment.
The email will include:
- Your company name
- Invoice number(s)
- Invoice amount(s)
- Amount to be debited per invoice
- Pay on date
- Total amount to be debited
- Instructions on how to turn off Auto Charge (if applicable)
Note: The email reminder regarding Auto Charge processing doesn't include copies of the invoices, just a list of invoice numbers.
Things to know
- Auto Charge is available if you process credit cards through Vantage or BILL
- Auto Charge will need to be set up by a bank authorized user.
- We email your customer when an auto-payment occurs, letting them know the amount of the payment, the date of the payment, and which invoices were paid
- Automatic charges will be withdrawn from your customer's bank account, or charged to their credit card, on the invoice due date by default unless a different pay on date has been set
- If a customer has more than one payment option, bank or credit card, choose which payment type to use from the Pay From drop down and, if there's more than one credit card on file, choose which one to use from the menu.
- If the due date is a holiday or weekend, the payment will be initiated on the next business day
- If a "Pay on" date has been entered, the payment will be pulled when specified ("x" days before/after the invoice due date)
- Automatic charges will be made on unpaid invoices with no previous payments (including voided or canceled payments), up to the maximum amount
- Credits are considered a payment, and Auto Charge won't kick in
- If there are invoices past due when Auto Charge is enabled, payment for those invoices will be:
- Withdrawn from your customer's bank account on the next business day
- Charged to your customer's credit card immediately
- If Auto Charge is enabled, when a new invoice with a due date in the past is created or synced in from the accounting software, payment for the invoice will be withdrawn from your customer's bank account or charged to their credit card on the next business day
- Auto Charge isn't available for Network payments
- Note: Not all features are available for all accounts. If you have questions on feature availability or the way they work, contact Customer Support by selecting the Contact Us link found on this page.
