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Creating Recurring Payment Plans & Subscriptions - Canada

Use the Payrix Portal to create recurring payment plans and subscriptions and assign customers to them.

In this guide, you will learn how to set up recurring payments. Recurring payments allow a Merchant to automatically charge their customer’s tokenized payment method in the Merchant’s desired amount and at their desired intervals.

This is an ideal solution for Merchants seeking to schedule future payments and for those operating a subscription-based pricing model.


How to Schedule Recurring Payments

Recurring payment plans and subscriptions can only be set by Merchant users. Therefore, Pro Clients should use the login as function to set up recurring payments on behalf of their Merchants.

Scheduling recurring payments consists of three components:

  1. Saving a customer and tokenizing their payment method

  2. Setting up a recurring payment plan

  3. Adding a customer to a recurring payment plan (subscriptions)

Once a customer has been saved, and their payment method tokenized, to schedule recurring payments will require subscribing them to a plan.

In the Portal, you have the option to save a customer simultaneously as you subscribe them to a recurring payment plan.


How to Create a Recurring Payment Plan

A plan dictates the amount and frequency any subscribed customer will be charged. A plan is not limited to an individual customer and multiple customers can be subscribed to the same recurring payment plan.

For example, if a Merchant has a $10/monthly user or platform fee, they would create a plan that reflects that amount and frequency, and subscribe all or as many of their customers as they’d like to that plan. Any customer they subscribe to that plan will be charged $10 once a month.

Step-By-Step Instructions for Creating a Plan in the Portal

Step 1 - Navigate to the Plans page & select ‘Add Plan’

On the Dashboard menu, hit the (plus) icon next to Recurring Payments (under the Payments header) and click on Plans. When you are redirected to the Plans page hit the (plus) Add Plan icon.

Step 2 - Complete the ‘Create New Plan’ form

Next, you will be redirected to the Create New Plan form. Complete the form by entering the amount and frequency of your desired recurring payment plan. Hit the Add button once the form is completed.

In the example below, we are creating a $10/monthly fee called “Monthly Platform User Payment”:

‘Create New Plan’ fields & field descriptions

Field

Required

Description

Name

Optional

Give the recurring payment plan a name. We suggest using a name that describes the purpose of the recurring payment. For example, if the recurring payment is a platform fee, name the plan “Monthly Fee” etc.

Amount

Required

Enter the dollar amount you want the customer to be charged.

Plan Schedule: Every

&

Intreval

Required

These two fields are where you determine the frequency of the recurring payment. In the first box (Plan Schedule: Every) enter the numerical frequency at which you want the recurring payment to be charged. For example, if the recurring payment will be charged once a month, enter “1” in the Plan Schedule: Every field.

In the Interval field, select your desired option from the dropdown menu. In the once a month example, the “Months” option would be selected in the Interval field.

Together, these two fields indicate that the recurring payment will be charged every “1 Months” (i.e. once a month).

Description

Optional

Enter an optional description of the recurring payment plan for your own record-keeping usage.

Max Consecutive Failures

Optional

When a charge for a subscription to this recurring payment plan fails or is declined, by default, when the next scheduled payment comes around it will be attempted again.

For example, if the plan is for a monthly recurring payment, and in one of the months the customer’s card is declined or fails, the recurring payment will be attempted again the next month.

If the recurring payment subscription is using a bank account as the payment method (EFT), a failed payment might not be re-attempted for subsequent payments.

By setting the Max Consecutive Failures field you can limit how many times a declined or failed payment will be re-attempted for the subsequent recurring payments.

For example, if this field is set to “2” then the subscription to the plan will be suspended after two consecutive failed/declined recurring payments.


Adding Customers to a Recurring Payment Plan (Subscriptions)

Once a recurring payment plan is created, you can add customers to it via a subscription. While the plan dictates the amount and frequency of a recurring payment, subscriptions determine who is enrolled in the plan, when the recurring payment is charged - i.e. what day of the month the customer will be charged -, as well as the start and end date of the customer’s subscription to the plan.

Step-By-Step Instructions for Recurring Payment Subscriptions in the Portal

There are two ways in which you can set a recurring payment subscription in the Portal:

Setting a subscription via the plan

Step 1 - Locate the recurring plan you’d like to add a customer to

On the Dashboard menu, hit the (plus) icon next to Recurring Payments (under the Payments header) and click on Plans. Next, select the plan you’d like to add a customer subscription to.

Step 2 - Complete the ‘Add Subscription’ popup form

Once you’ve selected the correct plan, hit the (plus) Add Subscription icon. Complete the Add Subscription popup form and select Add when done.

You can enter a new payment method and save the customer simultaneously as you add their subscription. After you enter a new payment method in the Add Subscription form you can locate this newly saved information in the Customers section.

Or, if you’ve already saved the customer and their payment method, you can use their Token when adding a subscription instead of entering a new payment method.

Setting a subscription via the customer

Step 1 - Find the customer you’d like to add to a recurring payment plan

On the Dashboard menu, select Customers (under the Payments header) and locate the correct customer.

Step 2 - Navigate to the customer’s Recurring Billing tab & complete the ‘Add Recurring Billing’ form

Once you’ve selected the correct customer, click on the Recurring Billing tab on their profile. Next, hit the (plus) Add Recurring Billing icon and complete the popup form. On the popup form, you will have the option to use any of the customer’s existing tokenized payment methods or enter a new payment method. Once done, hit the Add button to complete the subscription.

Be sure to select the correct plan that you’d like to add this customer to from the Payment Plan dropdown menu. You can also create an entirely new recurring payment plan if desired

'Add Subscription' fields & description

Field

Required

Description

Recurring Schedule

Optional

Enter the start date of the recurring payment subscription in the first box and the end date in the second box.

By default, the current date will be the start date and there will be no end date to the subscription.

If no end date is specified, the recurring payments will continue at their scheduled intrevals until the subscription or plan is deactivated.

Remember, whichever start date is selected will determine which day of the week/month/year subsequent recurring payments for this subscription will be charged.

Tax

Optional

Enter a tax amount (in dollars) you’d like charged to the customer when their recurring payment subscription is charged.

Consecutive Failures

Optional

When a recurring payment subscription fails or is declined, by default, it will be attempted again when the subsequent recurring payment is scheduled. Entering a number in this field will limit the amount of times a recurring payment subscription will be attempted after consecutive failures.

If the recurring payment subscription is using a bank account as the payment method (EFT), a failed payment might not be re-attempted for subsequent payments.

For example, if the plan is for a $10/monthly recurring payment, and the payment fails/declines 2 months in a row, the subscription will be cancelled if this field is set to “2”.

Email

Required

Enter the customer’s email address.

Enter Card Details

Required*
(*if you are using a token to create the subscription this field is skipped)

If you are creating the recurring payment subscription with a new payment method, enter that information in the popup.

Create with Token

Required*

(*if you are using a new payment method to create the subscription this field is skipped)

Paste the customer’s Token in the relevant field.


When is a Recurring Payment Charged?

By default, the start date of a subscription will determine what day of the week/month/year subsequent recurring payments will be charged. For example, if the plan is a $10/monthly recurring payment, the start date of the subscription will determine the date subsequent monthly payments will be charged. If the subscription start date is the first of the month, the subsequent monthly recurring payments will also be charged on the first of the month.

The first recurring payment is charged the moment the subscription is added to the plan. Subsequent recurring payments will be charged at approximately 12:01AM EST on the scheduled date.


How to Cancel/Stop a Recurring Payment

There are two ways a Merchant can stop charging their customer for a recurring payment:

Deactivate an individual customer’s recurring payment plan subscription

If a Merchant would like to remove an individual customer from a recurring payment plan, they can do so by deactivating the customer’s subscription.

On the Dashboard menu, select Recurring Payments (under the Payments header). Scroll through your existing subscriptions until you locate the one you’d like to deactivate and click on it. Next, hit the edit icon and set the Status field to Inactive. Be sure to select the check icon to save your changes.

Once a subscription is deactivated the individual customer will no longer be charged subsequent recurring payments, but no other customers on the plan will be impacted.

Deactivate an entire recurring payment plan

A Merchant can also deactivate an entire recurring payment plan if they want to end it for all of their customers.

On the Dashboard menu, hit the (plus) icon next to Recurring Payments and select Plans. Next, find the plan you’d like to deactivate and open the Details tab (the page will load on the Subscriptions tab). Lastly, hit the edit icon and change the Status to Inactive. Be sure to hit the check icon to confirm your changes.

Deactivating a plan will cancel subsequent recurring payments for all the customers that subscribed.


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