A recurring payment is a method used to charge a customer on a regular schedule for ongoing products or services. For example, merchants can use recurring payments to charge their customers a monthly fee or for billing on a subscription-based business model.
To set up a recurring payment for a customer, you must define the schedule and amount using a plan. Then, link the customer’s payment method to that plan using a subscription.
Note
Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay cannot be used to set up recurring payment plans.
Complete all steps in the following sections as a merchant to set up a recurring payment. For instructions on modifying a plan or subscription, see Plans.
Prerequisites
Before setting up a recurring payment, you must have one of the following:
A customer’s card payment information
The token number of a customer’s payment method that’s saved to the Payrix Pro platform
See Tokenize a Payment Method for steps to create a customer and tokenize their payment information. You can also create tokens using Quick Charge, Invoices, PayFields, PayFrame, or the Customer Profile page. After tokenizing the payment method, retrieve the token hash value from the Customer Profile to link it to the subscription.
Create a Plan
To set up a recurring payment, you must first define how much the customer is charged and how often payments occur.
To create a plan:
Under Payments in the main side bar, select Recurring Payments then Plans.
Click Add Plan in the upper-right corner of the page.
Enter the plan name and the amount to charge.
Enter a number in the Plan Schedule: Every field and select an interval to set the time interval for the payment schedule.
(Optional) Enter the maximum number of times the payment is attempted and fails before auto-canceling the plan.
Important!
If you don’t set a limit in the Max. Consecutive Failures field, the subscription keeps retrying the same payment method indefinitely at each scheduled plan interval after a payment fails. For details, see Subscription Failures and Retries.
(Optional) Enter descriptions in the Description and Transaction Description fields.
Click Add.
After you create the plan, you are redirected to the Plans page to review existing recurring payment plans and add subscriptions linking customers and their payment methods to the designated plan.
Create a Subscription
After creating your plan, you must assign the customer’s payment method and set additional parameters to automatically process payments based on the plan’s schedule. Assigning the customer’s payment method to a recurring payment supports a seamless, PCI-compliant subscription for ongoing goods and services.
To create a subscription:
Select the plan from the Plans page.
Click Add Subscription.
Enter the start date and optional end date.
(Optional) Enter any tax amount, the maximum number of consecutive failures, and a description.
Enter the payment information. You can enter a new credit or debit card, or use a token for an existing payment saved in Payrix Pro.
To use a new payment method, enter the customer’s email address, click Enter Card Details, enter the credit or debit card information, and click Save Payment.
To use a token from an existing payment, click Create with Token and enter the customer payment token value in the Token field.
Click Add to save the subscription to the plan.
Important!
The first payment in a plan is not processed immediately. See Processing Schedule for more details.
To charge a customer immediately, submit a separate Sale transaction.