Managing a Member's Recurring Billing Invoice

Once a member is enrolled on a recurring billing plan, their invoice is where you manage them: pausing billing while they take time off, canceling when they leave, adding a one-time charge, and handling a payment that fails. This article covers each of those actions. 

These actions affect one member. To change or stop a plan for everyone on it, see the article Managing Recurring Billing Plans. 

In this article

• What the recurring billing invoice shows
• The adjustment window
• Pause a member's billing
• Restart a paused plan
• Cancel a member's plan
• Add a one-time charge
• When a payment fails
• Find members who are behind schedule
• FAQ

What the recurring billing invoice shows

A recurring billing invoice looks much like a payment plan invoice, with a few additions:

• An indicator that this is a recurring plan, rather than a fixed set of installments.
• The date of the next charge.
• How many charges have been completed so far.
• Past payments, collected into an expandable section so the page stays readable as the membership goes on.

Recurring billing invoices carry their own statuses: Active, Paused, and Canceled.

Because there is no fixed total on a recurring plan, the invoice does not show a balance owed for the life of the membership. It shows what has been charged, what is next, and nothing beyond that.

The adjustment window

Each charge is generated on the member's invoice three days before it runs. It does not charge immediately on generation, which gives you a window to act on it before money moves.

Within those three days you can:

• Apply a credit.
• Increase or decrease the amount for that charge.
• Record a payment the member made offline.
• Pause the plan so the charge does not run at all.

Members are notified three days before a charge and again the day before, and they can pay early during that window. If nothing changes, the charge runs automatically on its due date.

This is the mechanism for handling one-off exceptions — a family who overpaid last month, a member who is switching mid-cycle, a credit you promised — without disturbing the plan itself.

Pause a member's billing

Pausing is for a member who is taking time off but staying in your program: an injury, a semester abroad, a seasonal break. It replaces the old workaround of dropping them and having them re-register when they return.

To pause, open the member's invoice and select Pause.

While a plan is paused:

• No new installments generate, so no charges run.
• The member stays enrolled in the program.
• Their invoice shows a Paused status.

If a charge has already been generated inside the three-day window, pause the plan before that charge runs.

Restart a paused plan

Open the member's invoice and select Restart. Installments begin generating again on the plan's normal cadence, and the member's status returns to Active.

The member does not re-register and does not need to re-enter a payment method.

Cancel a member's plan

Canceling stops all future charges for that member. This is the standard action when someone leaves.

1. Open the member's invoice and select Cancel.
2. Choose whether to also remove the member from the program. This is the usual drop scenario — canceling billing and removing them from the roster in one step.
3. Type the confirmation text to complete the cancellation.

The typed confirmation is intentional. Canceling cannot be undone, so the extra step is there to prevent an accidental click from ending someone's billing.

If the member might return, consider pausing instead of canceling. A paused plan can be restarted; a canceled one cannot.

Add a one-time charge

You can add extra line items to a recurring billing invoice alongside the recurring cadence — uniforms, merchandise, a tournament fee, a late charge.

1. Open the member's invoice and add a charge.
2. Enter the amount, a description, and a due date.
3. The charge appears as its own line item and auto-charges on the due date you set.

The description matters more here than on a fixed invoice. A recurring invoice becomes an ongoing ledger of everything that member has been charged, so "Fall uniform — jersey and shorts" reads far better six months later than "Charge".

If you would rather keep membership dues clean and separate, you can always create a separate invoice or have the member purchase the item as a product instead.

When a payment fails

Failed payments on recurring billing follow the same behavior as auto-pay on payment plans. See the article Auto Pay for Payment Plans for how auto-pay works generally.

When a charge fails:

1. The member is emailed automatically and prompted to update their payment method.
2. The system retries the payment method on file once a day for seven days. This catches the common case where funds simply were not available on the due date.
3. If it has not succeeded after the seventh day, retries stop.
4. At the next scheduled due date, the system attempts to collect both the missed charge and the new one.

For bank payments specifically, failure and delay behavior differs from cards. See the article Bank (ACH) Payment Failures and Delays.

Find members who are behind schedule

Rather than watching individual invoices, filter the invoice list to surface everyone whose billing has not kept up.

1. Go to your invoices list.
2. Filter by Behind Schedule.

The result is every member whose charges have not been collected on time. Checking this once a cycle, a few days after your charge date, is the simplest way to stay on top of failed payments.

FAQ

Can I pause someone's membership instead of dropping them?

Yes. Pause their plan on their invoice. No charges generate while it is paused, they stay enrolled, and you restart it when they come back. They do not re-register or re-enter payment details.

Can I schedule a pause to end automatically?

Not currently. A pause stays in effect until you restart it manually, so track the return date yourself.

What is the difference between pausing and canceling?

Pausing is temporary and reversible — billing stops, the member stays enrolled, and you restart when ready. Canceling is permanent, stops all future charges, and optionally removes the member from the program.

If I cancel a member's plan, are they refunded?

No. Canceling only prevents future charges. Refunds are handled separately, at your discretion.

A member's card was declined. What happens next?

They are emailed automatically and asked to update their payment method, and the system retries daily for seven days. After that, retries stop until the next due date, when both charges are attempted together.

How do I find everyone with a failed payment?

Filter your invoices list by Behind Schedule. That gives you every member whose charges have not been collected on schedule.

Can I change one charge without changing the whole plan?

Yes, within the three-day window before it runs. Once the charge is generated on the invoice you can adjust its amount or apply a credit, and the plan itself is unaffected going forward.

Can I add a charge for something that isn't membership?

Yes. Add it as a line item with its own due date and a clear description. It cannot land on the same day as a recurring charge. If you would rather keep dues separate, create a separate invoice or sell the item as a product instead.

Can a member update their own payment method?

Yes. Members can see and update the payment method on file from their member portal. See the article How to add, edit or delete a stored payment method.