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Recurring Billing

December 3, 2024

Description

How to create Recurring Billing plans and subscriptions, and how to create a report subscription for Recurring Billing transactions

What's in this article?

Recurring Billing is a value-added service that allows you to accept recurring payments, either for subscriptions or payment plans. Create Recurring Billing plans within your Merchant Services account, deciding the frequency, the amount, and the billing date for the plan. Your customers sign up with you directly for a subscription or a payment plan, and the you use a token to assign the customer to the appropriate Recurring Billing plan(s.) You can then automatically process recurring payments from your end users without storing any sensitive customer or payment information.

Because Recurring Billing uses secure tokens, it protects sensitive cardholder information and can prevent the theft of payment card information from the your system.

NOTE:
Recurring Billing can collect scheduled payments from customers. It cannot disburse payments.

You can use this service to accept automatic payments from your customers. Many types of merchants use this service; here are common reasons:

  • Collect regular, recurring fees (for example, gym memberships)
  • Allow customers to make recurring, equal payments over a defined period of time (for example, a payment plan) 
  • Offer subscription services (monthly dog food delivery, book of the month club, etc.)

Setting up Recurring Billing will require two things:

  • Recurring Billing Plan
    Recurring Billing plans are plans that you set up that have attributes (ie., billing amount and billing frequency) that you want to use over and over again. Example: You could set up a “gold” plan that charges your customer $100 a month ongoing, with no end date. And you could set up another plan, a “silver” plan, that charges your customer $50 a month for a total of 6 months.
  • Subscriptions 
    Subscriptions can only be created from an existing customer token. A customer token creates a tokenized profile for a merchant’s customer, and securely stores the information. Each customer token creates a billing token. A customer token is necessary to bill a customer via Recurring Billing. 
    Example: If you have a Gold Plan, you can create a subscription for your customer “John Doe” by assigning John Doe’s customer token to the Gold Plan.

NOTE:
To create a subscription, a customer token must be associated to a Recurring Billing plan.

Recurring Billing plans

A plan must be created within the Recurring Billing section of a your Merchant Services account, in order to set up a Recurring Billing event. If you have not signed up for Recurring Billing with your Merchant Consultant, you will not see the Recurring Billing section of your Merchant Services account. Plans contain information that specifies the billing amount and billing frequency for the recurring transactions. You can create multiple plans. The Recurring Billing subscription will link your customer's token information to a plan. 

There are two types of plans that can be created:

  • Recurring: To process payments on a specific frequency with no specified end date to the payments and no specified number of payments.
  • Recurring with End Date: To process a specific number of payments on a specific frequency. This is usually used to give customers the option to complete a purchase within a specific timeframe.

Payment frequency options supported for both types of plans:

  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Monthly
  • Quarterly (every 3 months)
  • Semi-annually (every 6 months)
  • Yearly
Create a plan
  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking.
  2. Select Recurring Billing > Payment Plans.
  3. Click Add New Plan.

  4. Enter plan information



    Table of plan information fields and descriptions
    FieldDescription
    Plan CodeThe system will automatically assign a plan number. You can enter your own code if there is a unique plan code that should be assigned. 
    Plan NameA name for your plan. This is a required field.
    Plan DescriptionA description of your plan.
    Billing AmountThe billing amount for this plan. Only USD currency is supported.
    CurrencyLeave as default. Only USD supported.
    Billing FrequencyHow frequently this plan should be billed.
    Billing Cycle OptionsIf the plan is recurring, select Bill Indefinitely. Select Define Number of Billing Cycles to create a payment plan that ends after a set number of cycles, then enter the number of billing cycles below. 
    Setup feeOptional. Enter a setup fee that is applied the first time a plan is billed.
  5. Click Submit. Your new plan will appear in Payment Plans.

NOTE:
Once plan(s) have been created, you can create recurring billing events, or subscriptions, for your customers. Refer to Recurring Billing Subscriptions to create recurring billing events for your customers.

View existing plans
  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking. 
  2. Select Recurring Billing > Payment Plans.
  3. Click Add Filter. Your existing plans will not display without adding a filter.
  4. Select an option from the New Filter dropdown list.
  5. Enter the complete Plan ID or Plan Name. Plan name must be complete and exact.
  6. Click Search. Filter results appear.
  7. Click the hyperlink in the Plan Code column and the Plan Details page appears.

Edit existing plans

You can edit, activate, deactivate, or delete a plan. The following information can be edited:

  • Plan code
  • Plan name
  • Plan description
  • Billing amount
  • Billing cycles
  • Setup fee
  • Subscription update—change the plan for all new and existing or only new subscriptions

To edit existing plans

  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking. 
  2. Select Recurring Billing > Payment Plans.
  3. Click the hyperlink in the Plan Code column to view the Plan Details page. If you have multiple plans, you can filter to find the plan you need to edit.

  4. Click Edit.
     
  5. Make desired changes to the plan.
  6. Select Plan Change - Subscription Update > New Subscriptions Only or All (New and Existing Subscriptions).
  7. Click Save. 

To deactivate or delete a plan

  • Search for the desired plan and open the Plan Details page, then click the Deactivate plan or Delete a plan button in the top right corner.

Recurring Billing subscriptions

A Recurring Billing subscription combines the customer's payment information (their token) with the Recurring Billing plan. The subscription defines when the payments will start and how long they will last. You can create a subscription with a new customer, which will create the customer token at the same time your create the subscription, or you can create the subscription using a customer token that you created previously. If needed, you can update or cancel a subscription at any time.

To create a Recurring Billing subscription 
  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking. 
  2. Select Recurring Billing > Subscriptions.
  3. Click Create New Subscription.

    Create a new subscription button highlighted
  4. Select whether you are creating a subscription for a new customer or whether you will use an existing customer token:

    select a customer type options dialog
    To enter new customer payment details
    1. Enter the customer details for the new customer:

      subscription customer details options
      • Enter a reference number for the customer. This is a required field and will help you identify the customer later. 
      • (Optional) Enter an email for the customer.
      • (Optional) You may add additional fields. Click Add and then enter the information of your choice.
      • Click Continue.
    2. Enter the payment details for the customer:
       
      • Select Credit/Debit card in Payment Methods.

        subscription payment method options
      • Enter the card details, including card type, card number, expiration, and currency. 
      • Enter the Billing Address details for the cardholder.
      • Click Continue.
    3. Indicate whether the shipping address is required for this subscription. If yes, enter the shipping address details.

      subscription shipping details address required
    4. Click Continue.
    To select an existing customer token
    1. Enter the existing customers First Name and Last Name.
    2. Select Search. 
    3. In the search results, click Select next to the customer's account. 

      select customer token for subscription
  5. Enter the Subscription Details:
    • Enter a Subscription Name, which can be the name can be the customer’s last name, a customer number, or whatever is most helpful to the you. This is a required field. 
    • Enter a Start Date to begin billing. 
    • (Optional) Enter a Subscription Code if there is a unique code that should be assigned; otherwise, the system will auto-assign a consecutive subscription code number. The Subscription Code can be letters or numbers.
    • From the Billing Plans dropdown list, select a plan to associate to the subscription. 

      select subscription billing plan
    • Click Apply. 

      NOTE:
      You many edit the Billing Amount and Setup Fee associated with the plan for this specific customer by clicking the pencil icon. While the Billing Amount and Setup Fee can be updated at the subscription level, this is not recommended. To keep consistency for all subscriptions assigned to a specific plan, we recommend that this information not be changed. If necessary, the merchant should create a new plan and then associate the plan to the subscription.

  6. Click Create Now.
     
    confirm creating the subscription
  7. Click Yes, create to confirm the new subscription. The Subscription Details screen will appear. 
To edit subscriptions 

You can change the subscription code, name, plan option, and billing amount. There are two ways to edit the details of a specific subscription: through Recurring Billing or Token Management. 

  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking. 
  2. Select Recurring Billing > Subscriptions. 
  3. Locate the subscription and click the Subscription Code hyperlink. 

    click the subscription code hyperlink
  4. Click Edit and make desired changes.

    edit subscription details
  5. Click Update.

NOTE: You can also access the subscription through Token Management by selecting the customer's token ID, then selecting the Subscriptions tab and clicking the Subscription Code.

To search for a subscription

View subscriptions from within your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking. There are two ways to view subscription details – in Recurring Billing, and in Token Management.

  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking. 
  2. In the left navigation, select Recurring Billing > Subscriptions.


  4. Use the filters to locate the subscription and click the hyperlink in the Subscription Code column to open the Subscription Details page. If you select to filter on Subscription Status,  available statuses include:
    OptionDescription
    PendingCreated but subscription has not yet started (a future start date)
    ActiveSubscription is currently in use
    DelinquentA payment has been missed (auto-payment declined)
    SuspendedA subscription is automatically suspended after 5 evenly spaced tries and failures, manual suspension is not available
    CancelledSubscription has been cancelled by merchant
    CompletedInstallment plan that has reached the specified number of payments

    filter subscription by status

NOTE: You can also access the subscription through Token Management by selecting the customer's token ID, then selecting the Subscriptions tab and clicking the Subscription Code.

To cancel or reactivate a subscription
  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking. 
  1. Select Recurring Billing > Subscriptions.
  2. Locate the subscription and click the Subscription Code hyperlink.
  3. From the Change Status dropdown list, select the to cancel or reactivate. 

    change a subscription status
To troubleshoot Delinquent or Suspended subscriptions

When a subscription is first created, the payment method will be tested. If the payment method fails, the account is immediately suspended. If the payment method fails at the first billing cycle, the account will be suspended. After the first billing cycle, if a payment fails, the Subscription status changes to Delinquent and the system begins retrying the payment method until the the payment works or the system changes the Subscription status to Suspended.

Table of payment failure status and subscription status
Payment failedSubscription status
When subscription is createdThe subscription will automatically be Suspended.
Very first payment failsWithout any retries the subscription will automatically be Suspended.
Payment fails after recurring billing establishedPayment will go through a retry process. During the retry process, the status of the subscription will be Delinquent. After retrying 3 times, the subscription will become Suspended. The rate of retry depends on the Subscription billing frequency:
Table of subscription type and retry frequency
Subscription billing frequencyRetry frequency
YearlyRetried every 15 days x 3 times
MonthlyRetried every 2 days x 5 times
WeeklyRetried every 1 days x 3 times
DailyNo retry

Recurring Billing reports

You can create a report subscription that will contain detailed information about recurring billing transactions.

To create a report
  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking. 
  2. Select Reporting > Report Subscriptions.
  3. Click Create Custom Subscription in the top right corner of the screen.

    create custom subscription button
  4. Choose the File Format: CSV or XML.
  5. Enter a Report Name. This is a required field.
  6. Choose your report Subscription Frequency from the dropdown list: Daily, Weekly or Monthly.
  7. Choose your Subscription Time Zone and then choose a Start Time.
  8. Leave the Frequency as the default: Recurring Report Subscription.
  9. Select a report type from the dropdown list.  Report Type > Recurring Billing Detail Report.
  10. If desired, customize your report fields. Click the Remove icon to remove a field or select Add Fields at the bottom of the list to add additional fields to the report. Choose an order from the Order dropdown list or use the up and down arrows to reorder the fields. 

    Edit report fields
  11. Click Create.
To retrieve a report
  1. Log in to your Merchant Services account in Business Advantage 360 online banking Merchant Services account.
  2. Select Reporting > Downloadable Reports > Report List.

    NOTE: As the report generates, it will show a status of In Progress.

  3. Locate the report using Search filter, if needed.
  4. Select the Download icon to download the completed report. Report can be saved and manipulated in Microsoft Excel. A report must be in Complete status to download. 

NOTE:
This article is written for merchants who manage Recurring Billing within their Business Advantage 360 online banking Merchant Services account. (Business Advantage 360 is our Small Business Online Banking platform.) This article is not written for advanced e-commerce merchants who integrate to the Bank of America Gateway via our Card Not Present Integration Toolkit and manage this service via API.

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