Automatic Payment For Install Plan Invoices

[omgriefguidance]

Is there a way to "require" automatic payment using an invoice with installment/payment plan? For instance I want to send and invoice for $985 total, with a first-time deposit of $200 and then monthly installments of $100, but I'd like those $100 monthly payments to be charged to the customer's card automatically rather than me having to chase them down every month. Can I do that with invoices, or do I need to go with a subscription plan to "force" the automatic payments? And if I do need to go with subscriptions, is there a way to require a first-time deposit/payment and then monthly recurring payments at a different price?

I tried searching the forum but couldn't find any information on this dilemma. Thank you in advance for any assistance!

[TheRealChipA]

@omgriefguidance First kudos to you for first searching the forum for answers!  Those of us who troll these boards trying to help wish there were more people like you who try to find the answers before asking the questions.  Thank you!  Now to your question.

Yes, there seems to be a way to do what you want, even just with Square Invoices.  However, according to the Square Help article, after you enable recurring invoices and payments, the customer still must opt-in to those.  It doesn’t seem to me that there is a way to force them into recurring payments.  So, my suggestion would be to give them an incentive to do so — whatever works for you and is enough to convince them it is in their best interest.  From Square’s point of view, this makes sense.  Credit card issuing companies don’t usually look kindly on things like this that the customers don’t initiate.

Anyway… here’s the help article with guidance, instructions, etc — https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5096-process-recurring-or-subscription-payments

If you have any further questions, or if I completely misunderstood your question, feel free to let me know and we’ll research this further together!

Oh… and since you are a person who does their homework, here’s another tool I use when researching answers to questions here.  Often, the Square Help articles are your best first line.  In your case, from my dashboard I clicked the ? In a circle, typed “recurring payments” and the article I copied above was the obvious choice near the top of the list.  It doesn’t always work, but in this case I think it worked well!

Regards,

[TheRealChipA]

Oops.  I forgot the deposit part.  LOL.  My bad… There isn’t a way to require it.  That part seems to be a manual thing you’d have to do, somehow.  Maybe create two invoices — for the deposit, in which you encourage the customer on your invoice to set up a card on file for the rest of the payments.  Then create a second invoice after your receive the deposit that has a discount for adding a card on file, or no discount it the customer is uncooperative and makes you track them down every month.  That’s the best I can come up with for that part of your question.  Hope it helps!