Some customers prefer to break their larger purchases into a number of smaller payments. This can help them spread the costs over time or better manage their cash flow. Check Cherry's payment plan features make this easy to automate.
Tip: Offering payment plans can help increase your conversion rate on higher dollar or one-time services.
Types of Payment Plans
Check Cherry's payment plans come in two flavors: "Automatic" and "Custom":
Automatic payment plans are default offerings presented to your customers when they book you online or accept a proposal. The schedule and dollar amounts are automatically calculated by Check Cherry at the time of booking.
Custom payment plans allow you to present a specific payment schedule to a specific customer. A custom payment plan would typically be set up on your proposal before sending it to the customer, and they agree to it at the time of booking.
Configuring Automatic Payment Plans
Visit Manage --> Payment Settings and look for the "Payment Plans" box in order to set up your payment plan offerings.
If a booking is changed and the total changes, the payment plan will not automatically re-calculate; the new balance due will be added to the final payment.
Check Cherry includes the "Pay in Full" and "Deposit + Final Payment" options by default. If you'd like to add additional payment plans, click the "Add Payment Plan" button:
Check Cherry currently offers the following automatic payment plans:
Deposit + Monthly Payments: After the initial deposit, this payment plan will break the customer's remaining balance into equal payment amounts. For instance if their booking is 6 months away, it would break it into 6 equal monthly payments.
Deposit + Split Balance Equally: After the initial deposit, this payment plan will break it into a set number of payments. For instance you could offer a "Pay in 4" option that would split their remaining balance into 4 equal payments. This payment plan can be added multiple times, so you could offer both a "Pay in 4" and "Pay in 10" option.
Looking to offer other automatic payment plan options? Let us know via the chat.
Tip: Not sure how your automatic payment plans will look to the customer? Click the "Try it Out" button to simulate it with your packages and different dates and payment amounts.
Note: Too many payment plans can cause customer confusion, so we recommend keeping things simple.
Custom Payment Plans
Custom Payment Plans allow you to present a customer with a payment plan tailored to their event, budget, and timing. Because you are presenting a specific offer to a specific customer, this would typically be applied to a proposal before sending to the customer.
From a proposal's overview page, click the "Manage Booking" button and choose "Adjust Payment Schedule".
Click the "Edit" button in the Payment Schedule box:
And choose "Custom Payment Schedule":
Now you can define a custom amount and due date for each of your scheduled payments. Simply edit one of the existing payments or click "Add Scheduled Payment" to add additional payment dates.
Auto Pay
Auto Pay allows you to automatically charge a saved payment method. When auto pay has been enabled, all future scheduled and final payments will be charged to the saved payment method.
When configuring your automatic or custom payment plans you will have three options:
Auto Pay is required: Customers will be required to enroll in auto pay
Customer can choose: Customer will be able to opt into or out of auto pay at the time of booking.
Do not offer auto pay: Customers will not be presented with the option to enroll in auto pay.
Auto Pay Payment Methods
Enrolling in Auto Pay requires the customer to use a supported payment method. In general these include Credit Cards and ACH/Bank Account. To see your Auto Pay compatible payment methods, visit Manage --> Payment Settings and look for the "Auto Pay" option:
Note: If a customer chooses the Auto Pay option, only compatible payment options will be presented to them during booking.
Auto Pay & Payment Processing Fees
Payments made via Auto Pay will follow your default payment fees settings. For instance if you charge your customers 3% for credit card transactions, any payments made via Auto Pay will also be assessed a 3% fee. These fees will be calculated and assessed at the time of payment based on the settings in effect at the time.
Note: You are responsible for ensuring your are compliant with all local laws and regulations when assessing payment fees. Use care when changing payment fee settings when you have existing customers on auto pay.
Auto Pay Failures
If Check Cherry is unable to bill the payment method on file, an email will be sent (subject to your automated message settings) and the customer will be removed from Auto Pay. They can make their missed payments via their customer portal of by clicking a "Make a Payment" link.
Managing Payment Plans for a Confirmed Booking
To manage a customer's payment plan, choose "Adjust Payment Schedule" from the "Manage Booking" dropdown:
From there you can see the payment schedule as well as what has been paid and what is still outstanding.
Click the "Edit" button to adjust payment dates and amounts:
Can I set up payment plans using Paypal?
No. Payment plans only works with saved payment methods. Currently the only payment methods that can be saved are credit cards and ACH transfer accounts through Check Cherry Payments.