This guide explains how payment plans work when you enroll students into a term — letting them spread the cost of the term over several smaller, automatically-collected installments instead of paying everything up front.

A term is a fixed block of classes that runs between a start and end date (e.g. "Spring Term: 1 Feb – 31 Mar"). Normally a student pays for the whole term in one go.

A payment plan lets that student instead pay in equal installments — weekly, fortnightly, or monthly — across the length of the term. By default the first installment is collected at checkout and the rest are charged automatically to the card on file on a set schedule. If you'd prefer students who enrol early to pay nothing until the term begins, turn on Charge first term payment on term start (see Charging the first payment on the term start date below).

In short: You decide whether a term can be paid in installments and how often those installments come. The system works out the amounts and dates and collects the installments on autopilot.

Payment plans are configured on the term itself, when you create or edit it (Manage Studio > Terms) — there's no separate plan to build, and there is no separate "Enable payment plans" switch. Instead:

With Pro Rate + Payment Plans, a student who chooses to pay upfront instead is charged the per-class cost multiplied by the number of scheduled classes remaining.

Once classes have been scheduled under a term, you can no longer switch that term to or from Pro Rate + Payment Plans — the card is greyed out. (If the term is already on Pro Rate + Payment Plans, you can still adjust the Installment Frequency and Payment Plan Completion Date.) Contact our support team if you need the payment option on an existing term changed — note that this won't affect classes already scheduled or students who have already booked.

If you want students to pay a deposit or a percentage up front (for example 50% at booking and the rest later), that is not a term setting. It's set on the class itself, using the Deposit payment (Full Payment also allowed) option, where you enter the amount or percentage due At the time of booking. This can't be changed on a class that already has purchases.

You don't set individual due dates. Installments are scheduled from the enrollment date (or the term start, whichever is later), spaced by the chosen frequency, and the last never falls after the completion/end date. If staff choose a custom start date at checkout, the schedule starts from that date instead. The total is split evenly (small rounding differences may apply).

Example — $140 term, 1 Feb–31 Mar, enrolls 8 Feb, weekly → roughly 8 weekly payments of about $17.50.

By default, a student who enrols on a payment plan pays their first installment at checkout, even if the term hasn't started yet. To charge nothing until the term actually begins, go to Studio Profile > Studio Settings > Payment & Tax and turn on Charge first term payment on term start. It is off by default and applies to all of your terms.

When it is on and a student enrols on a payment plan paying by card before the term's start date:

The first installment is still taken at checkout when:

Students paying for the whole term up front (no payment plan) are always charged in full at checkout. Turning the setting on or off only affects new enrolments — existing payment plans keep their schedule.

When you check out a payment plan from a student's cart, you can choose the date the first installment is charged. In the cart, click Payment Plan Options, pick a frequency, then under First payment choose:

With a custom start date, nothing is charged at checkout. The payment schedule updates to show the new dates, the first installment is charged automatically to the student's saved card on the date you picked, and the rest follow at the chosen frequency. This works whether or not Charge first term payment on term start is turned on.

Things to know:

They see the allowed plan options (amount + number of payments), the option to pay upfront, and a full schedule before confirming. The first installment is paid at checkout and the rest auto-charge — unless Charge first term payment on term start is on and they enrol by card before the term starts, in which case nothing is due today and the first installment is charged on the term start date.

On each due date the system charges the card on file, sends a reminder before and a receipt after. You can always see paid/outstanding counts and the next due date. (Auto-collection needs a valid saved card; students can also be set to pay manually.)

The installment is marked overdue, and the student and studio are notified. It isn't retried straight away — instead, the overdue amount is attempted again together with the next scheduled installment. If it was the final installment, there's no further automatic attempt. The plan stays active, and you can collect the overdue amount at any time — recharge the card, take payment another way, or apply a discount.

This message means there's no installment currently due or unpaid on the plan to collect — most often because it has already been paid (for example, on a second click of the pay button). It isn't caused by $0 classes in the term. Check the plan's schedule to confirm which installments are paid. If an installment you revised to $0 still shows as unpaid, contact Groovio support.