Chaser’s Payment Plans allow you to offer your customers the option to pay via payment installments. Below we’ll explain step by step how to set up a payment plan in Chaser:
Why add a payment plan in Chaser?
Ideally, all customers would pay on time without the need for additional help. However, sometimes offering a payment plan can be the difference between good and bad debt.
When working out of spreadsheets, managing a payment plan can be an arduous and painstaking task but now, with Chaser, you can add a payment plan to an invoice with ease and Chaser will take care of the chasing for you. Your customers can even pay for the individual instalments directly through Chaser emails via the Payment Portal.
How to add a payment plan?
To add a payment plan to an invoice, you can do it in two ways:
1. Navigate to the Receivables tab and then onto the Invoices tab. Click on the 3 dots next to an invoice and choose 'Add payment plan' from the invoice options.
2. Alternatively, from the Receivables tab, navigate directly to the invoice page by clicking through an invoice and click the 'Add payment plan' button in the top right corner.
This will bring up the payment plan editor, where you can set the start date, choose the frequency, and add how many instalments you want and the different amounts for each instalment.
The payment frequency of the payment plan can be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and yearly and it will determine the due dates for each instalment.
The amounts are automatically split evenly, but you can choose to split them however you want. When you edit the instalments one by one, the last un-edited instalment will be “locked” to make the correct total.
After you have added a payment plan to an invoice, a 'Payment plan' tab will appear on the Invoice page where you can view the details for that plan.
NB: Installments will still be chased for amounts below your minimum chase amount if the total amount due against the invoice is above your selected minimum payment amount. You can amend your minimum payment amount in the Chasing criteria box on your Manage tab.
Chasing a payment plan
When chasing a payment plan, the schedule and placeholders consider the invoice due date and not the instalment dates. However, the amounts chased will always reflect the instalments paid.
Because of this, we recommend you create specific a schedule and templates for payment plans, or use Chase Now to chase instalments.
If a customer pays for more than an instalment, the excess is taken from the next instalment. If a customer pays less than the instalment, the instalment is automatically updated with the remaining amount.
How can customers pay for an instalment?
Through Chaser’s Payment Portal, your customers can view their invoices and pay for instalments directly through Chaser invoice reminders. Payments that are made through the payment portal are automatically marked as paid in your accounting software by Chaser and payments are posted into the relevant account that you specify in your payment portal settings on the Manage tab.
Alternatively, if your customer makes payment through other means, when you perform your bank reconciliation and a payment is allocated to the invoice, the payment instalment will be marked as paid in Chaser.
Cancelling a payment plan
To cancel a payment plan, you can do this in two ways:
- Navigate to the Receivables tab and then onto the Invoices tab. Click on the 3 dots next to the invoice you would like to cancel the payment plan for and choose 'Cancel payment plan' from the invoice options.
- Alternatively, from the Receivables tab, navigate directly to the invoice page by clicking through an invoice and click into the 'Payment plan' tab (next to the History) and click the 'Cancel' button in the bottom right.
View all invoices on a payment plan
Easily see which invoices have a payment plan enabled by navigating to the receivables tab, invoice page and filtering on the payment plan option
Frequently asked questions
Can I add custom payment intervals / instalment payment dates?
At the moment, it is only possible to set weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and yearly payment intervals. However, custom payment intervals and custom instalment payment dates are something we are considering. If you would like to customise the payment intervals, please get in touch at support@chaserhq.com, we'd love to hear from you.
Can I change the invoice total?
It's not possible to change the invoice total, however, if this is a requirement that you have, please do get in touch at support@chaserhq.com, we'd love to speak with you.
Need support?
For any more questions on setting up a payment plan in Chaser, please get in touch on support@chaserhq.com or message us on live chat, we would be happy to help.