Recurring payments

Note: The Recurring Payment option is only available for Community level ($50) and higher. (See: Pricing)

Automatic Recurring Payments enables you to charge subscribers for a fixed amount of money on a regular schedule.

Recurring payments are setup for each member level (See Member levels)
You can enable Automatic Recurring Payments for Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual and Annual renewal periods.
(Note: for semi-annual and annual renewals, automatic payments are only available for join date-based renewals - but not specific date. For example, you can set the system up to charge members every year on the anniversary of the join date but you can not use it to charge annually on March 17th. On a monthly and quarterly basis, you can use either join or specific date - so a member can pay either on the date he joined or all members will be charged on a specific date like 15th.

Recurring payments are processed via PayPal and thus each person signing up for a membership with recurring payment will have to setup a PayPal account (or login into their existing account). (This is different from regular non-recurring payments which are also processed via PayPal but can be paid with a credit card without opening a PayPal account).
Opening an account for recurring payments is required by PayPal - so that each person can always review the history of payments, update payment details and stop recurring payment if necessary.
When a membership application is processed and appropriate membership level is selected, recurring payment profile is created in PayPal. Thereafter, PayPal automatically generates payments based on the billing start date, billing frequency, and billing amount, until the payment is canceled by the member or site administrator (or payment fails).
Your staff can access recurring payment reports (all current recurring payments going into your account) using the PayPal Merchant Reporting Portal.

Member application process with recurring payment

Start by setting up appropriate membership levels:

After [Submit] button is pressed the user will be transferred from the membership application form to a PayPal payment page. From here the user can [Log in] into their PayPal account and proceed with the payment:

If the user does not have a PayPal account, he/she must create it. Press on the link Don't have a PayPal account? Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Note that it is necessary to sign up for a PayPal account in order to complete recurring payment transaction:

Once logged into PayPal account, the user can review the payment information. Note that the recurring payment will have Effective date indicated in the details. This is the effective date when the payment will be made.

After the payment user sees the confirmation screen. From here the user may press [Return to Merchant] button get back to your Wild Apricot site. 

Member upgrades from free level to paid level with recurring payment

Any member who is in free level may upgrade to the paid account at any time. (See: Member - renew or upgrade). If the member selects a level with recurring payment  the payment process will be the same as described in above section.

Consecutive payments

When the next recurring payment is due, PayPal will automatically generate a payment and send a payment log to Wild Apricot. The record will be added to the Payment log (See: Payment workflow and payment transactions log) and member renewal date will be updated according to the Renewal period settings in his/her membership level.
If the recurring payment does not go through, PayPal will attempt to process the payment the following day. PayPal will attempt to process the recurring payment up to five times. If the payment is not received, PayPal will automatically cancel the recurring payment and the membership status will be changed according to the Renewal action settings in membership level (See: Membership levels or Group member level).

Administrator changes membership level payment settings to recurring payment

Any existing level can be set with recurring payment option (See: Membership levels). Next time when a member makes a renewal he/she will have to complete the PayPal process described above. If the member subscribes for the recurring payment level he/she will no longer see [Renew until ...] button in their profile screen. All the consecutive payments will be automatically charged according to the renewal terms. If the member would like to stop the subscription they will have to login into their PayPal account and cancel the recurring subscription.

Administrator Payment details

To review recurring payments, administrator can login into the merchant PayPal account. The recurring payment has two main parts: Subscription creation and Payment.

Payment - contains details of the transaction and fee. Note that PayPal fee is reflected in the details.

Subscription creation -  contains all details of the recurring payment creation. Recurring  payment cancellation is done from this page.

Member Payment details

Members can also review the payment information from their own PayPal account. Recurring payment will also be listed as consisting of two parts:
Payment - contains information to whom the payment was made and amount


Subscription creation -  contains subscription details. Here user can see Next payment date, amount, Subscription terms and other information.

Member can also cancel a recurring payment subscription - go into the Subscription creation and press on [Cancel Subscription] button.

 
Member may also need to update information such as new credit card or new address. Member can also do this from Subscription creation be pressing [Update Information] button

Payment failures

If the recurring payment does not go through, PayPal will attempt to repeat the payment four more times. The payment will be automatically canceled if it did not go through on the fifth attempt.

Note: you can use the regular Wild Apricot renewal settings to automatically send notices to member and/or administrator as appropriate. See Member renewals automation

Canceling subscription

In order for the Administrator to cancel the recurring payment he must do this from your organization's PayPal account. He must find the Subscription for the particular user and click on [Cancel Subscription] button.
Members can cancel the recurring payment in the similar way. Members have to login into their PayPal account, find the Subscription creation and press on [Cancel Subscription] button. 

Important notes

Changing renewal policy
Administrators are not prevented from changing the renewal policy of any membership level. It is important to understand that this change will not effect existing recurring payments in PayPal. If administrators need to change a level (lets say from annual to monthly), first they have to cancel all the annual recurring subscribers in PayPal.

Changing member renewal date:
Administrators can change the renewal date in Wild Apricot membership level or user details but this will not affect PayPal recurring payment subscription . The PayPal recurring payment will continue to work according to the initial membership level settings. If the initial recurring payment was setup on 'Join date' of every month it will continue to be the same way in PayPal.