Recurring payments with PayPal Pro

The automatic recurring payments option is only available for Community plan ($50) and higher, See Pricing

Setting up your Paypal account to accept recurring payments

In order to accept recurring payments in your PayPal Pro account you must complete the following steps:

In your PayPal Pro account go to:
My Account > Profile > Instant payment notification (IPN) > click on [Edit settings] button and set it with the following:

• Enter notification URL as follows:

• For IPN messages select Receive IPN messages (Enabled) option

Setting up your Wild Apricot account to accept recurring payments

Next step is to setup your Wild Apricot account.

• Make sure that your account is properly setup and configured with PayPal Pro. See: Integrating with PayPal Pro
• Enable Automatic recurring payments option for membership level(s). See: Membership levels

At this point, you should be all set and ready to accept recurring payments.

Member application process with PayPal Pro recurring payment

During the member application process the user will select the level, fill out the application, confirm and generate an invoice, and go through the following payment steps:

Selecting method of payment

PayPal Pro offers two methods of online payment:

• Credit card
• Express checkout - users can pay directly through their own PayPal account

For this example we show credit card payment option - Pay with credit card. After clicking on the [Pay by credit card] button the user will be able to enter credit card details.

Payment confirmation

After payment, the user will see a successfully paid invoice:

 
Also note that the new member will automatically be logged into their member profile. This is what a new member will see in place of the login box:

From here the member can click on View profile link and then open an Invoices and payments tab to review payment details.

Member upgrades from free level to paid level with recurring payment

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

Recurring payment records

PayPal transactions

When a new recurring profile is created in your PayPal Pro account, you will see two associated records:

• Created - this is a record for newly created recurring profile; there is no charge associated with it
• Completed - record for the first payment with associated membership application fee

You can always review the details for every record by clicking on Details link

Payment records in Wild Apricot

New payments will show in Finances > Payments & Refunds, where you can review and settle if required. See: Record Payment and Settle to Invoice

Administrator changes membership level payment settings to recurring payment

Any existing level can be set with recurring payment option (See: Membership levels). The next time a member makes a renewal, they will have to complete the PayPal process described above. If the member subscribes for the recurring payment level they will no longer see the [Renew until ...] button in their profile screen. All the consecutive payments will be automatically charged according to the renewal terms.

Payment failures

If the recurring payment does not go through, PayPal Pro 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 membership level renewal settings to automatically send notices to member and/or administrator as appropriate. See Automating membership renewals.

Canceling recurring payments

Recurring payment can be canceled by both member and administrator.

Member can stop recurring payment directly from member profile page / Invoices and payments tab by clicking on [Stop recurring payments] button.

In a similar way, administrator can go to membership details and click on [Stop] button.

After the recurring payment is canceled, PayPal Pro will create a new Canceled record.

Note that canceling recurring profiles does not affect any other membership record settings (i.e. Membership status could still remain Active). If you need to process the membership record any further (e.g. change membership status from Active to Lapsed and or simply archive it) you should do so manually.

Limitations

Recurring payment will not be created in the following cases:

• Member misses several consecutive renewals, for example, if monthly recurring payment was missed on March 1st, and then also in April and May. If member decides to make a renewal in June, "renewal due on" date will only move to the month ahead from the previous renewal date (which in this case will still be in past - 1st April) no recurring payment will be created.

• Member pre-paid for several months via a manual (offline) payment (e.g. check) and the "Renewal due on" date is more than 24 months ahead.

Paypal Pro vs PayPal Standard with recurring option

In comparison to PayPal Standard, PayPal Pro uses different parameters:

• Recurring Start date - Each recurring payment starts on Recurring Start date, which is indicated as Start date in transaction details
• Payment cycle - sets interval between start dates in months
• Amount due per cycle - recurring price of membership level