Recurring payments with PayPal Standard

In PayPal - Automatic recurring payments are available to PayPal Premier and Business accounts only. They are not available to PayPal Personal accounts. See: PayPal In Wild Apricot - Automatic recurring payments are only available for: Community level ($50) and higher. See: Pricing

Recurring payments with PayPal standard require that each person signing up for a membership with recurring payments setup a PayPal account (or login into their existing PayPal account). This is different from regular non-recurring payments which can be processed via PayPal or paid with a credit card without opening a PayPal account. Opening an account for recurring payments is required by PayPal Standard so that each person can always review the history of payments, update payment details, and stop or cancel recurring payment if necessary directly from their PayPal account.

When a membership application invoice is processed, a 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 PayPal Standard recurring payment

Start by setting up appropriate membership levels with automatic recurring payment options:

After the [Pay online] button is pressed the user will be transferred from the invoice details 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, they 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 transactions.

Once logged into a 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 the [Return to Merchant] button get back to your Wild Apricot site.

Member upgrades from free level to paid level with recurring payment

Depending on the membership level setting, member may change the level (upgrade or downgrade) 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.

Consecutive payments

When the next recurring payment is due, PayPal will automatically process payment and notify the Wild Apricot system. Wild Apricot's system will record the payment received and update member renewal date 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. After the 5th attempt, PayPal will automatically cancel the recurring payment profile. In Wild Apricot, the membership record will become overdue and will be processed according to the Renewal actions settings in membership level (see: Membership levels or Bundle Membership Level Overview).

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 of the level. 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, administrators can login to 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 the 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 about to whom the payment was made and amount


Subscription Creation - contains subscription details. Here users can see Next Payment Date, Amount, Subscription Terms, and other information.

The member can also cancel a recurring payment subscription - go into the Subscription Creation area and press on the [Cancel Subscription] button.

The member may also need to update information such as a new credit card or a new address. They can do this from Subscription Creation by pressing the [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 Automating membership renewals

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 the [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 click the [Cancel Subscription] button.

See PayPal Standard - Canceling recurring payments

Details and limitations of recurring payment

Time intervals between the payments are set at the moment of the recurring subscription. From the WA side parameters of the subscription are set through membership level.
For example: When membership level Renewal period is set to "Monthly (on Join date)", recurring subscription will take effect every month on from current date.

For membership levels with the Renewal period set to "Monthly (on Specific Date)", membership renewals and corresponding payments will take place starting NOT from the current date but from the selected specific date. For example: Monthly - Specific date - 15th (of every month).
In order to setup this type of payment, PayPal uses a special "trial period". These are necessary to match the PayPal start date with the membership level recurring start date.
For example: if somebody applies for a membership ($10) on Feb 18th and renewal settings of membership level are set to Monthly-Specific - 15th (of every month), PayPal will create a subscription with the following parameters:

• "trial period" from Feb 18th to Mar 15th with cost ($10)
• monthly regular payments ($10) will start on Mat 15th

PayPal "trial period" has two limitations:

• if you are using days as the basis for your trial period, they cannot exceed 90. After that you will have to use months
• if there are two trial periods where the first period is not free, then the second "trial period" must also be not free

If renewal settings assume the recurring start date is a very long time, PayPal will create two "trial periods". Parameters for them will be set according to the above.

For Example: With a Renewal period - Annual ($100) - 1st of Jan., a member who subscribed on Feb.15th will have the following subscription records:

• first "trial period" for 10 months until Dec. 15th for $99.99
• second "trial period" from Dec. 16th to Dec. 31 for $0.01
• annual regular subscription payments of $100 will start on Jan. 1st

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 (let's 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.

• Avoid changing the membership level of a member setup with the recurring option. Any change to membership level will not have any effect on existing recurring subscription on Paypal. If you have to change the level, first you MUST cancel the corresponding recurring subscription on PayPal. Only then you can change membership level as required.