Automated Subscription Billing Schedules

Overview

"Subscriptions" is the term in Gnosis used to describe any type of recurring billing for pledges, recurring gifts, memberships, and similar.  As of version 1.2.993, Gnosis has the option to automatically initiate billing runs for any category of subscriptions.

For an overview of the Gnosis subscription billing process, please refer to the article on Subscriptions Overview (Pledges and Recurring Gifts)

For a walkthrough on the process for manually performing subscription billing runs, please refer to the article on Subscription Billing Runs. We recommend that you understand the process for billing subscriptions manually before scheduling automated subscription billing runs.

Automated Subscription Billing Runs

Automated billing run schedules are set up on the "Billing Schedules" tab of the Subscriptions module that you will find in the Process Navigator.  While the Billing Runs tab deals with each individual subscription billing run, the "Billing Schedules" tab deals with the automation and scheduling for creating new billing runs.

To set up a new billing run schedule, press the "New Billing Run" button down at the bottom of the Billing Schedules tab.  To edit an existing billing schedule, click on the "..." at the right-hand end of the existing schedule you wish to edit:

Creating & Editing Billing Schedules

After creating a new schedule, or opening an existing one, you are presented with the schedule configuration form.

The Configuration Form

This form records the options that you wish to use for the billing schedule:

• Schedule Name: The name you wish to give to this schedule - i.e. "Monthly Rec. Gift Run".
   
• Due Date Type: There are two options for specifying the due date for each automated run: 
  • A Specific Day Each Month: (Recommended) This option will also ask for the day of the month that is to be used for the billing run.  Note, this is NOT the day to run the billing job, but it is the effective date for the billing run - the last day of the period to be invoiced for. Gnosis will process all subscriptions that have a next invoice date that falls on or before this date.
  • Date of Scheduled Run: This option will use the date that the billing run is scheduled instead of using a fixed date each month that you separately specify here.
     
• Categories: Allows you to specify the category of subscriptions to be included, or, you may specify "All Categories".
   
• Scope: The scope determines what actions will be completed in the billing run. These run options include:

  • Billing Preview Only: Creates Activity Log for subscriptions that would be billed in this run/date range. No invoicing or payment occurs.

  • Generate Invoices Only: Creates invoices for all of the subscriptions to be billed. No payment occurs

  • Generate Invoices & Bill Credit Cards: Creates invoices for all of the subscriptions to be billed,  and charges a payment for invoices created. No documentation is automatically sent.
     

• Process Billing Types: Determines which subscriptions to include based on their billing type:

  • Pay By Credit Card: Includes all subscriptions set up to be paid using a card on file.

  • Mail-In: Includes all subscriptions set up to use Payment Sent In, typical for annual payments where donors prefer to pay by check.

  • Third-Party: A provision for customized billing via a third party (this is only implemented via a custom configuration where needed).
     

• Email Invoices/Receipts: If checked, the system will email out invoices/receipts for each subscription invoiced or paid.

The Schedule Form

The "Schedule" tab provides access to the schedule for the billing automation. 

The available fields are as follows:

• Not Scheduled: This indicates that the billing run currently has no schedule set.
• Run Once Immediately: Runs the schedule once, immediately - not very useful in this context.
• One time: Runs the schedule once, at a specified date/time - also not very useful in this context
• Recurring:
  • Set the Starting On date.
  • Set the Ending On date or leave it set to the default of No End Date.
  • Single-click the desired Daily, Weekly or Monthly tab to access the related settings.
    • Daily – Select Every Day (Sunday-Saturday) or Every Week Day (Monday-Friday).
    • Weekly – Select desired day(s).
    • Monthly – Selected desired day(s) of the month and optionally the desired month(s).
  • Start At – Identify the time to send.
  • Hourly Repeat Every – Check this box to send the item multiple times on each selected day at the specified hourly interval - not very useful in this context
  • Preview Schedule - This shows a sample list of up to the next 100 run date and times.

The Notifications Form

Use this tab to identify a Gnosis user(s) to receive system notifications on job success and or failure.

Email Results To: The Gnosis User to receive a notification. The logged-in person will be listed by default. You may add other users to receive either success statistics or failure notifications. To add another user, type the person's first and last name or part thereof or search in the Add User field.

On Success: All users selected for this type of notification will receive a success notification email from the system when a one-time or recurring item is sent successfully.

On Failure: All users selected for this type of notification will receive a failure notification email from the system when a one-time or recurring email has failed.

Completing the Schedule

Press the "Save & Close" button at the bottom of the scheduling tabs to save your new billing schedule.

Once a schedule has been created, it will run at the designated times and perform all of the options that you have configured.  When it starts, it will add an entry to the Billing Runs tab showing the billing run in progress.  Once the scheduled run has completed (it will send you an email), you can perform any additional actions on the billing run via the Billing Runs tab.

See Also: 

• Subscription Billing Runs
• Subscriptions Overview (Pledges and Recurring Gifts)
• Subscriptions, Invoices and Contributions Explained