Trip deposits, installments and autopay

A booking starts with the deposit. The remaining balance is split into even installments, each with a due date, and a payment link is emailed before each one comes due. Nothing is charged automatically unless the customer turns on autopay.

How the schedule is built

• Deposit is due at booking. The balance must be paid by Final due (days before trip) — default 90 days.
• With Number of payments set, the balance is split into that many even payments between booking and the final due date. Otherwise payments fall every N months (Or every N months, default 3) walking back from the final date.
• Shop defaults live in Site Content → Trip payment plans (default), including “Email the payment link this many days before each due date” (default 7). Any trip can override the count, cadence and final-due days.
• Within six months of departure there is no deposit and no plan — the public page takes payment in full.

What the customer sees

The pay link opens a page listing their installments. Pay [amount] now takes the next one through Stripe. Pay remaining balance — [amount] clears everything left. Under the first button is a checkbox: “Save this card and automatically pay my remaining installments as they come due.” Ticking it turns autopay on; the page then shows “✓ Autopay is on” with a Turn off button (changing it requires the customer’s own portal sign-in, so a forwarded link can’t toggle it).

Reminders and past-due

• A daily job looks at every booking with a deposit or partial payment. When an installment enters the reminder window it emails the pay link once; once overdue it emails again weekly with a “Past due” subject.
• With autopay on, the job charges the saved card on that same cadence instead of emailing. If the card declines, the saved card is cleared and the customer gets the pay-link email — they always have a way to pay.
• Fully paid, refunded and cancelled bookings drop out of reminders automatically.

Record a payment by hand

1. Open the booking (click the name on the manifest). The Payment plan panel lists each installment.
2. Pick Mark paid as — Cash, Check or Card (over the phone) — then press Mark paid on the row. This books the sale into Finance, unlike changing the status dropdown below it.
3. Copy pay link puts their link on the clipboard. Send reminder now emails the first unpaid installment.