How can my customers set up auto pay from thier invoice?

I’m here to share some information on how you can charge your customers automatically each month, Jared.

QuickBooks Online uses a different process for recurring payments. Instead of invoices, you’ll need to use a Sales Receipt to charge your customers automatically each month.

You can follow the instructions below to set up a recurring sales receipt:

1. Go to the Gear icon and select Recurring transactions.
2. Click New.
3. Select Sales Receipt in the Transaction Type▼ drop-down menu, then press OK.
4. Enter a template name.
5. From the Type▼ drop-down menu, select Scheduled.
6. Select the customer, then verify the email. You can select Automatically send emails to send notifications to your customer when you process their payment.
7. Set the interval, then enter the start and end date.
8. Select the payment method and then Save template.

You can visit this article for more information: Set up a recurring sales receipt. It also provides details about the credit card billing authorization form.

Also, there are some things you need to know about processing recurring credit card payments in QBO. Check out this reference to learn: Recurring Credit Card Payment FAQs.

Please don’t hesitate to leave a message below if you have other questions or concerns besides setting up auto payment. I’m always here, ready to help you out. Take care!

Thank you for your answer, but it seems this method means I have to call the customer to ask them for their credit card info and then input it manually, is that correct? I was looking for a way that the customer could enter their card info and then choose to have it auto pay on their own, without me having to be involved in the process. Is there such a way? FreshBooks (my previous system) had such an option for the customer. It was a great convenience.

Thank you

Thanks for the quick reply, @jared-nychelpdes.

Yes, you need to ask for your customer’s card details and manually enter them into the recurring sales receipt template. See the sample screenshot below for your reference. 

In regards to alternatives, we don't have a workaround at the moment. With this, I'd suggest utilizing the recurring sales receipts temporarily.

Additionally, once the invoice paid, you can review the payments in the dedicated accounts you select from the Deposited to drop-down menu.

Feel free to check out these articles below on how to manage customer transactions and a chart of accounts in QuickBooks: 

• Learn about the chart of accounts in QuickBooks

• Invoices and payments

Feel free to mention me if you have additional questions, and I'd be happy to assist you further. Take care always, jared-nychelpdes.

We need a way for the customer to do this not the QB User. We already send a link to the customer and that link already brings them to a page that suggests creating an account. Why cant QB add the ability for the customer to enter the information and maintain it. Your current process makes us have to call every customer to add their card manually and then when the card expires repeat the process. It is a lot of extra work to maintain this and then we have to keep an eye on many, many customers to be sure the card hasn't expired and then hunt the customer down again to enter the new credit card info. It would be so much easier if the customer could manage this themselves. I get calls all the time from customers asking if they can setup auto pay. I'm running a business here and its NOT invoicing customers, its selling services. You are putting a lot of extra work on my company when the customers could and prefer to manage this on their own. Nearly every company I purchase from has this feature, QB is behind the times. I spend thousands of dollars every year on QB and not having this feature as well as the disconnect between CC processing/Invoicing is making me look for another product. Not one bug I reported or feature request I have sent in over 15+ years has been fixed or implemented.

I'm aware that giving your customers the option to set up autopay for their invoices is really helpful, @dajohnso.

Currently, that feature is unavailable within QuickBooks Online. You or your employees would've to manually set it up. Nevertheless, I advise sending our engineers feedback about it. Your useful suggestions will help enhance your QBO experience. Here's how:

1. Click on the Gear icon at the top, then select Feedback.
2. Fill in your suggestions. 
3. Then hit Next to send feedback.

You can also keep track of any product updates by visiting the QuickBooks Online Feature Requests webpage.

Here's a direct link you can browse to learn more about handling invoices in QuickBooks: Invoices and payments.

Don't hesitate to message back if you have other concerns about invoices or QuickBooks. We'll respond as soon as we can. Keep safe always!

I have submitted this feature request and many other bugs for years, never get a response and haven't seen a bug or feature added that I requested. Been using QB for many, many  years now. I even got invited as a beta tester for the new version, I started the testing but there was no way to provide feedback and they asked very specific questions and there was no way to elaborate (none of my bugs were fixed and no feature I asked for was in there). Very short sighted, would only allow you to provide the answers they wanted. Most of the changes I have seen over the years were all geared to the online version which is weak, and cosmetic.

I also was part of the beta test for QB 2023. 1/2 way into the process I quit because I could not provide feedback, they would only allow me to answer questions they asked and in many cases only with one of the answers they provided. Not very conducive to finding out real issues and fixing them. Sure ask all the questions you want but soem where there has to be a way to freeform an answer or you will not get any result other than the one you want.

It looks like there is a new feature if you set up a recurring invoice (not sales receipt) that will allow the customer to select "Set up autopay".  The link is small and not as obvious as the "Pay now" button, so getting customers to use it will be harder.  Selecting the autopay link will take customers through the process of either logging in to an existing Intuit account or setting up one up which is also a bit of a hassle.  But I guess if they are paying multiple vendors who use QBO, then maintaining one Intuit account is easier than editing their payment info for multiple vendors.  I'm not sure when the autopay feature was introduced for recurring invoices, but it still says "NEW" next to the link.

From a PCI compliance standpoint this very bad. This doesnt keep the customers credit card information secure in anyway and puts the liability on businesses. Do you know when Quickbooks is going to offer customer to input their own card information into the system and have the option to select auto pay on invoices that are not for a recoccuring amount? 

I can see the importance of providing customers with the option to set up autopay for their invoices, @Jmarie22.

Please know that we don't have a specific timeframe for when this option will be available in QuickBooks Online. If you haven't done it yet, it's best to send your feedback directly to our product developers team. They can thoroughly assess areas of the program that require improvement and consider incorporating them into future updates. Please refer to the steps below:

1. Hit the Gear icon at the top, then select Feedback.
2. Type in your product suggestions.
3. Click Next to submit feedback.

Future feature releases will have to undergo extensive measures and trials to validate their usage and effectiveness. While waiting for its availability, you can keep track of the status of your suggestion through our Customer Feedback page.

Furthermore, I'm adding these articles to learn how to manage customer transactions and chart of accounts in QuickBooks: 

• Learn about the chart of accounts in QuickBooks
• Invoices and payments

If you have any more questions about invoices and setting up autopayment, simply leave your comment below. I'd be more willing to answer them for you.

@Jmarie22 

Consider having a 3rd party merchant service.