Installment plans

An installment plan splits one total into a set number of invoices that go out on a schedule. It is a recurring schedule with a plan total. You choose the total and the number of payments, and BillingMart creates and sends each invoice for its share. Installment plans are a plan feature, so you need a plan that includes them.

Set up a plan

1. Open Recurring and select New schedule.
2. Choose the customer, the Frequency and the Start date. Give it a Title. It names each installment line. Without one, the line says "Installment".
3. Tick Installment plan.
4. Set Occurrences. This is the number of payments, and a plan cannot be saved without it. Some business types set a usual number of installments. If yours does, the box is filled with it when you tick the plan, and you can change it. If yours does not, the box stays empty and you type the number.
5. Enter the Plan total, in the schedule's currency. Under it, the form shows What will be invoiced: how many invoices, what each line is called, and each share.
6. Select Save.

Where a business type uses a usual number, it is set in Settings, then Businesses. Open the business, open Business type, and select Edit terms and tax. The field is Installments.

How the shares are worked out

The total is divided into equal shares, to the smallest unit of the currency (cents, for dollars). If it does not divide evenly, the last invoice takes the difference, so the shares always add up to the total.

Each invoice has one line, named like "Website project 2/6", with that share as the amount. No tax is added on top of it. A plan's invoices do not use line items, so the form hides the line items while Installment plan is ticked and shows what will be invoiced instead. Put any tax into the plan total. If you untick the plan, the line items come back as you left them.

Every invoice is sent like a normal recurring invoice. It is numbered, emailed, counted as one send, and charged if your customer has turned on autopay. See Recurring invoices.

What your customer sees

In their portal, the customer sees the plan: the total, each payment with its date and amount, and whether it is Invoiced or Scheduled.

The Explanation button on a plan opens a short plain-language note that the AI drafts. Nobody sees it until a person publishes it. It is available on the plans that include assistive copy.

Changing a plan later

• Invoices already sent do not change. The remaining ones are worked out again from the new total and count, so the parts may no longer add up to the new total. Avoid changing them after the first invoice has gone out.
• You cannot set the number of payments below the number already issued.
• If your plan does not include installment plans, setting or changing a plan total is refused with "This feature is not part of this workspace's plan." Unticking the plan, or saving an existing plan without changing its total, still works. An existing plan keeps running and can be paused.
• If you start a plan with a date in the past, or resume a paused one, you are asked whether to skip the missed dates or send those invoices now. Skipping does not lose any installment. The plan still sends every installment, later.

At your sending limit, an installment invoice waits like any other recurring invoice. See What counts as a send.