Billing a Job Series Automatically

Charge each issued invoice for a job series to the customer's saved card or bank account. Send an email request, or share a card authorisation link with a customer who has no email account. They authorise once, and every payment records itself.

Send the authorisation request

1. Open Jobs & Crews > Job Series and select the series.
2. On the Automatic Billing card, select Send Automatic Billing Authorisation.
3. Check the email address the dialog names, then select Send.

What you should see: the card's badge changes to Awaiting customer, with Sent to and Last sent below it. The button now reads Resend Automatic Billing Authorisation, for a customer who has lost the email.

The request goes out even when Email customers is switched off. Every later email to the customer follows that switch.

Share a link with a customer who has no email

Under Send Automatic Billing Authorisation, select Create authorisation link, then Copy. Send it in a text or message, or open it with the customer. The link works without an email address or customer portal sign-in, even if the email request button is disabled.

The customer reviews the service and payment terms, ticks the authorisation checkbox, selects Enter card details, and saves their card with Authorise Automatic Billing. Card details go directly to Stripe. No email address is requested and nothing is charged during setup.

This email-free link supports cards. For bank direct debit, use the emailed customer portal flow, which provides the email address Stripe needs for debit notifications.

The card shows Shared by link until an email has also been sent. Creating the link again keeps the same URL while the request is pending. Share it only with the customer: anyone holding it can authorise that request. Once authorised, the link shows confirmation only; it cannot change a saved card. Withdrawing the request makes the link unusable.

A customer without portal access can contact your business to cancel or change automatic payments. To change their card, discontinue the existing arrangement and create a new request.

If you can't send it

When something is missing, the card tells you under the button. If an email address or portal sign-in is missing, you can use Create authorisation link for card payments instead.

When Stripe itself is not ready, the card shows a warning in place of the button. It reads Connect Stripe in Settings → Payments to bill this series automatically. or Choose a payment account in Settings → Payments before billing automatically. Select Payment settings to fix it.

Offer direct debit

Customers save a card unless you also offer direct debit, which lets them pay from an Australian bank account instead. Switching it on is covered in Offering Direct Debit for Automatic Billing.

What your customer does

The customer receives an email titled "Set up automatic payments for" and the series name. Its Review and authorise button opens the service in their customer portal, where they sign in with a link sent to the same address.

1. They select Authorise Automatic Billing on the Automatic payments card.
2. Stripe's secure page takes their card details, or their bank account details if you offer direct debit. It states that they authorise your business to charge them for each invoice for the series. Nothing is charged yet.
3. Stripe returns them to the portal, which confirms You're all set — automatic payments are on.

A customer who signs in on their own finds Set up automatic payments under Waiting on you on their dashboard.

A customer who chooses a bank account accepts a Direct Debit Request on Stripe's page. They can open it again from the service's page in their portal, with View your Direct Debit Request.

If you set a surcharge under Surcharge (card payments), the email and Stripe's page both say so. Card charges include it; direct debits do not.

What you should see: once Stripe confirms, the badge on your card changes to Active. The card lists the Payment method, the Authorised date and who it was Authorised by. For a bank account, Direct Debit Request links to the customer's copy. Your administrators also get an Automatic billing authorised notification.

Which invoices get charged

Authorising automatic billing creates an enabled Job Series — Invoice and Collect Automatic Payments workflow for your business, whether or not Draft an invoice when a job is completed is on. Completing a job in an authorised series then creates and issues its invoice automatically. Ordinary jobs, and series without active payment authorisation, are excluded. The workflow uses the normal invoice validation and approval steps.

Both workflows can run side by side. The global invoice automation skips jobs with active series automatic payments and keeps its usual draft-and-review behavior for other jobs. The series workflow handles invoicing and automatic approval for authorised series jobs. You can review or disable the series workflow in Automations. Existing authorised series receive the workflow on their next eligible job completion if it is missing.

AxiomBlue charges an invoice when all of these hold:

• You or the series workflow have issued it, and it still has a balance due. Drafts and invoices awaiting approval are never charged.
• It was issued after the customer authorised automatic billing. The customer pays older invoices the usual way.
• It is addressed to the series' customer.
• Every job on it belongs to this series. An invoice that mixes series visits with other work is skipped.
• At least 10 minutes have passed since it was issued.
• No dispute is open on it. A disputed invoice is charged once the dispute is resolved — see Invoice Disputes.

AxiomBlue checks every 5 minutes, so a charge usually starts 10 to 15 minutes after approval. That gap gives you time to void a mistake, or record a payment the customer made on site.

A direct debit then takes a few business days to clear, and shows as Processing in the meantime. AxiomBlue doesn't mark the invoice overdue while it clears, so no overdue reminder goes out.

The charge is the invoice's balance due, plus any card surcharge on a card. Once the money has cleared, AxiomBlue records the payment against the invoice with the Stripe payment reference — see Recording Payments. Your administrators get a "paid automatically" notification for each invoice.

The card's Recent charges list shows the last 10 charges, each marked Processing, Paid, Failed, Expired or Refunded. Select an invoice number to open that invoice.

When a charge fails

A failed charge shows as Failed under Recent charges, with the date and reason. Your administrators get an Automatic payment failed notification. In most cases the customer also gets an email with a button to pay the invoice themselves.

What happens next depends on the reason:

• Tried again — not enough funds, a processing error, the bank being unavailable, or a debit the bank couldn't process. AxiomBlue makes up to 3 attempts per invoice, 3 days apart.
• Not tried again — a declined or expired card, or a bank that wants the cardholder to approve the payment. The customer pays the invoice, or updates their payment method.
• Automatic billing ends — the bank account is closed or can't be found, or the customer told their bank a debit wasn't authorised. The bank won't take another debit from that account, so the notification and the customer's email both say automatic billing has stopped.
• Over your direct debit limit — Stripe limits how much your account collects by direct debit, per payment and per week. The customer isn't emailed. AxiomBlue tries again 3 days later after a weekly limit, but not for a payment over the per-payment limit. Contact Stripe to raise it.

When the customer saves a new card or bank account, AxiomBlue tries the unpaid invoices again with it.

Keep a saved card up to date

Within 45 days of a saved card's expiry, the series card warns This card expires soon. Ask the customer to select Update payment method in their portal. That swaps the card without a new request from you.

When a card network issues replacement card details itself, Stripe passes them on and the card keeps working.

Stop automatic billing

Select Discontinue Automatic Billing on the card, then Discontinue. AxiomBlue stops charging invoices for the series and removes the saved card or bank account from your Stripe account. The customer gets an email saying automatic payments stopped.

Before the customer authorises, the same button withdraws your request. Confirm with Withdraw request, and the customer can no longer authorise from the email you sent.

To start again later, send a new request. The customer has to authorise again.

The customer can stop it too

On the service's page in their portal, the customer selects Cancel Automatic Billing, then Yes, cancel automatic billing. Your administrators get an Automatic billing cancelled by customer notification.

When it stops on its own

AxiomBlue ends automatic billing, and sends your administrators an Automatic billing stopped notification, when:

• you delete the series, or move it to a different customer
• someone deletes the saved payment method, or the customer, in your Stripe dashboard
• the customer cancels the direct debit with their bank
• you connect a different Stripe account — it ends the next time an invoice falls due

A direct debit the bank refuses for good ends it too, as described under When a charge fails.

Pausing or completing the series does not stop automatic billing. AxiomBlue still charges invoices you approve for its remaining visits.

What your customer sees

• Their dashboard has an Automatic payments section listing the charges coming up and the services on automatic payment.
• Each invoice carries Paying automatically, Payment processing, Automatic payment failed or Paid automatically.
• While a charge is due or processing, neither the portal nor the pay-online link offers a card payment, so the customer can't pay twice.
• A failed charge appears under Waiting on you.

An invoice still owing that you expected to be charged? See Automatic Billing Didn't Charge an Invoice.