Automatic Billing Didn't Charge an Invoice

A customer has authorised automatic billing for a job series, but an invoice for one of its visits is still owing. Work down the causes below, starting with the quickest to check.

Symptom

The Automatic Billing card on the job series reads Active. The invoice still has a balance due, and it is either missing from Recent charges or marked Failed or Processing there.

If the card reads Awaiting customer, the customer hasn't authorised yet. If it reads Off, the card says who stopped automatic billing and when. A direct debit the bank refuses for good shows as discontinued by Stripe. Either way nothing gets charged — see Billing a Job Series Automatically.

Most likely cause: the invoice isn't approved

AxiomBlue never charges a draft, or an invoice awaiting approval. That includes invoices created automatically when a job is completed.

1. Open the invoice and check its status badge.
2. If it reads Draft or Awaiting Approval, approve it. See Approving & Sending Invoices.

You approved it in the last 15 minutes

AxiomBlue waits 10 minutes after approval, then checks every 5 minutes. Look again once 15 minutes have passed.

A direct debit is still clearing

A charge marked Processing has started. For a direct debit, the money takes a few business days to clear. AxiomBlue records the payment once Stripe confirms it, and doesn't mark the invoice overdue in the meantime.

Don't record a payment by hand while it clears. If both land, you'll have to refund the difference.

You approved it before the customer authorised

1. Compare when you approved the invoice with the Authorised date on the Automatic Billing card.
2. If the invoice came first, the customer pays it the usual way. Automatic billing never reaches back to earlier invoices.

The invoice isn't only for this series

AxiomBlue charges an invoice only when every job on it belongs to the series. It skips an invoice that:

• combines series visits with other jobs, as batch or project billing can
• you raised by hand, without a series visit on it
• is addressed to a different customer record from the series

The customer pays that invoice the usual way. Record their payment when it arrives — see Recording Payments.

The charge failed

1. Find the invoice under Recent charges. A Failed entry shows the date and the reason.
2. Check the reason against the list below.
3. If AxiomBlue won't try again, ask the customer to pay the invoice, or to select Update payment method in their portal. A new card or bank account gets fresh attempts.

AxiomBlue tries again 3 days later, up to 3 attempts in all, for:

• not enough funds
• a processing error, or the bank being unavailable
• a debit the bank couldn't process
• your weekly direct debit limit with Stripe being reached

For any other reason, nothing more happens automatically. When one payment is over your direct debit limit with Stripe, contact Stripe to raise it. The customer isn't emailed about either limit.

Automatic charges are paused

The card reads Automatic charges are paused. and names what is missing:

• Connect Stripe in Settings → Payments to bill this series automatically. — Stripe is disconnected.
• Choose a payment account in Settings → Payments before billing automatically. — no payment account is set under Stripe's Options.

Select Payment settings on the card to fix it. At the next check, AxiomBlue charges the invoices still owing. Until then, the customer's dashboard says automatic payments are paused.

The customer started paying it themselves

When a customer starts paying an invoice online, AxiomBlue holds off its automatic charge for 24 hours. If they don't finish paying, the automatic charge goes ahead after that.

Still stuck

Look for the charge in your Stripe dashboard. Its description names the invoice number and the series. For how automatic billing is set up, see Billing a Job Series Automatically.