Process recurring billing for memberships and service agreements

Overview

Process payments for recurring billing using billing runs. A billing run generates invoices, batches them after processing, and returns the results of the run.

Things to know

• You can manually process billing runs or automatically bill memberships and service agreements based on billing rules you set.

• If a customer has a credit card set as the preferred payment method for membership or service agreement billing, only that card is used to process billing, even if the customer has additional credit cards on file. If the preferred credit card transaction is unsuccessful, payment processing fails.

• If a customer has multiple credit cards on file and no preferred payment method selected for membership or service agreement billing, the customer’s primary credit card is used to process billing. If the primary credit card transaction is unsuccessful, an attempt is made with each stored credit card until a transaction succeeds.

• The Membership Renewal Protection can help protect revenue by automatically updating expired and replaced customer credit cards.

Search for uncharged recurring billing

1. Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting.

2. From the Accounting screen, click Recurring Billing.The Recurring Billing screen opens in a new window.

3. From the Create Run section, enter the start and end dates for your billing run and click Search Customers.
   

The search results include two tables that include customer, billing, and recurring billing information. You can switch between the tables by clicking the tabs:

• Ready to Bill: These are memberships or service agreements that have not yet been charged. All billing information is in order.

• Action Required: These memberships or service agreements cannot be included in the billing run because of an outstanding billing issue, for example, if the membership is missing a billing template or if there is an error with the way a business unit is set up for payments.

Filter search results

You can filter your search results based on the columns listed. For example, you can filter out customers who pay by bank account if you want to do a billing run of just credit card payments.

1. Click Filter for the column you want to filter.  

2. Select the items you want to include in your search.

3. Click Filter.  

The search results update automatically. You can add multiple filters to your search results.

Resolve Action Required alerts

From your search results, click the Action required tab to view the list of billing issues.

The Alerts column lists the reason it has been flagged:

• Primary Payment Method Missing Payment Processor

• Primary Payment Method Invalid

• No Billing Template

• Business Unit Payment Error

Primary Payment Method Missing Payment Processor or Payment Method Invalid

This alert can occur when the payment method was entered incorrectly or is inactive, or if two customer records are merged. Re-enter the payment method and add it to the membership or service agreement:

To add a primary payment method to a membership:

1. Update the customer’s payment method with a valid payment method.

2. In the customer record, click the membership you want to add a payment method to.

3. On the Membership screen, click Edit   to edit the membership.

4. Click the Preferred payment method dropdown and select the new payment method.

5. When you’re finished, click Save.

No Billing Template

A billing template is required to generate the proper invoice for the recurring payment:

To add a billing template for a membership:

1. Click the customer name to open a new window with the customer’s recurring billing details.

2. Click Edit   to edit the membership.

3. Click the Billing Template dropdown and select a billing template.

   Note: The Billing Template dropdown only displays when a membership uses recurring billing.

4. When you’re finished, click Save.
   

5. Click Save in the Edit Membership window.

Business Unit Payment Error

This occurs when there is an issue configuring business units with the recurring payment. Contact the Support team to resolve this alert.

Make a billing run

1. From your billing run search, click the Ready to Bill tab.

2. Select the checkboxes for the recurring charges you want to bill. You can also select groups of recurring charges:

   1. Select the checkbox at the top of your search results to select the recurring charges listed on the page.
      

   2. If your search results are more than what’s listed on the page, select the checkbox at the top of your search results then click Select All to select all in your search.

   3. If you used filters and your search results are more than what’s listed on the page, select the checkbox above your search results and click Select All to select all filtered results in your search.

3. Click Generate And Charge Invoices.

4. In the Charge and Generate Invoices pop-up, enter a name for your billing run in the Name This Run field.

5. Click Charge and Generate Invoices.

The billing run processes invoices in the background. You can continue working in ServiceTitan without interrupting the billing run. When the billing run is complete, an alert appears, Recurring billing run is complete. Click View Result to see the details of the run in your Billing History.

Note: If a customer has a Preferred Payment card selected for their membership or service agreement, only that card will be charged during the processed billing. If the payment doesn't go through, the transaction will fail. However, If no Preferred Payment Card is chosen and the customer has multiple cards saved on their profile, the billing run will process the Primary Card first. If that card fails, an attempt is made with each stored credit card until a transaction succeeds.

Note: Once an invoice has been generated for payment, the next billing date moves forward to the next billable date and no longer appears for the date range you originally searched for, even if there is still a balance on the invoice. View your Billing History to resolve unpaid invoices.

View Billing History

1. On the Recurring Billing screen, click the Billing History section.
   

   1. Click the Complete tab to view successful billing runs.

   2. Click the Incomplete tab to view billing runs that contain unpaid invoices.

2. Click the billing run you want to view. For incomplete runs, billing history details are separated into three tabs: Failed Payment, Unattempted Payment, and Paid:

   1. Failed Payment: Payment attempt was unsuccessful

   2. Unattempted Payment: Payment method is missing or the customer has a non-automatic preferred payment method, for instance, cash or check.

   3. Paid: Payment processing was successful

3. You can export a billing run as an .XLSX file by clicking Download.

When all invoices in an incomplete billing run are resolved and have a balance of $0, the billing run moves to the Complete tab.

Resolve payment issues

To resolve a failed or unattempted payment:

1. From the Billing History screen, click Failed Payment or Unattempted Payment.

2. Click the invoice number of the membership you want to add a payment to. The invoice opens in a new window.
   

3. In the invoice, click Add a payment.

4. Add the payment information.

5. When you’re finished, click Save.
   

Return to the billing run details and refresh the page. If the invoice has a $0 balance, it is now listed in the Paid tab.

Want to learn more?

• Visit Membership Billing

• See Manage automatic membership and service agreements billing rules

• See Membership Billing FAQ