Collecting Auto-Pay Payments

Auto-pay means EnrollmentHive charges a family’s saved card or bank account on a schedule you set, instead of you collecting each household by hand.

It is always opt-in per account. Turning auto-pay on does not charge anyone by itself. Collection only happens when:

• a collection rule fires, or
• you run Manual Collection from Manage Balances and check Charge account

This page covers turning auto-pay on, making sure a payment method is ready, setting those rules, and what to do when a charge fails. For posting charges, logging cash, and the rest of the ledger, see Charges and Balances.

Households vs Accounts

Auto-pay does not live on the household or on the student. It lives on an account.

A household is the family: students, address, and the people who can log in.

An account is one of those people as a billing identity. Payment methods, the auto-pay switch, and the running balance all belong to that account.

That split matters for auto-pay:

• Two parents in the same household can each have auto-pay on or off. Mom’s default card will not pay Dad’s balance.
• A scholarship household can have auto-pay on its own account, while the family pays everything else themselves.
• You collect one account at a time. There is no household-wide auto-pay toggle.

On the household Ledger tab, Viewing billing for lets you look at All accounts or one account. The Auto-Pay badge under the balance is what you click when a single account is selected.

What Has to Be True

An account is ready for automatic collection only when all of these are true:

1. Auto-pay is enabled on that account.
2. The account has at least one payment method (card or bank). Bank accounts should be Verified.
3. There is a posted, unpaid balance that is due (due date is today or in the past). Upcoming tuition is not collected until it posts.
4. An Active collection rule matches today’s date and time (for automatic runs), or you included them in Manual Collection.

If any of those are missing, Manage Balances will show Auto-pay disabled or No payment methods, and automatic collection will skip them.

Household unallocated credit (overpayments or studio credit not yet pointed at a charge) is applied oldest-first before anything is charged. You will not double-collect money that is already sitting on the household.

Payment Methods

Auto-pay uses the account’s default payment method. If there is only one method, that one is used.

From the studio

1. Open the household and go to the Ledger tab, then Payment Methods.
2. Click Add Payment Method, pick the Account, enter the card or bank details, optionally a nickname, and click Add payment method.
3. On the method’s row menu, Set as default if they have more than one.

Methods belong to an account. Cards show brand, last four, and expiration. Bank accounts show bank name and last four.

From the parent portal

Parents go to Billing, then Payment Methods (or Manage Payment Methods). The page says the default method is what auto-pay will use. They can Add payment method, Set as default, or delete a method.

If your studio requires a payment method on file, they cannot delete their last one. They will need you to remove it.

Checkout also reminds them that saving a method can be used later for auto-pay if their account is enrolled.

Turning Auto-Pay On or Off

From the studio

1. Open the household Ledger.
2. Set Viewing billing for to the account (not All accounts).
3. Click the Auto-Pay badge under the balance. It toggles between Enabled and Disabled.

When you are viewing all accounts, the badge only shows how many accounts have auto-pay on. It does not toggle anything.

You need permission to collect payments to change this.

From the parent portal

On Payment Methods, under Payment Settings, they check Enable Auto-pay (“Allow us to collect from your default payment method automatically”) and click Save.

Locking the parent toggle

In Organization Setup, under billing Payment Settings, Do not allow accounts to control Auto-Pay settings stops parents from changing the checkbox. They see a note to contact the studio. You can still toggle auto-pay from the household ledger.

Use this when you want auto-pay required (or forbidden) and do not want families flipping it themselves.

Collection Rules

Rules are what actually run auto-pay. Set them on Manage Balances → Collect Balances → Auto Collection.

1. Click Add Rule.
2. Turn Active on when you are ready for it to run.
3. Set Day of Month (1–31) and Collection Time (studio local time).
4. Optionally restrict Payment Categories. Leave empty to collect every category.
5. Optionally check Notify staff 24 hours prior to collecting.
6. Click Save.

Edit a rule from the table. In the edit flyout, Delete Collection Rule removes it. That cannot be undone.

How a rule matches the calendar:

• Time is your studio timezone, not UTC.
• If you pick day 31 (or another day that some months do not have), the rule runs on the last day of that month. A “31” rule runs on February 28 or 29.
• Only one auto-collection run starts in a given hour. If two active rules share the same day and hour, the older rule is the one that runs. Give rules different times if you need more than one pass (for example, tuition at 8:00 AM and costume fees at 9:00 AM).

Automatic collection always behaves like Only include items that are due. Charges with a due date still in the future are left for a later run.

Posted charges that are due, in the selected categories, after unallocated credit is applied, are what get charged. The payment on the ledger is described as Payment (Auto-Pay).

Staff notification (if you enabled it) is an in-app event about 24 hours before the rule, with the scheduled time and payment categories. That is separate from the email families get when new items post to their balance.

Manual Collection (Same Idea, On Demand)

Manage Balances → Collect Balances → Manual Collection is the “run it now” version of auto-pay.

You can filter by Payment categories to collect and Only include items that are due. Unallocated household payments are still applied oldest-first before charging.

Each row is an account. Check Charge account for people you want to bill. Select All only includes accounts that can actually be charged (auto-pay on and a payment method). Type a Payment note if you want the same note on every selected charge, or Set all notes.

Click Collect All Selected Balances, confirm the table, type the total amount exactly, and Process Payments.

This is useful after a failed auto-run, for a one-off tuition date, or when you want to collect before the next rule fires. It is not a substitute for turning auto-pay on — accounts with auto-pay off still cannot be charged from this table.

After a Run: Logs and Failures

Auto Collection Logs (from the Auto Collection tab, or Back to Collect Balances from the logs page) lists each automatic run:

• When it ran
• Which rule (day and time)
• Categories
• How many accounts were Attempted, Enqueued (tried to collect), Skipped, and Failed
• Total amount enqueued

Click a run to expand each account:

A queued charge can still fail later at the processor (expired card, insufficient funds). Those show as failed payments on the household Payments tab and in Payments.

When an automatic payment does not go through, the account can get a Payment failed email (if that operational email is enabled in setup). They will need a new method, a different default, or you can Collect Payment on the household once the method is fixed.

Emails Families See

When new tuition or fees post to an account, they can receive a New balance due email. That email tells them:

• the new items
• that the balance will be processed on the due date if Auto-Pay is enabled
• that the default payment method (or their only method) will be used
• that a credit-card surcharge may apply if your studio charges one
• to pay by the due date if auto-pay is off

That email is about items posting, not about the collection rule clock. The rule is what actually charges them.

Studio Settings That Affect Auto-Pay

In billing Payment Settings:

Connect Stripe on this same setup page. Auto-pay cannot run without a connected processor.

Related

• Charges and Balances — household ledger, collecting one family, credits, and Manage Balances
• Pricing a Section — responsible accounts and how tuition gets onto a balance
• Managing Enrollments — enrolling and dropping, which creates or removes upcoming tuition