Automatic Payments Updated September 05, 2023 15:22

Overview

Get paid without lifting a finger. Jobber automatically charges customer cards saved on file—perfect for recurring work. 

Using automatic payments, clients who have a card stored on their profile through Jobber Payments will be automatically charged according to their billing frequency. Invoices will be automatically created and charged using Jobber Payments. Say goodbye to the waiting time between when an invoice is sent and when you get paid!

Automatic payments can be toggled on in the invoicing section when setting up a recurring job for a client that already has a card stored through Jobber Payments.

Set up Jobber Payments
to enable automatic payments

Saving a client's card

Automatic payments require having a client's card saved as a payment method before creating the job. If you want to turn on automatic payments as soon as possible, we suggest saving the client's card as soon as possible. In addition to adding the client's card manually, there are four ways to capture their card information through client hub:

• Your client can add their own cards to their Wallet so that their cards are ready to go once they have quotes or invoices to pay.
• Send an email to request that clients save their own cards in Wallet.
• Clients can chose to save their own card information for future use when making a payment. 
• Cards can be saved automatically when paying a required deposit on the quote. 

Note: Due to SCA regulations in the UK, clients must save their own cards on file. This means that adding a card manually is not an option in the UK, however, clients can save their own card for future use through client hub. 

Set up automatic payments on a recurring job

Automatic payments are only available for recurring jobs, since these jobs typically have recurring payments over the duration of the job. By default, automatic payments are turned off. In order to enable automatic payments on a job, the client will need to have a saved card for Jobber Payments.

To turn automatic payments on for a job:

1. Create a new job or navigate to an existing job and select Edit.
2. Navigate to the Invoicing & automatic payments section and set the Automatically pay invoice toggle to On.

If your client doesn't have a saved card on file yet, you can send them a email or text message to request they save a card. Automatic payments for this job will be enabled as soon as they add their card. Check the box for Request card on file with then select Email or SMS based on your delivery preference. Learn more about how to Request your Clients Save a Card on File for Jobber Payments.

The automatic payments follow the billing frequency that you set up in the invoicing section. There are two kinds of billing in Jobber:

•  Per visit invoicing means that you will be charging the client for each visit. The line items that appear on each visit will be populated onto the invoice. This invoicing style works well if you offer different products and services on each visit, or if the client pays based on the number of times you visit them.
• Fixed price invoicing means that you will charge the same amount on each invoice. The line items that appear on the job (not visit) will be pulled onto the invoice. This invoicing style works well if a client pays a flat rate and it doesn't matter how many times you visit them.

Set up how often the client will be billed from the When do you want to invoice? drop down:

• Monthly on the last day of the month: This option will generate an invoice on the last day of the month. This means on the 30th or 31st (or 28th in February) an invoice will be created and the client's stored card will be charged. If the payment is successful, the client will receive an emailed receipt. The invoice will be created regardless of day of the week.
  • Note: Invoices will be sent at 9pm (in your timezone) on the scheduled invoice date to account for any services done during the day.
• After each visit is completed: Once a visit is marked completed, the invoice will be generated and the client's stored card will be charged. If the payment is successful, the client will receive an emailed receipt.
• As needed- no reminders: this option isn't compatible with automatic payments, if you select as needed automatic reminders will be toggled to off.
• Once the job is closed: Jobs are typically closed once the entire duration of the job has been completed. This option doesn't take visits into consideration, but the actual job being closed. Once you close the job the client's stored card will be charged. If the payment is successful, the client will receive an emailed receipt.
• Custom schedule: This one is up to you! If you'd prefer to invoice on a particular day, this is the option you will want to select.

To create a job that has automatic payments, users will need to have the same kind of permissions that would typically be needed to collect a payment. These permissions are: View and edit full client and property info (client and properties permission) + view and edit (job permission) + view and edit (invoice permission) + show pricing.

Note: If a user has permission to complete visits and the job is set up to be invoiced after each visit, they are still able to complete visits and have the invoice be automatically created and charged.

How are invoices created with automatic payments?

When you are not using automatic payments, invoice creation relies on the presence of an invoice reminder to prompt you to invoice. However, with automatic payments, invoice reminders do not get created as invoices are automatically paid.

In the billing section on the job, you will see all invoices for this job that have been created and automatically paid. If you were to turn off automatic payments, you would see invoice reminders populate in the billing section.

If your client didn't have a card saved on file and you've set up this job without automatic payments, invoice reminders will be created according to your invoicing frequency. If you've sent your client a request to add a card on file and they later add one, automatic payments will be enabled for this job and invoice reminders will no longer be generated since invoice will be automatically paid.

Invoices are created immediately according to the billing schedule that appears on the job. That means that if you have (for example) invoicing after each visit selected, as soon as the visit is marked complete an invoice will be created and their card will be charged. We will automatically charge the client's stored card and if successful, you will see the paid invoice appear in the billing section of the job.

If the charge is unsuccessful (for example, their card has expired) or the client's card is declined for another reason, we won't try to charge the client automatically again and you will be notified by email that the charge did not go through. Since the invoice is unpaid, you can reach out to the client to see if they'd prefer to pay with a different card. If the client chooses to pay with a new card, this will be the card charged going forward. You can also try to charge their card again manually from the invoice by clicking Collect Payment on the invoice. We will only attempt to charge the stored card one time.

You will also see that with automatic payments, that the option to generate an invoice is grayed out. This is because invoices will be created automatically based on the billing frequency, so the option to manually create an invoice for this job is removed.

When your client's automatic payment has gone through, they will receive a receipt email that shows how much they have paid. This email also has a button that allows them to view the invoice, just in case they are wondering what products or services their payment was for.

Quote deposits and automatic payments

When a job is set up with automatic payments, the system creates an invoice directly from the job. If the job was created from a quote where your client paid a deposit, the deposit will be carried forward and applied towards the first invoice created with automatic payments. The invoice will charge the total that appears on the job, minus any deposits, and plus taxes or discounts (if applicable). 

One thing to note is that deposits don't appear on jobs. Quotes and invoices are intended for your client's eyes so they show financial details like discounts, deposits, and taxes. Jobs, on the other hand, are not shown to clients so they do not show financial details beyond the unit prices of line items so you won't see details like discounts, deposits, and taxes on the job level. When invoices are created from jobs that originated as a quote with a deposit, the deposit will carry forward onto the invoice. 

Jobs page

The jobs page shows a column for invoicing. This column shows if this job will be invoiced automatically, or if there is an invoice reminder that will prompt you to invoice.

Reporting

Another way to view which jobs have been set up with automatic payment is to use the recurring jobs report, found from the side navigation under Reports.

Use the Columns button to add a column for Automatic payments to the report.

Learn more about Reports Basics.

Set up Jobber Payments
to enable automatic payments