Setup Auto Billing

Automated billing (auto billing) creates the invoices upon reservation check in and automatically bills the invoice on the timeline and to the payment method configured in auto billing settings. 

Prerequisites 

An integrated merchant account is required to setup and use auto billing. For more information see how do I sign up for payments?

Step 1: Configure Auto Billing Settings

Settings > Billing Hub > Auto Billing 

Auto Billing Settings control how automated billing works for your organization. 

Display confirmation screen to confirm amount before billing:

• Yes - will show the following screen after checking in the reservation, before the check in confirmation screen you see today.
• No - will check in the reservation as is does without auto billing and the invoice will be created in the background.

Note: the verbiage will change on the confirmation modal based on when you have auto billing set to run, if you have surcharges configured and if the user checking in the flight has the permissions to edit invoices. 

After Check-In, Bills are run: 

• Immediately creates and bills the invoice immediately after checking in the reservation. The invoice will "queue" behind the scenes based on volume and the user will be able to continue on to the next reservation without delay. 
  • See more details on what the full process looks like when auto billing is set to bill immediately. 
• Overnight or Overnight one-day-late allows the invoice to be created automatically at reservation check in but put into the auto billing queue where the invoices can be reviewed and/or edited before auto billing fires off. When selecting overnight or overnight one-day-late you will also need to select what time auto billing should run based on what works best for your operating hours. 
  • See more details on what the full process looks like when auto billing is set to bill later.
• On the ___ day of the month typically used for flying clubs or organizations that only bill monthly. This will create all of the invoices at reservation check in, but bill them all on one day. 

Automatically email receipt after payment

• Yes - will send an email receipt to the user after the payment is processed. 
• No - the user will be able to login to their account (if they have the permission "View Own Transaction History") and see their transaction history but will not receive an email notification. 

Default order of auto billing payment methods

Drag and drop to re-order payment methods based on your organization need. FSP will go down the list when processing an auto billing invoice for the user and use the first available payment method. 

• Packages 
  • If using packages, packages is required to be first payment method and cannot be moved. If a user has package hours, FSP will utilize them first. 
  • If your organization has never setup a package, you will not see this in the list. 
• Account Balance
  • If the user has a positive account balance that can cover the invoice total. 
• Primary Payment Method
  • Stored credit card or stored bank account. If the user has both, the primary card will be used.
• Charge to Account (allow negative balance)
  • If users have the permission to "charge to account" thus allowing their account balance to be negative, then if none of the above payment methods exist, the invoice will be billed to the users account and need to be paid via another payment method in the future. 
  • If the user does not have permission to run a negative balance, then auto billing for that invoice will fail and will fall into invoices needing attention.  

Step 2: Enable Auto Billing on Activity Types

Auto billing can be enabled (or disabled) on each activity type. This allows you to enable auto billing for flight training related activities but not for discovery flights as an example. Auto billing is disabled on each activity type by default but can be enabled for all of your activity types if desired. 

Settings > General > Scheduling > Activity Types > Edit (your desired activity types) > Billing > Enable Auto Billing 

Permissions

• No additional permissions are needed for users checking in the reservations if auto billing is enabled.
• The "edit invoice" button will only show on the confirmation modal if the users have the "Add Invoices" permission. 
• "Manage Auto Billing" is a new permission created for auto billing. Granting access to manage auto billing will give access to the auto billing queue and will be given a dashboard alert for any invoices needing attention that failed during auto billing. 

Related Articles 

Auto Billing - Bill Immediately

Auto Billing - Bill Later

Activity Type Billing Configurations