Balance Instalments
A payment plan you run yourself: the customer's card is charged on a schedule you set, with reminders before each payment and retries after any failure.
How instalments are set up
Choose the deposit, then how many payments (2 to 12), how often (weekly, fortnightly or monthly) and how long after the order the first one is taken. Balance Due splits the balance into equal amounts, with any odd pennies on the last payment, and dates them from the order. Monthly schedules keep the same day of the month and move to the last day where a month is shorter.
Example: £1,200 table, 25% deposit, 3 monthly payments starting 30 days after the order. The customer pays £300 at checkout, then £300 on the 31st of October, 30th of November and 30th of December.
What the customer experiences
Checkout looks the same as a single-balance deposit: the deposit is charged and the card saved by Shopify. The schedule email lists every payment with its date. Three days before each one they get a reminder, and after each one a receipt showing what is left. Their payment page shows the whole plan and lets them pay the remaining balance early in one go.
When a payment fails
Only the failed instalment is retried, after 1, 3 and 7 days, with a pay link each time. Later instalments stay on their dates. If all attempts fail the order is marked overdue and the fulfilment hold stays on until it is settled.
What it is not
This is not buy now, pay later. There is no lender, no interest, no credit check and no fee to the customer. The customer owes you the balance and you are paid as each charge clears, exactly as with a single balance. That also means instalments only make sense for orders you are happy to hold or build while the balance comes in.
Requirements
- Growth or Pro plan.
- A Shopify Plus store: Shopify only allows partial charges against a saved card on Plus, so on Basic, Shopify and Advanced the balance is collected as one payment.
- Shopify Payments or PayPal Express, because the saved card has to be charged more than once. On other providers the balance collapses to one payment by pay link.
Questions
Can the customer pay the whole balance early?
Yes, from the pay now button on their payment page, and you can do it from the order with collect now. All remaining instalments are taken as one charge.
Can I move an instalment date for one customer?
Yes. Open the order in Balance Due and reschedule that payment; the customer gets a fresh reminder before the new date.
Do instalments show on the Shopify order?
The order shows the total outstanding and every payment as a transaction as it clears. The full schedule is in the order note and in Balance Due.
See the whole flow
The how-it-works page follows one order from the product page to paid in full.