How automatic payments are processed

An automatic payment is a periodic deduction from a customer's bank account or credit card. After you set up automatic payments for an account, Smile schedules a payment each time an invoice is raised against the account.

When an automatic payment is scheduled for an invoice, Smile suspends credit control actions against the invoice.

Automatic payments are scheduled during the billing run. Understanding how Smile processes automatic payments helps you troubleshoot problems with the billing run.

The following process explains how Smile processes automatic payments.

  1. When you close an invoice for an account with automatic payments, Smile schedules the payment and adds any surcharges to the invoice value.
  2. When you initiate payment processing, Smile:
    1. groups all batch and online payments that are ready for processing into a processing batch.
    2. sends the batch payments to a provider for processing.
    3. submits online payments to a payment gateway.
    Note: Smile groups all batch and online payments that are ready for processing into a single processing batch, then submits the payments to the appropriate provider.
  3. Smile receives a response from the payment gateway or payment provider about the status of each payment.
  4. If a payment is accepted, Smile:
    1. creates a receipt for the payment.
    2. creates transactions for any surcharges in the payment.
    3. adds the payment value to the account balance.
    4. allocates the receipt to the invoice and surcharges.
    5. emails the customer a receipt, if configured to do so.
  5. If a payment is declined, Smile:
    1. resumes any credit control actions against the invoice.
    2. raises a decline fee, if configured to do so.
    3. emails the customer a decline notification, if configured to do so.
    4. reschedules the payment, if configured to do so. If a payment is rescheduled, Smile suspends credit control actions against the invoice.
Smile keeps a record of each attempted payment. You can view attempted payments on an account's Payment Settings page.
Note: For more information about the Payment Settings page, see View payment history. For more information about setting up automatic payments, see Change the default payment method.