Working with payment plans

This topic describes how to work with payment plans on the Order Management screen.

A paymentCommerce: the verification of a money transaction in a website shopping situation. The e-commerce system most often needs a verification for a payment to create the actual purchase order and complete the shopping workflow. plan works exactly like processing an order, except that a payment plan spreads payments over time, giving you flexibility in how you sell your products, and how a customer pays for them. Use a payment plan for large and complicated orders, orders that need to be shipped in sequence, magazine or grocery subscriptions, or expensive items.

A Customer Service Representative (CSRStands for "customer service representative") sets up a payment plan to generate recurring payments. Payment plans are handled in the background through the Subscription payment plan scheduled job.

Viewing payment plans

1. From the Order Management screen, click Payment plan. All payment plans appear.
2. To narrow down the list, identify the payment plan's customer by selecting Search by Name or Search by Email.

   

   • If you chose Search by Name, move to the Search box and begin entering the customer's first name. For example, if the customer name is Bryan Stephens, enter B, Br, or Bry. Press Enter to execute the search.
     • You can enter the entire name, but this takes longer.
     • As you enter more characters, you get fewer search results.
     • You cannot find a customer by entering the last name. To continue the example, you cannot find Bryan Stephens by entering Ste.
   • If you chose Search by Email, enter the exact email address. Partial entries are not allowed.
3. Choose the payment plan that you want to view. The information is displayed in the following tabs:
   • Summary. General information, such as market and currency, order number, created date, items, shipping, and discount information.
   • Form Details. Shipping address and method, line items, discounts, and payments.
   • Contact Details. Customer name and email address. You can view and edit customer information by clicking the edit icon next to Customer Information. See Viewing and updating customer information.
   • Settings. Information about the payment plan, such as cycle length and start date.

Creating a payment plan

1. From the Order Management screen, click Payment plan.
2. Click Create Payment Plan.

   

3. Choose the payment plan's marketOne or more countries, regions or customer groups, to which you want to apply languages, catalogs, currencies or promotions. The market features support targeted merchandising and personalization..

   

4. Choose an existing customer or create a new one.
   • To find an existing customer, enter any part of the customer name or email address. A list of matching customer names appears. Select the customer.
   • To enter a new customer, click New Customer. The Create Contact dialog appears. Enter the customer's name, email address, and customer groupCustomer groups are created in Commerce Manager then applied to contacts and organizations. Customer groups are common to both contacts and organizations, and you can apply them to customer segments that are targeted for marketing campaigns and customer group-specific pricing, including variants..
5. Click Create Payment Plan.
6. Click the context menu to the right of shipment 1 and click Edit.

   

7. Enter the payment plan's shipping address and shipping methodCommerce: A set of information and rules that determine the shipping cost. Displayed on the front-end public site while a customer checks out an item from the shopping cart. The shipping fee is added to the total price of the purchase. A shipping method is mapped to a shipping provider visible to a back-end administrator in Commerce Manager. For example, when a customer picks "Ground Shipping," UPS (or another provider) may fulfill the shipment..

   

8. Click Save.
9. Click Add Line Items.

   

10. In the Product Variant field, enter a search phrase of three or more characters. Examples:
    • The entire SKUCommerce: Stock keeping unit; corresponds to a purchasable product with specific characteristics. For example, a product line of shirts has individual variations/SKUs for sleeve size, color, and collar size., for example, 44477844.
    • All or part of the item name or description, for example, boot.

    

11. Choose a quantity and price. The default placed price appears, but you can change it.
12. Click Add Line Item.
13. Open the Settings tab and set the cycles and parameters of the payment plan.

    

    • Last Transaction Date. Logs the last transaction date. Leave the date and time fields as is when you create the payment plan.
    • Completed Cycles. This tallies the number of completed cycles since the payment plan was created. When initially creating the payment plan, set this field to 0.
    • Cycle Length. Entering a value of 1 or higher determines the unit of time for the Plan Cycle. For example, if the Plan Cycle is Daily, and the Cycle Length is 3, a transaction occurs every three days. If the Plan Cycle is Monthly and the Cycle Length is 1, a transaction occurs each month.
    • Plan Cycle. (Cycle Mode)

      You can choose from the following plan cycles, which determine how often the customer is charged.

      • None. No recurring paymentCommerce: Payments initiated by Commerce Manager on a regular cycle, used in a subscription-based scenario. is created. The customer is charged once when the initial purchase order is created.
      • Days. Recurring payment happens daily from start date.
      • Weeks. Recurring payment happens weekly from start date.
      • Months. Recurring payment happens monthly from start date.
      • Years. Recurring payment happens annually from start date
      • Custom1/Custom2. These are placeholders for developers to create custom cycles within the Mediachase.Commerce.Orders.PaymentPlanCycle class.
    • Max Cycles. Determines the maximum number of cycles to run for this payment plan. For example, if the Max Cycles is set to 2, payment plan stops after two transaction cycles. If you want the plan to go on indefinitely, set Max Cycles to 0.
    • Start Date. Set the start date and time when recurring transactions begin.
    • End Date. Set the end date and time when recurring transactions end.
    • Is Active. To enable the payment plan, enable the check box. To create the payment plan but keep it inactive, leave the check box clear.
14. Click Create Payment Plan.

Payment plan orders

After you create a new payment plan, the Orders tab appears on the Payment Plan Details screen. The Orders History shows all processed purchase orders from this payment plan.

The payment plan begins when the first purchase orderCommerce: An order that has been registered and paid for. Typically, it has an associated purchase order number. is generated. You can create the purchase order manually or automatically by the payment plan scheduled job.

Creating the first purchase order manually

1. From the Order Management screen, click Payment plan.
2. Choose the payment plan you want to create the first purchase order for.
3. On the Payment Plan Details screen, click the Form Details tab.
4. Click Add Payment.

   

5. Select a billing address and payment method.

   

6. Click Save.
7. Click Create First Purchase Order.

   

The Create First Purchase Order button disappears after creating the first purchase order manually, or if the payment plan scheduled job runs and generates the first purchase order.

The generated purchase order number includes the parent ID of the payment plan. For example, if the payment plan parent ID is 35, subsequent purchase orders are numbered as PO35XXX.

When a payment is added to a payment plan, the customer is not charged. The payment plan simply collects payment information until converted to a purchase order. The customer is charged once the purchase order is generated for the first time (and through subsequent purchase orders).

Editing a payment plan

1. From the Order Management screen, click Payment plan.
2. Click the payment plan you want to edit and make your changes. You can add and edit line items, change the payment plan settings and shipping information.

Canceling a payment plan

1. From the Order Management screen, click Payment plan.
2. Click the payment plan you want to cancel.
3. On the Payment Plan Details screen, click Cancel Payment Plan.

   

Converting a cart to a payment plan

Typically, a shopping cartCommerce: A collection of products selected by a website customer, with the intention of completing a purchase. Also known as a shopping cart or basket. is converted to a purchase orderCommerce: An order that has been registered and paid for. Typically, it has an associated purchase order number. when a customer proceeds to checkoutCommerce: Completing a purchase on a website, involving the collection of shipping and billing address, shipping method, payment, and so on. and finalizes the purchase. You can also convert a cart to a payment planCommerce: Payments initiated by the system, used for managing orders. for further processing. For example, you want to generate recurring payments for the products added to the cart.

Use the Cart Details screen to convert a cart to a payment plan.