How to Set Up a Billing Plan (Invoice Installments)

A Billing Plan lets you take a one-time product or item and bill it on a repeating schedule—creating a whole series of linked invoices from one setup, instead of creating and sending a new invoice every time a payment is due.

This is different from a Subscription.

Subscriptions bill daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, with a set start and end date or ongoing until canceled. A Billing Plan repeats a one-time item at any cadence you choose—every 2 months, twice a year (every 6 months), every 2 weeks—making it the best fit for installment schedules that don't follow a standard subscription interval. Billing Plans also carry lower fees than Subscriptions, so they can be the more affordable way to bill the same total amount.

👣 Step-by-Step: How to Create a Billing Plan

Step 1: Go to Billing

Click the ⚡ Lightning Bolt (Admin Superpowers)
Select Billing — Payments, Invoices, Subscriptions
Click Bill Someone

Step 2: Select Who to Bill

Choose the child (or multiple children)
Use search or add filters to quickly narrow down the list
Click Continue

Step 3: Add Invoice Items & Choose a Collection Method

Click Add Item and select a product, or add a Custom Item with its own amount and description
To apply a discount, add a Custom Item with a negative amount (e.g. –$150, Staff discount)—it will be applied to every invoice in the plan

Discounting a Billing Plan applies to every installment

A discount on a Billing Plan applies to every invoice in the series — it can't be added to just one installment. Because all invoices in a plan are linked and created from the same setup, any discount you attach (including a negative Custom Item) repeats on each invoice. There's no way to reduce a single month while leaving the others at full price.

Need to discount just one month?

Handle that single charge outside the Billing Plan:

1. Keep the Billing Plan for the regular, full-price installments.

2. For the one month you want to adjust, send a separate standalone invoice (Bill Someone → one-time) with the discount applied — as a discount or a negative Custom Item (e.g. –50, One-time credit).

This keeps the recurring plan at its normal amount while giving the family the one-time reduction for that single month.

Under Collection Method, choose Charge Automatically (charges the payer's saved payment method on each billing date) or Send Invoice (sends the payer an invoice to pay each time)

Good to know: If a Charge Automatically payment fails, Stripe can retry it automatically when Smart Retry is turned on. Send Invoice installments aren’t retried, so the family pays again from the invoice in the app.

See How Stripe Smart Retry Works.

Step 4: Set the Repeat Schedule

Under Schedule Invoice, select Repeat (next to Charge Now and Schedule) to open the Billing Plan settings
Start: choose Immediately to bill the first invoice right away, or Specific Date to start on a future date
Repeat every: set the cadence—a number plus Day, Week, Month, or Year (e.g. every 1 Month, or every 2 Weeks)
End Date: click Change to set when the plan ends—the field shows the end date and exactly how many invoices the plan will create (e.g. Ends on May 19, 2027 · 10 invoices)
Review the summary banner—it confirms the number of invoices, the amount, the cadence, and the first and last billing dates
Check the Invoice Summary for the full plan total, including any service fee or ACH discount
Click Set up billing plan—the button shows exactly what you're committing to (e.g. Set up billing plan (10 × $650.00))

Sample Billing Plan Settings

Monthly Tuition Installments (School Year)

Bill $1,000 tuition monthly from August through May.
- Start: Specific Date — August 1
- Repeat every: 1 Month
- End Date: May 1 the following year → 10 invoices

Add any sibling or staff discounts as negative Custom Items so they apply to every installment.

Semester Program Fee

Bill a materials or program fee once per semester.
- Start: Specific Date — start of the first semester
- Repeat every: 6 Months
- End Date: start of the second semester → 2 invoices

Weekly Summer Camp Billing

Bill camp fees weekly for an 8-week summer session.
- Start: Specific Date — first week of camp
- Repeat every: 1 Week
- End Date: final week of camp → 8 invoices

Payment Plan for a Big Expense

Split a $600 field trip fee into 4 monthly installments of $150.
- Start: Immediately
- Repeat every: 1 Month
- End Date: 3 months after the first invoice → 4 invoices