Payment Schedules in FreshBooks allows you to create a payment plan for your Clients, so they can pay Invoices in multiple and partial installments on dates of your choosing. This saves you from having to create multiple Invoices, or continually editing an existing Invoice whenever a new payment is due.
To set up a Payment Schedule, follow these steps:
Go to the Invoices section
Click on the New Invoice button or click on an existing Invoice then select the Edit button
Click on the Add a Payment Schedule link at the bottom of the Invoice
Choose between Percentage or Flat Amount
Add up to 12 payments, while specifying the percentage / amount and date of each payment
Click Add Schedule to finish. The Payment Schedule will be listed at the bottom of the Invoice.
Notes
Payment Schedules do not affect the status of the Invoice; if you do not want the Invoice to become Overdue while using a Payment Schedule, you can change the Due Date to the same date as the last payment on the schedule
Payment Schedules work with Invoices, not Recurring Templates or Retainers
Client View
When your Client views an Invoice with a Payment Schedule on it, they will have the option to pay for one scheduled payment, or they can check off the box to pay multiple payments at once:
FAQs
How do Payment Reminders work with Payment Schedules?
If you have enabled Payment Reminders for a Client, their Invoice will send a reminder out for each scheduled payment instead of based on the Invoice Due Date. If you have all 3 Payment Reminders enabled, all 3 reminders will send out for each payment that is overdue (past the payment's Due Date specified on the schedule).
For example, a Payment Schedule of 5 payments that are all overdue will trigger 3 Payment Reminders each, for a total of 15 reminders.
If no Payment Reminders are set up, it's still up to your Client to pay on time and no additional emails are sent.
How do Partial Payments work with Payment Schedules?
If you’ve enabled Partial Payments (with PayPal, WePay, or Stripe), your Clients will then have the option to specify a partial amount to pay or pay an installment of a Payment Schedule in full. If Partial Payments are disabled on the Invoice, the Client will be prompted to pay the outstanding installment in full only.
