Recurring billing: scheduled invoices, durable pay links, PDFs, reminders and cards on file

Highlights

• Bill on a schedule. Weekly, every N weeks, monthly (on a billing day), quarterly or annually — Planes creates each period's invoice and sends it, or leaves it as a draft for your review. A live preview shows the upcoming periods while you set it up, and a period is never billed twice.
• Pay links that never expire. Invoice emails carry a "View and pay invoice" link to a branded pay page; the old Stripe Checkout links died after 24 hours.
• Every invoice as a PDF, attached to the invoice email by default, downloadable from the invoice page and the customer's pay page.
• Overdue invoices are visible and reminded. An Overdue tab, a red "N days overdue" badge, a dashboard card, and automatic reminder emails at 3, 7 and 14 days (configurable) with the pay link.
• Cards on file. Customers can save a card from the pay page after reading exactly what they authorize, and remove it — or stop automatic payments — themselves. The business is told when they do.
• Change the price from a date, with a preview. Adjust a schedule's lines from an effective date, see six periods before and after, and keep a version history; add a one-off charge or credit to the next invoice with a suggested proration.

What changed

Recurring billing schedules

• Create a billing schedule from a customer's Billing card: cadence, billing day, lines, start date, and whether invoices are sent automatically or created as drafts.
• If the start date is in the past, choose whether to skip the missed periods or create draft invoices for them to review; missed periods are never emailed automatically.
• The schedule page shows a period ledger: skip a period, re-bill a period after voiding its invoice, or bill the current period now.
• Change a schedule's price from a chosen date with a before/after preview and version history; earlier invoices never change, and a date inside an already-invoiced period is refused.
• Add a one-off charge or credit; it lands on the next invoice exactly once, with a suggested (never automatic) proration.
• A Recurring tab on Invoices lists every schedule; a Needs review tab collects missed-period drafts, failed sends and anything else that needs a person, with a count. Invoices created by a schedule show a "Billing schedule" badge.

Sending and paying

• Invoice emails carry a View and pay invoice link that never expires. Re-sending an invoice issues a new link and the old one stops working.
• Customers land on a branded pay page showing the invoice, pay by card there, and see "Paid — thank you" or "This invoice was cancelled" afterwards.
• Businesses without card payments can show pay-by-check or bank-transfer instructions on the pay page and in the invoice email (set through the API for now).
• Invoice PDFs: download any invoice as a PDF (your logo, bill-to, lines, totals, balance); sent invoices keep an exact copy of what was sent; the PDF is attached to invoice emails by default (admins can turn this off); customers can download it from the pay page.
• Behavior change: voiding an invoice can be blocked for up to about 30 minutes while a customer has checkout open from their pay link; the message says how long to wait.
• Behavior change: a card payment that completes on an invoice you already voided is kept as a "Needs review" payment instead of being lost; refund it or apply it elsewhere.

Overdue invoices and reminders

• An Overdue tab on Invoices, a red "N days overdue" badge on each, and an Overdue invoices card on the dashboard.
• Payment reminders go out automatically at 3, 7 and 14 days overdue (you choose the days, up to five) with the pay link, exactly once per invoice and day, to the Billing contact. Preview the exact email before enabling.
• Behavior change: companies set up from a Blueprint start with the three reminders switched on; companies set up before this release are unaffected until an admin enables them.

Cards on file

• On the pay page a customer can Save this card after reading the authorization text; a Card on file section lets them stop automatic payments and remove the card themselves, and the business is notified.