Recurring Billing

The three billing modes on a service plan, what actually triggers a charge, when invoices are created and sent, how autopay and cards on file work, and what happens the moment a card declines.

Written By Support Team

Last updated About 3 hours ago

Recurring revenue only works if you know exactly when money moves. On a Rotor service plan, that is decided by one setting — the billing mode — chosen in the billing step when the plan is created. Everything else follows from it.

The three billing modes

Mode	When money moves	Good for
Standard billing	The customer is invoiced after each job is completed	Most businesses. Quarterly pest, one-off cleans, anything billed per service
Monthly billing	The first job is paid in full after it's completed. Future jobs are prepaid month by month, on a day of the month you choose	Spreading a large annual plan into level payments the customer can budget for
Start of month billing	The first job is paid in full after it's completed. Future jobs are prepaid in full on the 1st of the month the service happens	Seasonal work where you want the month's service paid before the crew rolls

Both monthly modes require a card on file. Rotor won't let you enable them otherwise, because there is nothing to charge on the scheduled date.

Inside the plan, the outlined service schedule shows which months contain an actual service and which months are billing-only. Review it before you save — that view is the fastest way to catch a plan that charges in a month nobody is visiting.

What actually triggers a charge

Under standard billing, the trigger is job completion — not the scheduled date, and not the visit.

This distinction matters daily. When a technician taps Finish, that ends the visit. They then choose Add another visit or Mark the job as complete. Only completing the job starts billing. A re-service trip on the same job bills once, when the job finally closes. If a technician habitually finishes visits but never completes jobs, your revenue silently stops — see Jobs Page - Web and filter for completed jobs with an unpaid status as a weekly check.

Under monthly and start of month billing, only the first payment follows job completion. After that the calendar drives it: the chosen day of the month, or the 1st.

Invoice generation and sending

Completing a job prompts you to create a draft invoice immediately. That prompt is the safety net that stops finished work from going unbilled, so don't dismiss it out of habit.

Invoices are then sent manually — which is why the invoice message in Settings → Messaging is always on and only its wording is configurable. You control the timing; Rotor controls the template. While you're in there, set up:

Invoice message — what goes out with the invoice link.
Receipt message — what the customer gets after a payment is collected.
Invoice payment reminders — multiple automatic follow-ups at intervals you choose, with different wording for each. This is the single highest-return setting on the page for collections.

Track the results in Financials → Invoices using the Overdue, Partially paid, and Sent filters. See Financials: Invoices, Payments, and Payouts.

Autopay and cards on file

Everything here depends on Stripe being connected. Once it is:

Add a card or bank account from the customer's Payments tab, or send the Client Portal Link and let the customer enter it themselves. The portal link is the better ask — it keeps card numbers off your phone calls entirely.
Set auto pay on a plan template so every plan built from it inherits the behavior instead of relying on the person doing signup to remember.
On quotes, you can require a card on file as a condition of approval. For recurring plans, do it — collecting a card at signup is far easier than chasing one at the first invoice.

The details of storing, updating, and replacing a customer's payment method are covered in Payment Methods On File.

If you're migrating from other software, saved cards cannot come with you. Industry security rules prevent transferring stored payment methods between Stripe accounts, so budget time to re-collect cards from every recurring customer before their first Rotor charge.

Proration and mid-cycle changes

Nothing in the current billing setup suggests an automatic proration engine, so build the adjustment into the plan instead:

Use a line item that applies to the initial job only, priced for the partial period.
Or apply a flat or percentage discount to the first job to cover the short month.
Choose the plan start date deliberately. Starting a plan in the month service actually begins avoids most of the awkward math.
Watch the 13-month duration option. On a quarterly plan it adds one extra service the following year — a genuine extra job, not a rounding artifact.

When a payment fails

A declined card is normal. Missing it for three weeks is not. The mechanics:

The charge fails and the payment is recorded in Financials → Payments with a failure reason. Open it to see whether it was a decline, an expired card, or something else.
Failed payments stay visible in the list until you mark them reviewed. That's the queue — don't clear items you haven't actually fixed.
If Failed payment is enabled under Admin Notifications, you're alerted by push, SMS, email, or in-app the moment it happens. Turn it on. See Notifications.
Fix it: request a new card, update the payment method, retry the charge, or collect in person on the next visit. Then mark the payment reviewed.

The invoice reverts to unpaid or partially paid, so it reappears in your normal collections filters — a failed autopay does not become a forgotten invoice.

For the full recovery playbook — reminder cadence, how to ask for a new card without an awkward call, and when to hold service — see Failed Payments & Recovery.

Getting the money to your bank

Collected payments settle through Stripe on a delay — roughly two days in the US and three in Canada — and appear under Financials → Payouts. Instant payout is available for a fee when you need funds sooner. Current rates and timing are covered in Payout Schedule rather than repeated here.

Tips

Review the outlined service schedule before saving a plan to catch months that bill with no visit.
Make sure technicians tap Mark the job as complete — finishing a visit alone does not start billing.
Turn on Invoice payment reminders under Settings → Messaging.
Set auto pay on plan templates and require a card on file on recurring quotes.
Enable the Failed payment admin notification so declines surface the day they happen.

Congratulations! You can now set up recurring billing and catch failed payments the day they happen in Rotor.

Have additional questions? Our team is ready to help you succeed. Contact us through the chat or drop us an email at support@getrotor.com.

Service Plans — where the billing mode is chosen
Payment Methods On File — storing and updating cards for autopay
Failed Payments & Recovery — the full recovery playbook
Financials: Invoices, Payments, and Payouts — tracking invoices and payments

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