Recurring Payment Workflows

Recurring Payment Workflows allow you to automatically send emails based on recurring payment activity. They can be used to communicate with supporters throughout the lifecycle of a recurring donation, from welcoming new donors to reminding supporters about upcoming payments or notifying administrators of payment events.

Payment Workflows are configured separately from Attribute Workflows and are available for both recurring and one-off payments.

Common Use Cases

Recurring Payment Workflows can automate communications throughout a donor's recurring giving journey.

Some common examples include:

Workflow	Example Use
Send Welcome	Welcome new recurring donors after their first successful payment.
Send days before	Remind supporters that their next recurring payment will be processed soon.
Send after every payment	Send a thank you email after every monthly donation.
Send once after number of payments	Celebrate supporter milestones such as the 12th monthly donation or first annual renewal.
Send on anniversary	Thank supporters for another year of recurring giving.
Send on failure	Notify supporters that a payment was unsuccessful and provide instructions for updating their payment details.
Send on suspension	Inform supporters that their recurring payment has been suspended and explain the next steps.
Send after every payment to admin	Notify fundraising staff when qualifying recurring donations are received.
Generate direct debit reports	Automatically send Direct Debit batch reports to finance staff before processing.

Accessing Recurring Payment Workflows

Navigate to:

Admin > Workflow Maintenance

Workflow Maintenance contains two tabs:

Recurring Payment – workflows triggered by recurring payment activity.
One-Off Payment – workflows triggered by one-off payment activity.

Select the Recurring Payment tab to create or manage recurring payment workflows.

Creating a Recurring Payment Workflow

Click the green + button to create a new workflow.

Each workflow includes the following settings:

Setting	Description
Frequency	Select the recurrence frequency the workflow applies to, or choose All to apply it to every recurrence frequency.
Workflow Rule	Select the event that will trigger the workflow.
Document	The document that will be emailed. The email subject is taken from the document.
Minimum Amount	The minimum recurring payment amount that will trigger the workflow.
Maximum Amount	The maximum recurring payment amount that will trigger the workflow.
No. Payments	Specifies the qualifying payment number or payment count for applicable workflow rules.
Rule Value	Sets the delay before the workflow runs. Depending on the selected rule, this value is measured in minutes, days, or months.
Email	Select the Service Email that will be used as the sender address.

After configuring the workflow, click the green + beside the row to save it.

Administrator Notifications

Some workflow rules send emails to administrator contacts rather than supporters.

Recurring Payment Admin

Workflow rules ending in "to admin" send emails to contacts assigned the following attribute:

Attribute Type	Attribute
Roles	Recurring Payment Admin

Financial Admin

The Generate direct debit reports and send to financial admin days before workflow sends emails to contacts assigned:

Attribute Type	Attribute
Roles	Financial Admin

Workflow Rule	Explanation	No. Payments [x]	Rule Value
Generate direct debit reports and send to financial admin days before	Creates a Direct Debit batch days before the due date and emails the report to Financial Admin contacts. The document is sent to the top contact with the attribute "Financial Admin" 5 minutes after the creation of the batch.	N/A	number of days
Send Welcome	Sends a welcome email after the contact's first successful recurring payment. This workflow only triggers once, regardless of how many recurring schedules are created later.	N/A	number of minutes
Send after every payment	Sends an email after every specified number of successful recurring payments matching the selected frequency and payment amount. Example- If No. Payments is 5 then it will send an email after 5, 10, 15, etc payments.	[x] number of payments	number of minutes
Send after every payment to admin	Same as above, but sends the email to Recurring Payment Admin contacts.	number of payments	number of minutes
Send once after number of payments	Sends an email only once after the specified successful payment number is reached. Example- If No. Payments is 5 then it will only send the email after the 5th payment.	[x] number of payments	number of minutes
Send once after number of payments to admin	Same as above, but sends the email to Recurring Payment Admin contacts.	[x] number of payments	number of minutes
Send after create	Sends an email after a new recurring payment schedule is created with an Open status.	N/A	number of minutes
Send after create to admin	Sends an email to Recurring Payment Admin contacts after a recurring payment schedule is created.	N/A	number of minutes
Send days before	Sends a reminder before each scheduled recurring payment.	N/A	number of days
Send on anniversary	Sends an email on recurring payment anniversaries. Example - If Rule Value is 12 then it will send an email on the yearly anniversary, if 6 then 6-monthly anniversary.	N/A	number of months from first pay date
Send on anniversary to admin	Same as above, but sends the email to Recurring Payment Admin contacts.	N/A	number of months from first pay date
Send on failure	Sends an email after a recurring payment fails. The qualifying failed payment is determined by the No. Payments setting (see note below).	[x] number of times payment has failed (max 3)	number of minutes
Send on failure to admin	Same as above, but sends the email to Recurring Payment Admin contacts.	number of times payment has failed (max 3)	number of minutes
Send on suspension	Sends an email when a recurring payment schedule is suspended.	N/A	number of minutes
Send on suspension to admin	Same as above, but sends the email to Recurring Payment Admin contacts.	N/A	number of minutes

Payment Failure Retries

Important
For Send on failure workflows, the No. Payments value determines whether the workflow is triggered after the first, second, or third failed payment attempt.
The number of retry attempts and retry frequency are configured under Admin > Financial Settings. Once the maximum number of retries has been reached, the recurring payment schedule is automatically suspended.

Managing Existing Workflows

To edit a workflow:

Click the pencil icon.
Make your changes.
Click the green tick to save.

To delete a workflow:

Click the red bin icon.
Confirm the deletion.

Example

The recording below demonstrates how to:

Create a workflow to remind annual recurring donors that their donation will be processed in three days.
Edit the workflow so it only applies to recurring donations over $50.
Delete the workflow once it is no longer required.

“Some content in this article may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by staff.”