One-off Payment Workflows allow you to automatically send emails based on one-off payment activity. Workflows can trigger communications to supporters or administrators when payment conditions are met, making it easy to automate acknowledgements, reminders, notifications, and donor journeys.
Payment Workflows are configured separately from Attribute Workflows and can be created for both recurring and one-off payments.
Common Use Cases
One-off Payment Workflows can be used to automate a variety of supporter and administrator communications. Some common examples include:
| Workflow | Example Use |
|---|---|
| Send after every payment | Send an automatic thank you email after every donation. |
| Send once after number of payments | Welcome first-time donors or send a special message after a donor's 5th or 10th one-off donation. |
| Send days after open pledge | Remind supporters about an unpaid pledge after a specified number of days. |
| Send on failure | Notify a supporter that their payment was unsuccessful and provide instructions for trying again. |
| Send after every payment to admin | Notify staff whenever a major gift or qualifying donation is received so they can follow up personally. |
| Send on failure to admin | Alert the finance or fundraising team when a payment fails so they can investigate or contact the supporter if required. |
Accessing One-off Payment Workflows
Navigate to:
Admin > Workflow Maintenance
Workflow Maintenance contains two tabs:
- Recurring Payment – workflows for recurring payment events.
- One-Off Payment – workflows for one-off payment events.
Creating a One-off Payment Workflow
Select the One-Off Payment Workflows tab, then click the green + button to add a new workflow.
Each workflow contains the following settings:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Workflow Rule | Select the payment event that will trigger the workflow. |
| Document | The document to send. This is emailed to the contact's primary email address or, for administrator workflows, to the configured Payment Admin contacts. The email subject is taken from the document. |
| Minimum Amount | The lowest payment amount that can trigger the workflow. |
| Maximum Amount | The highest payment amount that can trigger the workflow. |
| No. Payments | Specifies how many successful payments are required before the workflow is triggered (where applicable). |
| Rule Value | Sets the delay before the workflow runs. This is measured in minutes unless otherwise stated by the workflow rule. Examples include: • 1,440 minutes = 1 day • 10,080 minutes = 1 week • 40,320 minutes = 4 weeks |
| Select the Service Email that will be used as the sender address. |
Note
The minimum Rule Value is 15 minutes to allow sufficient time for payment processing.
Once all settings have been configured, click the green + beside the workflow to save it.
Payment Admin Notifications
Several workflow rules include "to admin" options. These workflows send emails to contacts who have been designated as Payment Administrators.
To receive these notifications, the contact must have the following attribute assigned:
| Attribute Type | Attribute |
|---|---|
| Roles | Payment Admin |
Only contacts with the Roles > Payment Admin attribute will receive emails generated by the administrator workflow rules.
One-Off Payment Workflow Rules
| Workflow Rule | Explanation | No. payments [x] | Rule Value |
| Send days after open pledge | Sends the document to the contact if their pledge is still open after the specified number of days. | N/A | number of days |
| Send after every payment | Sends the document after every specified number of successful one-off payments. Payments may be entered manually, received through a widget, or imported. | every [x] number of payments | number of minutes after the [x] payment |
| Send after every payment to admin | Same as Send after every payment, but the email is sent to all contacts with the Roles – Payment Admin attribute instead of the supporter. | every [x] number of payments | number of minutes after the [x] payment |
| Send on failure | Sends the document to the contact after a payment is declined. | N/A | number of minutes |
| Send on failure to admin | Sends the document to all Roles - Payment Admin contacts after a payment is declined. | N/A | number of minutes |
| Send once after number of payments | Sends the document only once after the specified successful payment number has been reached. Example - 5 as No. Payments will send once after the 5th payment only. | [x] number of payments | number of minutes |
| Send once after number of payments to admin | Same as above, but the email is sent to all Payment Admin contacts. | [x] number of payments | number of minutes |
Imported Payments
Important
For imported transactions, workflow timing is based on the date the payment is imported into Vega, not the original payment date.
Examples
Send after every payment
If No. Payments = 5, the workflow will trigger after the:
- 5th payment
- 10th payment
- 15th payment
- 20th payment
- and so on.
If No. Payments = 1, the workflow will trigger after every successful payment.
Send once after number of payments
If No. Payments = 5, the workflow will trigger only once, after the contact's 5th successful payment.
Creating a Donor Journey
You can create multiple workflows using the same workflow rule.
For example, several Send once after number of payments workflows can be configured with different Rule Values to create an automated donor onboarding journey.
A typical setup might include:
- Welcome email 1 day after the first payment.
- Thank you email 1 week after the first payment.
- Impact update 4 weeks after the first payment.
These follow-up emails will only be sent if the supporter has not made another payment since their first one.
Example Donor Journey
Multiple workflows can be combined to create an automated communication journey for new one-off donors.
For example:
- 15 minutes after the first donation – Send a thank you email with a receipt.
- 7 days later – Send a welcome email introducing your organisation and its mission.
- 28 days later – Share an update showing the impact of the donor's contribution.
- After the 5th donation – Send a milestone thank you acknowledging their ongoing support.
Using multiple workflows in this way helps build stronger supporter relationships while reducing manual administration.
“Some content in this article may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by staff.”
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