Recurring Payments payment gateway processing

This article explains what happens when recurring payments are processed by your payment gateway and recorded in Vega. It will explain what happens when a payment succeeds or fails, how failed payments are handled, and what options you have available to customise this process within Admin > Financial Settings > Recurring Payment Settings.

Overview

Recurring payments are payments that are automatically processed on a schedule (for example, weekly, monthly, or annually). 

Recurring payments to be processed via your payment gateway will have a value in the PlanID/Token field, which is used to process the payment securely without storing any credit card information in Vega. Payment gateway processing is available for Credit Cards with any of the gateways, or for Direct Debit with Stripe AU BECS (Australia only) or Flo2Cash (NZ only, with no retries available).

On each take date, Vega will:

1. Process the payment securely via your payment gateway
2. Receive a result, whether it was successful or not
3. Take action based on the result and your account settings to update the recurrence

Recurring payments are generated when the finance server runs and finds all valid recurrences that are due to be processed. The finance server checks Admin > Financial Settings > Recurring Payment Settings for the appropriate settings for each recurrence based on a matching pay type subtype and frequency. When there is a matching pay type subtype with multiple frequency options, it will first check for a specific frequency match and then the 'All' option.

When a recurring payment will be processed

A valid recurrence is checked by the details below:

• The recurring payment status is Payment Open
• The Next Take Date and Time has been reached
• The contact account status is Active
• The recurrence fits one of these criteria:
  • The End Date is blank or greater than the current date
  • The Until Further Notice option is checked
  • The recurrence amount is less than or equal to the Total Amount Left
• The Plan ID/Token field has at least 2 characters, does not contain the word Error, and is not -1

• The Next Take Date is within the last 2 months

   

If the first payment attempt is successful

If the payment goes through successfully:

• The payment is created as Payment Successful
• The generated payment is linked to the recurrence

• The recurrence due and take dates are updated based on the frequency of the recurrence

   

If the first payment attempt fails

Sometimes payments don’t go through. This can happen for reasons like insufficient funds or an invalid card.

When the first payment attempt fails:

• The payment is created as Payment Declined
• The generated payment is linked to the recurrence
• The declined reason is returned from the payment gateway and recorded in the pay details
• A retry cycle is created in the database, and this payment is linked as the first failed payment for this new cycle.

• The failed recurring payment pay type subtype is checked against the settings in Admin > Financial Settings > Recurring Payment Settings to find the relevant process to follow. If no retry setting has been created for this subtype, then it will follow the same process as 'Continue on Schedule'

   

Failed payment process

Vega checks the option selected in Admin > Financial Settings > Recurring Payment Settings > On Payment Failure for the appropriate setting for each recurrence based on a matching pay type subtype and frequency when a recurring payment is declined. 

Option 1- Continue on Schedule:

• The recurrence due and take dates are updated based on the frequency of the recurrence, and another payment will only be attempted in the next iteration (weekly, monthly, etc)

Option 2- Set Retry Schedule:

The 'No. of Payment Failures' on this setting determines when the Retry Failure option is followed or if another payment is attempted. If this setting were 1, then only the first failed payment would be attempted before the recurrence was updated based on the retry failure option.

• If the number of failed payments processed within this cycle is less than the field 'No. of Payment Failures', then the recurrence next take date is updated based on the field 'Days Before Retry'. In the example settings above, after the first failed payment, the recurrence will be updated to take a payment the next day and show 1/3 failed payments:

• These declined payments are created as retry attempts in the database, linking to the retry cycle that was created with the first payment attempt. This retry database table is used in the report under Insights > Recurring Management > Failed Recurring Payments.
• This process is followed until a successful payment is made or the number of failed payments processed reaches the value in the admin setting. See details on these options below.

Retry attempt is successful

The retry cycle that was created with the first failed payment attempt is updated to record this successful payment against it. This is then used in the report under Insights > Recurring Management > Failed Recurring Payments with the option 'Exclude Successful Retries'.

When a subsequent payment attempt is successful, Vega will then check the option selected in Admin > Financial Settings > Recurring Payment Settings > On Successful Retry. 

Option 1- Continue on Schedule:

• The recurrence due and take dates are updated based on the frequency of the recurrence and the original due date. For example, the recurrence was due on 20/01/2026. Failed payments were attempted on 21/01/2026 and 22/01/2026, and then a successful payment was made on 23/01/2026. The recurrence is updated based on the original due date of 20/01/2026 and the frequency, here Monthly, to 20/02/2026.

Option 2- Set Schedule to Next Iteration:

• The recurrence due and take dates are updated to skip to the next iteration (week, month, etc.) based on the frequency. For example, the recurrence was due on 20/01/2026. Failed payments were attempted on 21/01/2026 and 22/01/2026, and then a successful payment was made on 23/01/2026. The recurrence is updated to the next iteration based on the frequency, here Monthly, to 20/03/2026, skipping two months from the original due date.

Final failed payment attempt

Once the number of payment attempts reaches the number in the 'No. of Payment Failures' field, and the last payment also declines, Vega will then check the option selected in Admin > Financial Settings > Recurring Payment Settings > On Retry Failure.

Option 1- Suspend Recurrence:

• The recurrence status is updated to Payment Suspended. If there is a recurring payment workflow for 'Send on Suspension' or 'Send on Suspension to Admin', then this will be triggered by this automatic status change. Suspended recurrences can be easily found from Money > Recurring Payments and select the Suspended tab. The recurring payment will not process again unless this status is updated.

Option 2- Close Recurrence:

• The recurrence status is updated to Payment Closed. Closed recurrences can be easily found from Money > Recurring Payments and select the Closed tab. The recurring payment will not process again unless this status is updated.

Option 3- Continue on Schedule:

• The recurrence due and take dates are updated based on the frequency of the recurrence and the original due date. For example, the recurrence was due on 20/01/2026. Failed payments were attempted on 21/01/2026, 22/01/2026, and 23/01/2026. The recurrence is updated based on the original due date of 20/01/2026 and the frequency, here Monthly, to 20/02/2026 and remains open.

Flowchart of gateway processing recurring payments:

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we update the credit card details during retries?
Yes. Updating the credit card can allow the next retry to succeed.

Can we automatically notify the donor that the payment failed?
Yes. From Admin > Workflow Maintenance, you can create a recurring payment workflow using the rule 'Send on Failure' to automatically email the donor to notify them of the failed attempt.