WashConnect Autobilling Frequency Settings

Contents:

1. Club Service Autobilling Day Options
2. Attempts to Rebill Declined Customers
3. Renewal Date settings on site

Club Services Billing Day Options:

When setting up a club service, WashConnect offers three different Billing Day options. This setting affects when a new club member will be autobilled next. 

IMPORTANT: When making or changing the billing day option, it will affect all sites that sell that club service. 

WARNING:  Please take time to understand the following three Billing Day options as the default setting is not the recommended setting!  This option is VERY critical. While you may change the billing option, just know this will cause confusion and upset customers. 

Owners and Managers: please make certain the best Billing Day option is selected for your wash business, so this option does not ever need to be changed.

1. Renewal Day
   This option sets the next billing day as the same day of the month as the initial purchase date. This billing day will change if the customer renews their membership after the expiration date.
   
   This setting is recommended. There is no need for setting up Proration or Grace Periods, 
   furthermore, this setting is the easiest for club customers to understand and accept.
    
2. First Day
   This option sets the next billing day as the first day of the next calendar month, 
   regardless of whether the club was purchased be it the 1st or the 25th of the month.
   
   Due to this, any site that wants to use this method must enable Prorating within WashConnect settings,
   and configure the Floor Price within each club service.
   
   This is not advised; although, site businesses generally have easier accounting when using first 
   of the month billing. It is rarely worth the customer's confusion and potential frustration that comes from 
   the inconsistent charging that occurs when prorating.
    
3. Signup Day
   This option sets the next billing day for the same day of the month as the initial purchase date. This billing day will not change if the customer renews their membership after the expiration date.
   
   A Grace Period should be defined for each club service for the amount of days a customer can still use their membership after their expiration date has passed. The length of this setting is up to the site's discretion, but it has been set anywhere from 0 to 30 days by various car wash businesses.
   
   This setting is generally not advised; although, this is the default setting for club services and will be a 
   common setting for club services that have been made by the car wash operators. It is inherently going 
   to cause confusion and potential frustration when a customer pays the full renewal price, then is charged 
   the full price again when the sign-up day occurs.
   
   Example: Club customer initially signed up on the 15th but has been in a declined state for 28 days, renews on the 13th and is charged the full price again on the 15th, since that was their initial sign up day.

Attempts to Rebill Declined Customers:

If an existing club member is unable to be successfully billed, WashConnect has several options for how many times it will attempt to bill the declined customer, along with how many days the system should wait between each billing attempt. 

Default

Autobill is enabled by default, and WashConnect will autobill a club customer on their expiration date. If the autobilling fails, it will attempt to bill this customer once-a-day for 30 consecutive days. This default configuration is used by many sites, however this frequency can be changed if the site requests.

Why change this setting from the default configuration?

Due to payment processors charging for both successful and failed transactions, there is a small cost involved in performing each transaction, regardless of whether the transaction results in successfully billing a customer. For example, a club customer who has closed their bank account, the default setting will incur 30 billing attempt charges for that club customer. Whereas a site that set their autobilling settings to rebill every 2 days and attempts to bill 15 times would only incur 15 of these charges for the same customer. 

To change the amount of times customers are billed, the following three WashConnect settings need to be configured as they will define how many autobilling attempts may occur and the delay between each attempt until a successful transaction occurs.

1. MaxNumberOfDaysToBillDeclinedCustomers: 
   How many daily billing attempts will be performed after the first decline?
   
   This setting determines when to stop attempting to rebill the membership. This will work in two different ways depending on what is defined: a whole number greater than zero or zero.
   
   If this setting is not zero, the number will represent how many consecutive days that autobilling will attempt to rebill the customer. Attempts to rebill the customer will cease after the defined number of attempts has occurred. If autobilling fails after that time, the customer will need to manually renew their membership or purchase a new club membership.
   
   If this setting is zero, the following two settings will be used to establish how many attempts, and how often these attempts occur: NumberOfDaysToAddInDeclinedConfigToCreateRange or NumberOfDaysToAutobillAfterMembershipWasDeclined.
2. NumberOfDaysToAddInDeclinedConfigToCreateRange: 
   How many?
   This setting only applies if the “MaxNumberOfDaysToBillDeclinedCustomers” setting is set to zero. 
   
   This setting determines the number of attempts to autobilling the club member that will occur after the initial decline.
   
   This means that if the configuration is set to 5, after the initial billing attempt, it will attempt to bill the customer five more times before ignoring this membership.
3. NumberOfDaysToAutobillAfterMembershipWasDeclined:
   How often?
   This setting only applies if the “MaxNumberOfDaysToBillDeclinedCustomers” setting is set to Zero. 
   
   This setting determines when the next attempt to bill a Declined membership will occur.
   
   This means if this setting is set to 7, autobilling will attempt to bill this membership exactly one week or 7 days after it initially was Declined.

Renewal Date settings on site:

After a customer has signed into a club at an ICS Payment Terminal or with a cashier at the Touch POS, they are able to renew their club membership. The advancement of an expired club member's plan will vary dependent on a setting called Sign Up Day Advance Expiration Date that must be set for each device. 

If an existing club member renews their membership on site at a Cashier or on an ICS payment terminal, their next billing date will be dependent on the following setting:

1. Sign Up Day Advance Expiration Date – This is a setting that is located in the system settings and ICS recommends contacting Technical Support to change any system setting. 
   
   This setting will need to be defined for each of your devices, independently (Touch POS (Point of Sale), Auto Sentry #1, Auto Sentry #2, etc.).
   
   After setting up a club service configured with the billing day option of Signup or Renewal, select one of the following settings:
   • Expiration Date - Expiration date is advanced from the date the club expired.
   • Renewal Date - Expiration date is advanced from the date the club was renewed.
      
2. First Day Charge – only used for club services configured with the First Day billing day. Select one of the following:
   • Renewal Date - the customer will be charged the prorated club price.
   • Expiration Date - the customer will be charged the full price of the club.
      

Please contact ICS Technical Support if any assistance is needed:

800-246-3469