Confused with recurring Authorize.net

[pwidner]

Hopefully last question I have but here are the steps I took to create a invoice for recurring monthly product.
Created product and "did not check yes for subscription". Since I read that that is for web access permissons really. So, I only added amount in monthly price USD. Created invoice to myself as if I was a user and added product. I paid invoice with CC on website with SSL and transmitted to authorize.net. Response successful and recieved confirmation from Authorize.net
Backend nbill shows invoice paid and logging in to authorize.net I was not added to recurring billing ARB?

This is for monthly automated payment at authorize.net. How do you set this up? So confusing.

[netshine]

Yes, due to 'feature creep', this is getting less obvious. In previous versions of nBill, you could not look up a product directly on the invoice editor. Now that you can, it can lead to false expectations that nBill will automatically 'know' that you want a recurring invoice because the product you selected only has a price on a recurring payment frequency. I will think about how to make it clearer.

For a recurring payment, you need to use an order record. An order is a set of rules that identifies the relationship between a client and a product, and when/how often to generate invoices. If you create an ad-hoc invoice, it is always one-off (regardless of the pricing of any product you might select on it). Invoices are generated based on order records - either when you click the generate button on the toolbar, or when a daily cron job fires (see links provided below).

If you want people to be able to sign up on your website for a product with a recurring payment frequency, you need to use an order form to capture the client data, product ordered, and any other information you need, and that will automatically create orders and invoices. If you just want to be able to e-mail a payment link to somebody to get them to set up a recurring payment schedule, you need to create the order record yourself, and e-mail them the order renewal link that appears at the bottom of the order editor.

Please also see the following help topics:

http://www.nbill.co.uk/help/index.php?page=auto-generate-invoices.html
http://www.nbill.co.uk/help/index.php?page=the-payment-process.html
http://www.nbill.co.uk/help/index.php?page=create-order-form.html

[pwidner]

Ok I will try again. So to be clear an invoice can't be used at all for recurring payment setup. Even if it's generated from the order form?

Because I even tried that, but I could never get a payment link to show up when viewing invoice. It just says processing without payment link in front end when user logs in. Also, under my orders, there isn't a pay now, same thing processing?
I did manage a renew now somehow for a month ahead due but can't remember exactly how I did it. I needed it to be due now though.
Thanks for all the help so far and for the links. I have read all the help docs, tips and anything else I could find many times over.
I'm not concerned with recurring from online order because I am not selling products online. I just want to manually create orders or invoices and send to client for starting recurring monthly payments. I will play around with orders again to see if I can make it work and if not, worst case scenerio create individual forms for each client that goes on recurring plan and provide link to that form.

[netshine]

An invoice is a standalone record - the end result - it cannot be used to generate anything new (except an income record when you mark it as paid, or a credit note if you refund it).

An order is like a template for generating invoices. If an order is set to auto-renew, it will generate an invoice each payment period (monthly, yearly, whatever) - as long as an administrator or a cron job fires the invoice generation process regularly.

To get a client to set up a recurring payment schedule, you have to email them the order renewal link that appears at the bottom of the order editor. If the client pays an individual invoice, it will just be that one invoice that gets paid.

worst case scenerio create individual forms for each client that goes on recurring plan and provide link to that form.

I suppose you could, but it would be easier to create an order record and provide the renewal link rather than a link to a form! A form is meant to be used for self-service ordering of pre-defined products.

[pwidner]

Sorry, I'm slowly getting it. I was playing around with the forms all morning and realize I can't make it client specific only permissions. I will move efforts by simply supplying link to client. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks!
Oh one more thing, setting up the order for recurring auto renew, should the product price be set on net price monthly as well or one-off?

[pwidner]

All right got it! yeah!
Just a note though. Payment link won't show at the bottom of the order editor until the order is created and then you go back in to edit. I submitted and Authorize.net did add to ARB subscriptions. It looks like they set it to expire on my cc expire date.
Thanks!

[netshine]

You don't have to come out and go back in, you can just use the 'apply' toolbar button. The link cannot be generated until the order is saved, as it needs to know the order ID (which doesn't exist until you've saved the record). If you want the order to continue beyond the card expiry date, you can change that in the payment gateway settings.