Installment Plans

An installment plan lets a purchaser pay for a ticket, a sponsorship or any other offer in equal payments instead of all at once. The first payment is charged at checkout, and BetterUnite charges the rest automatically on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual schedule. Every plan is also recorded as a pledge for the full purchase, so you always know what has been paid and what is still owed.

This article follows a plan from start to finish: setting it up on an offer, what the purchaser sees, what is recorded, how later payments are charged, what happens when a payment fails, and how a plan ends.

Before you start

• Payment processor: installment plans are available when your campaign takes payments through Stripe Express or PayPal. They are not offered on campaigns that use a Stripe Standard account.
• Campaign type: you can offer installment plans on event campaigns. They are not available on membership sign-up or volunteer sign-up pages; memberships have their own recurring billing.
• Recurring payment settings: later payments follow your organization's recurring payment settings for retries and failed-payment emails, so review those under Giving > Recurring Payments > Settings before you launch.

1. Set up an installment plan on an offer

1. Open your campaign and go to Offers, then choose the offer type, for example Sponsorships or Tickets.
2. Open the offer you want to sell on installments, or add a new one.
3. Scroll down and select Advanced Options.
4. Turn on Offer an installment plan.
5. Choose the Payment frequency: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Annually.
6. Enter the Number of payments, from 2 to 36. If you leave it blank, the plan defaults to 12 payments.
7. Select Save.

Changing the frequency or number of payments later affects new purchases only. Plans that have already been sold keep the terms they were bought on.

When the installment option appears at checkout

The Pay by installments option appears only when every item in the purchaser's cart offers an installment plan, and all of them use the same frequency and the same number of payments. If a purchaser adds an item without a plan, or two items with different plans, they can still check out, but they pay in full.

2. What the purchaser sees at checkout

1. The purchaser adds the offer to their cart. In the Review panel they can choose One Time or Pay by installments.
2. When they choose Pay by installments, the Contribution Summary changes to show the first payment, which is the amount charged today.
3. On the payment step, a line above the payment form describes the whole plan, for example: 3 monthly payments of $333.33 (final payment $333.34), $1,000.00 in total. The first payment is charged today, then one every month.
4. They pay with a card or PayPal. The payment method is saved so the remaining payments can be charged automatically.

How the payments are calculated

The purchase amount is divided into equal payments in whole cents. If it doesn't divide evenly, the leftover cents are added to the final payment, so the payments always add up to exactly the purchase amount.

Platform and processing fees are worked out on each payment rather than on the whole purchase. If your campaign asks purchasers to cover fees, each payment includes its own share of the fees.

3. What happens right after checkout

The confirmation page tells the purchaser that their installment plan is set up. It shows the number of payments and the plan total, the amount of each payment (and the final payment when it differs), and the dates of the next and final payments. It also confirms that payment 1 has been charged and that the remaining payments will be charged to the same card.

The purchaser receives the offer straight away. A ticket or sponsorship with seats creates its guest list at checkout, just like a purchase paid in full, so the purchaser can invite guests without waiting for the plan to finish.

What is recorded

Each installment purchase creates three connected records:

Because payment 1 records only what was paid today, and every later payment becomes a donation of its own, the full purchase is never counted twice.

4. Later payments

BetterUnite charges each remaining payment automatically. Payment 2 is due one period after the purchase date, payment 3 two periods after, and so on. The dates are always counted from the purchase date, so if one payment is taken late, the payments after it keep their original dates.

For a monthly plan bought on the 31st, payments fall on the last day of shorter months and return to the 31st when the month has one. For example, January 31, then February 28, then March 31.

Reminder emails

A few days before each payment, the purchaser receives an upcoming-payment email that names where they are in the plan, for example: Payment 2 of 3 on your installment plan with Community Works is scheduled for October 28, 2026: $333.33. After this payment, $333.34 of your $1,000 plan remains, with the final payment due November 28, 2026. The email for the final payment says that the purchase will then be paid in full. If your organization receives upcoming-payment notifications, your version of the email includes the same details.

When a payment is charged

Each successful payment is recorded as a new donation and applied to the plan's pledge, which updates the amount received and the balance. The last payment is always whatever is left on the pledge, so the plan never charges more than is owed.

5. When a payment fails

If a card is declined, BetterUnite retries the payment on the days set in your recurring payment settings, and sends failed-payment emails if you have turned them on. A payment that succeeds on a retry is still applied to the plan, and the payments after it keep their original due dates.

If every retry fails, the schedule stops, following the setting you chose for what happens after all attempts fail. The unpaid balance stays on the pledge, so it doesn't disappear from your records. You can contact the purchaser, ask them to update their card, and take the remaining payments from the pledge.

6. How a plan ends

• Paid in full: once the pledge's balance reaches zero, the schedule is marked completed and the pledge shows Fully Paid. No further payments are charged.
• Cancelled by you or the purchaser: cancelling future payments stops the schedule. The unpaid balance stays on the pledge until you collect it or close the pledge.
• Pledge cancelled: if you cancel the plan's pledge, the schedule stops before the next payment.
• Paid off another way: if part of the balance is paid by another route, for example with Take a Payment on the pledge, the schedule charges only what is left and then completes.

Managing installment plans

In Recurring Payments

Go to Giving > Recurring Payments and open Schedules. Installment plans are marked Installment plan in the Type column, with the number of payments and the balance, for example "$666.67 left to pay" or "Paid in full". The Next Due date shows when the next payment will be charged.

The actions menu on an installment plan includes:

• View Payment History: every payment taken so far.
• View Pledge: the plan's pledge, with the amounts pledged and received.
• Set Fund, Charge Card On File and Update Card on File, as for any recurring payment.
• Cancel Future Payments: stops the schedule and leaves the balance on the pledge.

You can't change an installment plan's payment amount or payment date, because the payments have to add up to the purchase. Update Amount and Update Payment Date don't appear on installment plans for that reason. To change what is owed, edit or cancel the plan's pledge.

On the pledge

The plan's pledge shows the full purchase as the pledged amount, the amount received so far, and a payment status of Not Paid, Partially Paid or Fully Paid. The expected payment dates run from the purchase date to the final payment date, the purchased items are listed under Pledged Items, and every payment appears under Applied Payments.

What the purchaser can do

In their donor portal, the purchaser sees the plan with its remaining balance. They can update their payment card and cancel future payments. They can't change the payment amount or dates.

Reports, totals and tax receipts

Campaign totals

Only money that has actually been received counts toward the amount raised. The unpaid balance of an installment plan appears in your pledged and remaining-pledge totals instead, and it moves into the amount raised as each payment comes in. Installment plans also appear in your pledge reports.

Tax-deductible amounts

When an offer has a fair market value, such as the value of a dinner included with a sponsorship, the deductible amount is worked out across the whole plan, not on each payment separately. Payments count toward the fair market value first, and only the amount paid above it is deductible. For a $1,000 sponsorship with a $500 fair market value, paid in 3 monthly payments:

Each payment's receipt shows its own deductible amount, and together they add up to the purchase amount minus the fair market value.

Frequently asked questions

Can a purchaser pay off the rest early?

Yes. Record the payment against the plan's pledge, for example with Take a Payment on the pledge page. The schedule then charges only what is left, or nothing if the pledge is paid in full.

Can I offer installments on a donation that isn't tied to an offer?

No. Installment plans belong to offers. For open-ended giving, use recurring donations instead.

What if I edit the offer after people have bought it on installments?

Existing plans keep the frequency, number of payments and amounts they were sold with. Your changes apply to new purchases.

Why doesn't the purchaser see "Pay by installments"?

Check that your campaign uses Stripe Express or PayPal, that Offer an installment plan is turned on for the offer, and that every item in the cart has the same installment plan.