netPark features a robust and quickly expanding recurring system that can help manage all of your contract customers and companies/groups automatically. Accounts can be configured to be invoiced and charged automatically monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually.
Understanding Recurring
Recurring in the netPark system is a process that is run automatically, daily, that can be used to invoice and charge your accounts on a recurring basis. Each account in the system can be configured with its own unique rate or assigned to a rate groups which can be used to easily update the rate across all parkers assigned to it at the same time.
The general features for recurring are:
- Setup Accounts to be invoiced & charged Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annually or Annually
- Bill to on-file credit card, ACH or accept manual Cash/Check payments
- Detailed invoices with the ability to add line items
- Assign custom rates to accounts or assign accounts to rate groups for mass updates
- Setup a website to allow customers and companies/groups to manage their own recurring
- Accept new recurring accounts through the website and control access through a waiting list
- Reconcile recurring with numerous reports
- Accounts can sign up for recurring at any available netPark sub-location when multi-location is setup
- Accounts can carry a balance and can prepay in advance at any point
- Automatically disable accounts on failure or leave accounts active but disable recurring (and the benefits associated with it)
The Recurring Screen
The Recurring Screen is the center of all activity for recurring. It can be accessed from the Recurring item on the Main Menu in netPark. This page can be run for the current location, a different location or all locations by clicking the dropdown in the to-right corner.
Tab Breakdown:
- Customers, Companies & Groups – This provides a list of all accounts that are active (or have been active) with recurring in the system. These accounts can be searched or narrowed down based on the zone or rate group they are in. Click on the purple “Customers” or “Companies/Groups” buttons to toggle between viewing customers or viewing companies/groups.
- Rate Groups – This tab shows all of the available rate groups that are setup at the location. These rate groups can be associated to any customer or company/group. Updating an existing rate group updates the charges for ALL accounts associated with that rate group for the account’s next billing cycle.
- Invoices – Shows all invoices in the location, sorted by the invoices with the highest remaining balance. Invoices can be paid, or if clicked can be modified, posted or printed & emailed.
- Waiting List – All customers who register through a website or the API are automatically added to the Waiting List. From here accounts can be approved or denied recurring in the system. Approving a customer will prompt for any additional updates to their recurring details and will being any invoice & billing if necessary. If denied, the customer will receive a (customizable) email telling them that they have been denied.
Configurable Settings
The recurring system can be configured for a variety of different scenarios and use cases. These system settings can be configured differently for each sub-location and are the most relevant to the majority of recurring setups:
- Advanced Invoice Days – The amount of days in advance of an accounts recurring cycle to invoice. For example, if a customer is set to bill on the 15th each month and this setting is configured for 5 days, the customer will be invoiced on the 10th each month (and charged on the 15th.
- Past Due Invoice & Notice Days – The amount of days after billing occurs that should be waited before notifying a customer and location manager about being past due for failed payment.
- Flat Late Fee & Percentage Late Fee – Once a customer is considered “Past Due” for a billing cycle, invoice them an additional late fee (either percentage of the outstanding balance or a flat amount).
- Stop Date Action – If a stop date is specified on the account, how should the system handle it: Disable Billing, Disable Billing & Account, Disable Billing & Remove Parking Discounts.
- Leave Customer Active on Failure – If customer’s payment method fails, leave the customer account active (but disable recurring)
- Leave Recurring Active on Failure – If customer’s payment method fails, leave customer AND recurring active
- Prorate Initial Cycle Fee – Enable’s pro-rating for all customer profiles. This automatically locks all accounts to a 1st of the month/year for their recurring cycle. If customers have their recurring enabled in the middle of the month, they will be invoiced and charged a pro-rated amount to the first of the next cycle. Cycles are defined as: Monthly (1st of each month), Quarterly (1st of Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct), Semi-annually (1st of Jan, 1st of July) and annually (1st of Jan).
- Prorate Final Cycle Fee – If the customer terminates recurring in the middle of their cycle, refund them the remaining period.
- Default Recurring Discount – The default Parking Discount to use for recurring (typically a 100% discount or a discount tied to a $0 rate)
Summary
In this article we discussed the uses for recurring and had a general overview of the recurring screen and all of the settings associated with recurring. The following articles break down each aspect of recurring, from configuring the rates to setting up accounts to reports.