In a subscription business, not all charges are planned or recurring. You may need to collect an extra amount from a customer for a speeding fine, a repair, damage to a returned product, or an additional service.

circuly lets you charge these amounts as a one-time payment directly from the circuly Hub, without changing the customer's recurring subscription. You can charge the amount to the customer's saved payment method, or send the customer an invoice to pay by bank transfer.

Feature Overview

The one-time payment feature lets you:

• Manually trigger a charge for any additional fee related to an order.
• Add a custom message to explain the charge.
• Automatically notify the customer by email.
• Record the charge in the order details for transparency and reporting.
• Choose how the amount is collected: charged to the customer's saved payment method, or paid by bank transfer via an offline invoice.

Charge to the saved payment method vs. charge via offline invoice

By default, a one-time payment is charged to the payment method the customer has saved in circuly, such as a credit card or SEPA direct debit.

This isn't always the right choice. A card may decline the charge due to insufficient balance or a card limit. This often happens with high amounts, for example when a customer returns a damaged bike and the repair costs are higher than their usual subscription amount.

In these cases, enable the Charge via offline invoice checkbox. circuly will then:

• Not charge the customer's saved payment method.
• Create an invoice for the one-time payment.
• Send the invoice to your customer with the Your Invoice email, so they can pay the amount by bank transfer.

Once you've received the bank transfer, mark the payment as settled. Until then, the invoice is shown as unpaid in the circuly Hub. If the customer doesn't pay, the invoice can be handed over for debt collection via the Debtist integration.

Before you start

If you plan to use offline invoices, make sure the invoice your customer receives includes your bank details:

• Go to Settings > Emails and open the Payment - One-time Transaction template, which generates the invoice PDF.
• Add your bank details (account holder, IBAN, BIC) and the payment reference your customer should use.
• Check the Your Invoice email template. It should ask the customer to transfer the amount rather than announce a charge to their card.

Step-by-Step Guide:

Step 1: Access the order

• Log in to your circuly Hub.
• Go to the Orders tab.
• Find and select the relevant order from the Order List.
• Click the three dots to open the action menu.

Step 2: Open the one-time payment window

• Select One-time payment from the dropdown.

Step 3: Enter the payment details

• Title: describe what the one-time charge is for, e.g. "Speeding fine", "Product repair", "Damage fee".
• Amount: enter the amount to be charged.
• Message to customer (optional): add an explanation for the charge. It will be shared with the customer in the email.
• Click the "+" icon to add the item. Repeat to add more items.

Note: The Message to customer field is only included in the email if the One-time transaction email template contains the {{description}} variable.

Step 4: Choose how the payment is collected

• Leave Charge via offline invoice unchecked to charge the amount to the customer's saved payment method.
• Check Charge via offline invoice to send the customer an invoice to pay by bank transfer instead.

Step 5: Confirm the payment

• Click the CHARGE [amount] € button to finalise the one-time payment.
• If you charged the saved payment method, the customer is notified by email once the payment is processed.
• If you charged via offline invoice, the customer receives the Your Invoice email with the invoice attached.

What happens if a one-time payment fails?

If a one-time payment to the customer's saved payment method fails, it can't be switched to an offline invoice afterwards. Instead, create a new one-time payment with the same details and enable Charge via offline invoice.

When to use the offline invoice

• High amounts: damage or repair fees that exceed the customer's card limit or available balance.
• Previously failed charges: a one-time payment to the saved payment method was declined.
• Customer preference: the customer has asked to pay a specific charge by bank transfer.
• B2B customers: business customers who process payments by invoice.

Summary

With the one-time payment feature, you can collect fees for unexpected events or services without changing the customer's recurring subscription. Charge the amount to the saved payment method, or use an offline invoice when a card charge isn't possible. Make sure your email and invoice templates are set up so your customers know exactly what they're paying for and how to pay.