> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.firstrespondershub.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Payment plans

> Let students pay tuition over time with a down payment and automatic monthly installments — including auto-charge, retries, pausing, cancelling, and defaults

A **payment plan** lets a student pay tuition over time: a **down payment** at enrollment, then a fixed number of **equal monthly installments** that are **automatically charged** to the card they enrolled with. You can optionally add a **financing fee** so the plan total is higher than base tuition.

<Info>
  Payment plans require a **Growth** or **Scale** subscription. On the Starter plan the option is disabled with an upgrade prompt.
</Info>

## Enabling payment plans

Payment plans are turned on **per program offering**, in the [**Payment Configuration**](/payment-settings/payment-configurations#allow-payment-plan-monthly-installments) section. Check **Allow payment plan (monthly installments)** and set:

* **Payment Plan Total (\$)** — total the student pays across the plan. Leave blank to match tuition; set higher to add a financing fee.
* **Down Payment (\$)** — paid upfront at enrollment (must be less than the plan total).
* **Number of Monthly Installments** — how many monthly payments follow the down payment (**1–24**).

The offering form shows a live preview, e.g. *"$300 down + 6 payments of $150/mo = \$1,200 total."*

## What the student experiences

1. At checkout the student picks **"Payment Plan"** and sees the schedule (down payment, number of payments, monthly amount, and any financing fee).
2. They pay **only the down payment** to enroll. The card they use is saved on file.
3. Each month, the platform automatically charges the next installment to that card.
4. The student is emailed when a charge succeeds and when one fails, and can **update the card** on file from their student dashboard.

The final installment absorbs any rounding, so the sum of all charges exactly equals the plan total.

## How installments are charged

* Charges run on a **daily** schedule and collect any installment that is due.
* Each installment is charged **off-session** to the saved card and routed to your connected Stripe account (a destination charge), with the platform application fee applied — the same way other online payments work.
* **Retries:** A failed charge is retried automatically (by default up to **3 attempts**, spaced a few days apart). The student receives a payment-failed email on each failure.
* **Grace period & default:** If an installment is still unpaid after the retry attempts and a grace period, the plan is marked **defaulted** and the student is notified. Reach out to the student to update their card or arrange payment.

## Managing a plan

Open the enrollment in the **Program Dashboard** to see the payment plan card: current status, an "X of Y installments paid" progress bar, and the list of installments with due dates.

You can take these actions (available to team members who can record payments):

| Action          | What it does                                                                           |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Pause plan**  | Stops automatic charges while keeping the plan intact. Only available on active plans. |
| **Resume plan** | Restarts automatic charges on a paused plan.                                           |
| **Cancel plan** | Ends the plan and **voids all remaining open invoices**. Automatic charges stop.       |

<Warning>
  Cancelling a plan voids all remaining open invoices and cannot be undone. If a student still owes a balance after cancellation, invoice them separately.
</Warning>

Students see a read-only version of the plan (status and progress) on their dashboard and can update the payment method on file at any time.

## Plan status reference

| Status        | Meaning                                                              |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Active**    | Installments are being charged on schedule.                          |
| **Paused**    | Automatic charges are temporarily stopped.                           |
| **Completed** | All installments have been paid.                                     |
| **Cancelled** | The plan was cancelled by an admin; remaining invoices were voided.  |
| **Defaulted** | An installment went unpaid past the retry attempts and grace period. |

## Related

* [**Payment configurations**](/payment-settings/payment-configurations) — enable and size payment plans per offering.
* [**Invoices and balances**](/payment-settings/invoices-and-balances) — installment invoices, payment links, and manual payments.
* [**Refunds**](/payment-settings/refunds) — refunding payments a student has already made.