How payment plans work
Plan types, approval, expiry, the Payment Plans page, failed payments and cancellation, from the treasurer's side.
A payment plan splits a member's charge (or several charges) into scheduled payments that MyGreek takes automatically from a saved card or bank account. Members set plans up in the web or mobile app, and parents at pay.mygreek.us. Chapter admins and officers whose role includes Manage Payment Plans can approve, reject, propose and cancel plans. View Payment Plans gives read-only access.
Three ways a plan starts
| How it starts | Who starts it | Approval |
|---|---|---|
| Payment schedule your chapter sets up | Member or parent enrolls | Approved right away. You set these up under Manage Schedules. |
| Custom plan | Member or parent proposes their own dates and amounts | Needs your approval, unless an auto-approve date covers it. Only offered on charge types with Allow custom plans turned on. |
| Admin-proposed plan | You, with Propose Plan (one member) or Propose Payment Plans | The member must accept it and choose a payment method. |
To set up schedules, turn custom plans on or off, or propose plans, see Offer payment plans.
Payment plan lifecycle
| Status (as shown to admins) | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Needs Admin Review | A member or parent proposed it. Approve or reject it. |
| Requires Member Approval | You proposed it. Waiting for the member to accept. |
| Approved | Running. Payments are taken on schedule. |
| Rejected | Turned down. Nothing is charged. |
| Expired | Nobody approved it before its first payment date. Nothing is charged. |
| Canceled | Ended by the member, the payer, an admin, or failed payments. |
| Completed | Every payment went through. |
Unapproved plans expire on their first payment date
A plan still waiting for approval (from you or from the member) on its first payment date expires that morning, before payments run. Its payments are canceled and the balance stays on the charge. The member and payer are emailed, and so are your chapter admins ("Payment Plan Expired"). The day before, admins get one email listing member proposals that are about to expire, with a subject like "Action needed: 2 payment plans need your approval by tomorrow".
Plans that cover several charges
A member can put several charges on one plan. It shows as one row on the Payment Plans page, uses one payment method, and is approved, rejected or canceled as a whole.
The Payment Plans page
Payment Plans in the sidebar shows four tiles and two tables.
- Charges without Plans: open charges not on an approved plan, with the share that are on plans.
- Volume not on Plans: outstanding dollars not on an approved plan.
- Active Plans: approved plans.
- Pending Plans: plans waiting on you or on a member. Action needed means at least one is waiting for your review.
The Payment Plans table has one row per plan, with a plan covering several charges counted once. Its status can carry a count, like "3 Needs Admin Review", which means 3 charges in that one plan are waiting.
The Upcoming Installments table has one row per scheduled payment, not per plan. It starts filtered to approved plans and shows payments from the last few days onward. Each row has two statuses:
- Item Status is that one payment: Scheduled (not taken yet), Completed, Retrying, Failed or Canceled.
- Plan Status is the whole plan's approval: Approved, Needs Admin Review and so on.
So a member on a 4-payment approved plan has 4 rows, each with Plan Status Approved and Item Status Scheduled until it's charged. If a count looks too high, check whether you're counting payments or plans. The Pending Plans tile counts plans; the installments table counts payments.
You also see a member's plans on the Payment Plans tab of their member page, and plans for one charge type on that charge type's Payment Plans tab.
Payments, retries and failures
- Plan payments run once a day, in the morning (around 8 to 9 AM Central Time), on each payment date. If your chapter sends payment reminders, the payer gets a reminder email the evening before.
- If a payment fails, the payer is emailed and your admins get a push notification. We retry 1 day later, then 3 days after that. If the third try fails, the plan is canceled.
- Some failures, like an expired card, a closed account or a failed address or CVC check, cancel the plan on the first failure.
- A manual payment or credit on a charge that's on a plan counts toward the next scheduled payment first.
- Late fees: if a late fee policy applies only to charges without a payment plan, an approved plan protects the charge. A pending plan doesn't, and a canceled plan stops protecting it. See Set up late fees.
Canceling payment plans
Members, payers and admins can cancel a plan. Open it from the Payment Plans table and select Cancel Plan. Canceling stops future payments. It doesn't refund payments already made, and the balance stays on the charge. Archiving a member or a charge type also cancels their open plans.