When a customer checks out with an installment plan, Rhythm builds the installment schedule automatically. You do not enter the dates or amounts by hand. This article explains how Rhythm builds the schedule, how it uses the payment method from checkout, and what happens when part or all of the order is cancelled or returned.
Building the Schedule from the Order
As soon as checkout finishes for an order with an installment line, Rhythm builds one schedule for the whole order. That schedule includes every installment line on the order, instead of creating a separate schedule for each line. Because a schedule always belongs to an order, there is no installment schedule to find, edit, or stop if the member has no order for that purchase. Check for the order first. If the order or its plan is invalid, Rhythm does not save a schedule for any line on the order because the build is all or nothing.
That all-or-nothing rule has an important side effect. An order can finish checkout and look complete, but still have no installment plan attached to the order or invoice, even though the customer selected a plan during checkout. When that happens, Rhythm invoiced only the up-front deposit. Because the order has no schedule, Rhythm never bills the remaining balance automatically. If a customer's balance looks like it stopped partway through a multi-payment plan, first check whether the order actually has an installment plan attached.
Only a payment plan Rhythm builds from the order counts as an installment schedule. A payment tracked by hand as an external payment is not an installment schedule, even if it was meant to cover the same kind of recurring or spread-out charge. You cannot edit or stop that payment with the installment schedule management tools.
Before Rhythm splits anything into installments, it subtracts the amount the customer already paid up front at checkout. The schedule bills only the amount still left to collect. When you submit the order, Rhythm invoices only the up-front amount right away. The rest of the balance stays on the order as scheduled, uninvoiced amounts until each installment date arrives and Rhythm bills it. Rhythm calculates that up-front amount from the installment plan as it exists when the schedule is built, not from the plan as it existed at checkout. If the plan's up-front terms change in the short gap between checkout and schedule creation, the schedule's remaining balance can differ slightly from what the customer was actually charged at checkout.
How the Remaining Balance Is Split Into Installments
Rhythm splits the amount left after the up-front payment into dated entries based on how the installment plan is set up:
flowchart TD
A[Order checked out] --> B[Subtract amount paid up front]
B --> C{Plan's installment type}
C -->|Fixed installments| D[Equal amounts on the plan's calendar dates,<br/>with a final catch-up amount]
C -->|Exact dates| E[One entry per date the plan lists]
C -->|Intervals after order| F[Entries spaced from each other,<br/>cumulative from the order date]
C -->|Recurring| G[Bills every period,<br/>starting one period after the order]
- Fixed installments split the remaining balance into equal payments on the plan's calendar dates. The last installment adjusts for rounding so the total adds up exactly. Rhythm counts dates from the order date, not from when the schedule is built, so a schedule built later than usual can include entries that are due as soon as the schedule exists.
- Exact dates bill each share on the specific dates listed in the plan. If one of those dates is already in the past when Rhythm builds the schedule, Rhythm still creates the entry and makes it due immediately.
- Intervals after the order space each installment from the previous installment's date, not from the order date each time. For example, intervals of one month and then two months land one month and then three months after the order, not one month and two months after the order separately.
- Recurring lines bill every period, whether weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly, starting one period after the order. Billing continues indefinitely until the line is cancelled. Rhythm does not stop billing a recurring line on its own at a specific end date, so cancel the line itself when billing should stop.
Because Rhythm rounds each installment amount separately, the entries on an exact-dates or interval schedule can total a few cents more or less than the exact remaining balance.
Tip
If an installment schedule shows an entry that is already overdue as soon as it appears, check whether the schedule was built later than the order. Fixed installments are based on the order date, and exact-date installments keep the plan's dates; neither moves forward to the date the schedule was created.
Tip
A fixed-installment order, such as one split 50% up front and 50% later, has in some cases shown a $0 balance right after only the up-front payment, then a negative balance once the remaining installment was collected. This has since been reported fixed, but if you still see a balance like this, check the schedule's individual entries rather than relying on the order's balance alone, and contact Support if it persists.
The Saved Payment Method Carries Over
When a customer chooses an installment plan at checkout, Rhythm can ask them to add a card or bank account during the purchase flow as an alternative to setting up a Rhythm Payments recurring plan. If the order includes that saved card or bank account, Rhythm copies the payment information to the schedule. Later installments can then be charged automatically without asking the customer again. Only the payment details and merchant account carry over from the order's payment information.
A customer can still choose an installment plan without saving a card or bank account. Rhythm cannot currently require a saved payment method before someone picks an installment plan. When the schedule has nothing to charge automatically, later installments are billed without an automatic charge. The balance is left as open invoices that you must handle one by one through manual payment, instead of automated installment charging.
Tip
If several customers' schedules need their saved card or bank account swapped for a new one, there is no console action that reassociates payment tokens in bulk. Update each affected schedule individually.
What a Cancellation or Return Does to the Schedule
When part or all of an order line on an installment schedule is cancelled or returned, Rhythm adjusts only that line's still-open, unbilled schedule entries. Anything already billed keeps its billed amount.
- A partial cancellation or return reduces the line's remaining open entries in proportion to the amount cancelled.
- Cancelling or returning everything left of a line removes its remaining open entries entirely.
If no open entries are left anywhere on the schedule after the adjustment, but some entries still remain, such as earlier entries that were already billed, Rhythm marks the schedule cancelled. If the adjustment leaves the schedule with no entries at all, Rhythm removes the schedule instead of keeping an empty record.
That is why an order with a balance already brought to zero and no installment plan attached is not picked up for further billing. A comparable order that is still awaiting payment with an installment plan attached remains eligible because, once a schedule's open entries are gone, Rhythm has nothing left to bill against that order.
If you find an order like this and the remaining balance still needs to be collected, cancel and reprocess the order so Rhythm can build a fresh schedule. For other orders you find already in this state, create invoices for the remaining balance manually. Rhythm will not bill them automatically without an installment schedule attached.
If the original order has already been cancelled after part of an installment plan was paid, recreate the order for the full amount and apply a credit memo equal to the amount already paid. That leaves the correct remaining balance to collect, instead of trying to revive the cancelled order's schedule.
Related
See the related articles for managing a customer's installment schedule day to day, processing installments outside their normal date, setting up installment plans, and understanding what happens to a schedule after each billing attempt.