Installments usually bill during a scheduled billing run, but sometimes you need to bill one sooner. Use Process Now when a customer wants to pay the next installment today, or when you need to retry a declined charge with a new card. This article explains how to process selected installments from the schedule’s page.
When to Use This
Use Process Now when a customer wants to pay an upcoming installment early, or when a schedule has entries waiting after a declined charge and you want to retry them. You can also retry a failed installment from the related invoice with Receive Payment if that is more convenient. If a recurring billing failure is still being investigated and cannot be reproduced yet, you can use Process Now each month as a temporary workaround until the issue is resolved. If you need to review or fix the schedule first, see Manage a Customer's Installment Schedule.
Installment-plan invoices do not send on their own. A recurring billing run creates and sends those invoices automatically, so they will not be created or sent as expected if the billing run is not running successfully, even if you also use Process Now.
Paying an installment from an invoice created by a billing run can leave the linked order in a different state than processing that same installment from the schedule with Process Now. If an order’s balance looks wrong after a customer paid a billing-run invoice, such as showing a negative balance, try processing the same entries with Process Now instead. This has been observed to close the order without that problem.
Tip
If installment invoices have already been generated but were not automatically charged, use the Send Customer Statements billing run to send customers their open invoices. Customers can then pay those invoices in the Portal instead of having you process each one individually.
Tip
Rhythm’s changes to Pay Later behavior in January 2026 mean that a Pay Later invoice used for installment-style billing should no longer stay open after it is paid.
Prerequisites
- You need permission to open the installment schedule’s page. Anyone who can open the page can process it, and there is no separate permission for this action.
- The schedule’s status must be anything other than Cancelled or Completed.
Process Chosen Installments
- Open the installment schedule and select Process Now.
- Choose the batch that should record the resulting invoice, payment, or order. Rhythm only shows open batches for the schedule’s business unit.
- Select the entries you want to process now. You must select at least one entry.
- Select Process Now in the dialog.
Result
Rhythm bills each selected entry that is still open. Entries based on an installment plan are combined on one new invoice, dated with the batch’s date, and placed in that batch. If the schedule has a usable saved payment method for its merchant account, Rhythm charges that method for the invoice total. If it does not, Rhythm still bills the entries, and the customer owes the new invoice. An entry that bills every period is billed by placing a repeat order instead.
Warning
Processing starts immediately, with no confirmation step. Rhythm does not ask “are you sure” before it bills the selected entries and, when possible, charges them. Double-check your selections before selecting Process Now.
Rhythm is reviewing its early-authorization approach for installment charges with payment partners because of fee concerns. If someone asks whether a failed or declined attempt incurs a processor fee, that policy question is still under review rather than settled, so check with Support if a customer or your own billing raises it.
Warning
Success here means Rhythm accepted the work, not that the charge succeeded. The charge outcome arrives afterward. If the charge is declined, the schedule moves to Payment Declined and its entries reopen. You will not see that update until you open the schedule again.
How a Recurring Item Differs
An installment based on a fixed plan and an installment that bills every period are processed differently. A plan-based entry is billed on an invoice and, when possible, charged directly. A recurring entry is billed by placing a new order for the next period, the same way the item was originally purchased. It goes through Commerce’s order and payment flow instead of being charged directly from the schedule. If you select both kinds of entry in the same request, Rhythm creates one invoice covering every plan-based entry you selected, plus a separate order for every recurring entry.
Tip
Process Now does not just mark an installment as processed without collecting payment. If a usable saved payment method exists, choosing Process Now bills the entry and charges it in the same step. Do not use it only to correct a status unless you also want to attempt a charge.
Related Reading
To reactivate a schedule after a declined charge, replace its saved payment method, or edit an unbilled entry before processing it, see Manage a Customer's Installment Schedule. If a recurring installment keeps failing even after you have replaced the saved method, ask the payer to update their card on file. That can refresh an outdated payment token and let processing succeed again.