Auto-Charge
Auto-Charge is designed to help your office collect customer invoice payments automatically when customers have a saved card on file. It will reduce manual follow-up for routine card payments while keeping retry attempts visible for billing review.
Auto-Charge is not available to turn on in customer accounts yet. ToolbagCRM shows its card under Settings → Billing → Customer payments with an availability notice and a disabled switch until automatic payment processing is ready.
When to use this
Plan to use Auto-Charge when your team needs to:
- Charge saved customer cards automatically instead of manually collecting every recurring or overdue invoice payment.
- Retry soft card declines on a predictable schedule.
- Stop hard declines quickly so the office can contact the customer.
- Review a history of charge attempts, outcomes, errors, and processor references.
- Keep customer payment follow-up in the same billing workspace as invoices and Stripe payments.
Before rollout
- Confirm online payments are set up and your Stripe account is connected in Settings → Integrations → Stripe. Auto-Charge itself appears separately under Settings → Billing → Customer payments.
- Make sure your customer has an approved saved card before relying on automatic collection.
- Decide which invoices are appropriate for automatic card collection and which should stay manual.
- Confirm who on your team can change payment settings or follow up on declined payments.
- Tell customers how saved-card charging works before enabling it for their account or invoice workflow.
Current availability
Open Settings → Billing, scroll to Customer payments, and find the Auto-Charge card. The card explains that automatic charging is unavailable and keeps the Turn on auto-charge switch disabled. If an older setting is still on, ToolbagCRM lets an administrator turn it off.
The Customer payments heading separates charges to your customers from ToolbagCRM subscription charges, payment methods, and plugin slots on the same Billing page. Stripe connection management remains under Settings → Integrations → Stripe.
Settings
Auto-Charge has one planned account-wide setting: the Auto-Charge toggle under Settings → Billing → Customer payments. The switch remains unavailable until ToolbagCRM can process automatic charges in customer accounts.
If the card cannot load or save its setting, it shows an error instead of implying the change succeeded. Use Retry after a loading error. An older enabled setting can be turned off even while new enablement remains unavailable.
How retries work
The planned workflow is designed around two billing outcomes:
- Soft decline: ToolbagCRM can retry once per day for up to seven days. Use this for temporary card problems, bank holds, or network issues.
- Hard decline: ToolbagCRM stops retrying and flags the invoice for manual follow-up. Use the attempt history and customer notes to decide whether to request a new card, take another payment method, or pause service.
Each attempt records the invoice, attempt number, attempted time, amount, outcome, error details when available, and the processor charge reference when a charge is created.
Review charge attempts
When Auto-Charge becomes available, use the invoice's payment or billing history to check whether it has already tried to collect an invoice. When following up with a customer, look for:
- The most recent attempt date.
- Whether the outcome was successful, a soft decline, or a hard decline.
- Any error message from the payment processor.
- Whether another teammate already handled the invoice manually.
If an invoice was paid through another method, refresh the invoice before retrying so your office does not duplicate collection work.
Tips
- Start with a small group of customers who already expect saved-card billing.
- Keep customer communication clear: automatic charging should never surprise the customer.
- Review declined attempts daily so retries do not replace real follow-up.
- Use hard-decline follow-up as a billing task for the office, not a technician responsibility.
- Keep Stripe connection status healthy before relying on Auto-Charge for routine cash collection.
Troubleshooting
I cannot turn on Auto-Charge
This is the expected current state. The card shows an availability notice and keeps Turn on auto-charge disabled until automatic payment processing is ready for customer accounts.
The Auto-Charge card did not load
Use Retry in the error message. If it still cannot load, refresh the Billing page before changing other payment settings.
A customer's card keeps failing
Check the attempt history. If the failure is a hard decline, contact the customer for a new card or another payment method instead of waiting for more retries.
I do not want an invoice charged automatically
Keep that invoice or customer on your manual collection process until the billing details are corrected. Use notes so the office team knows why it should not be charged automatically.
A customer says they did not expect the charge
Review the invoice, saved-card agreement, and attempt history before taking action. If your team needs to reverse or adjust a payment, use the normal Stripe/payment workflow rather than deleting the invoice history.
I need to disconnect Stripe
Contact ToolbagCRM support instead of disconnecting the account yourself. Support will handle the change so your Stripe balance and payouts stay protected.