Setting up Auto-Pay
Learn about auto-pay and how to set up custom rules for your customers to simplify their payment experience and automate your payments.
Auto-pay is a feature offered by Alternative Payments that allows your customers to automatically pay their bills or make recurring payments without manual intervention.
As a partner, you can set up auto-pay rules for all customers or create customer-specific rules. There two dedicated sections available to configure your auto-pay rules:
Customers
Log into your Alternative Payments Partner Dashboard
Navigate to Customers
Select the ellipses on the applicable customer and edit
Add your rules 5. You're all set!
AutomationsLog into your Alternative Payments Partner DashboardNavigate to Automations then Auto-pay RulesAdd your rulesYou're all set!
Note: We recommend configuring auto-pay rules to be customer-specific. An auto-pay rule will only work if the customer has a payment method on file. Once the rules are set up, they will take effect immediately.
## Customers
Log into your Alternative Payments Partner Dashboard
Navigate to Customers From the sidebar, select Customers then All Customers.
Click into any customer profile To add an auto-pay rule for a specific customer, click the hyperlinked customer profile name to see their profile page.
Add your rules Scroll down to the Auto-pay rules section and select '+Add a new rule.'
By default, the Days past due and Customer conditions will be selected. If you save this rule, this means that the customer will be charged for all their invoices on the due date. You can also choose to update the Days past due condition and also set it based on Days before due and Days past creation. You can add additional conditions based on recurring invoices/agreements and the outstanding amount. Click 'Confirm' to save the rule for the customer.
Note: 0 days past due means the customer will be charge on the invoice due date for all their invoices.
Automations
Log into your Alternative Payments Partner Dashboard
Navigate to Automations From the sidebar, select Automations then Auto-pay rules and click on 'Create new'.
Add your rules Create a condition by which you would like all customers or specific customers to be charged. The rule options are days past due, days before due, days past creation, agreements, amount and based on customer.
Review the new rule
Review the details of the new rule, including the affected customers and invoice. You can exclude specific invoices from autopay if needed.
You're all set!
Click Create rule to save the auto-pay rule.
Customer Tags
Log into your Alternative Payments Partner Dashboard
Navigate to Automations
From the sidebar, select Automations then Auto-pay rules and click on 'Customer tags', then 'Create new'
Select customer tag(s), and Add your rule
Select the customer tags that you would like to apply the rule on. Create a condition by which you would like all customers with this tag to be charged. The rule options are days past due, days before due, days past creation, agreements, and amount.
Review the new rule
Review the details of the new rule, including the affected customers and invoice. You can exclude specific invoices from autopay if needed.
That's it! Enjoy payments being received on time and reduce time spent managing collections.
Tip: Auto-Pay rules follow AND/OR logic. Within a single rule, all conditions must be met for auto-pay to trigger (AND logic). If you have multiple rules, the system checks each one separately and will trigger auto-pay if at least one rule meets all of its conditions (OR logic). This means auto-pay won't trigger if only some conditions of a rule are met, but as long as one rule is fully met, auto-pay will be triggered.
ACH Payment Processing Timeline
When auto-pay triggers an ACH payment, the transaction moves through a multi-day clearing process governed by the ACH network. Understanding this timeline helps you interpret payment statuses in the Partner Dashboard and set accurate expectations with your customers.
The ACH lifecycle
ACH payments follow a standard three-business-day clearing window:
T+0
The transaction is initiated and submitted to the ACH network. The payment status in the dashboard moves to Processing.
T+1
Funds are pulled from the customer's bank account.
T+3
The bank-initiated chargeback window passes and the transaction clears. The payment status updates from Processing to reflect the final outcome.
A payment showing a Processing status for up to three business days is expected behavior — it does not indicate a stuck or failed payment.
Note: Weekends and federal holidays do not count as business days. An ACH payment initiated on the last business day before a holiday will not begin its T+1 funds pull until the next business day.
Partner payout timing
Partner payout timing is separate from — and in addition to — the ACH clearing timeline above. Once a transaction clears, partners receive funds in their bank account according to their individual payout agreement with Alternative Payments: T+1, T+2, or T+3 from the point of clearing. If you are unsure of your payout terms, contact your Alternative Payments account manager.
Returned or held debits
Once an ACH debit has been transmitted to the ACH network, Alternative Payments cannot resubmit that same debit request.
If a receiving bank holds the debit (for example, for manual authorization), the clearing timeline continues as normal. No action is required.
If a receiving bank returns the debit (a formal ACH return), the transaction will reflect a failed or chargeback status in the dashboard. The original debit cannot be resubmitted. To collect payment, the partner must initiate a new payment attempt through the Partner Dashboard. Alternative Payments must wait for any potential chargeback to be resolved before a retry can be considered.
Note: A bank return is different from a bank hold. A return is a formal rejection by the receiving bank that closes the original transaction. A hold is a temporary delay that does not change the clearing timeframe.
Payment Method Expiry Notifications
Automatic credit card expiry notifications to customers are not yet available as a native feature in Alternative Payments (as of June 2026). A dedicated feature — scheduled expiry reminder emails sent directly to customers when their card is about to expire — is actively in development.
In the meantime, partners can use Alti to set up a workaround that achieves a similar result today.
Workaround: Scheduled Routine via Alti
Alti supports scheduled routines that can target customers with expiring payment methods and notify them on a recurring basis. To configure this:
Open Alti from your Partner Dashboard.
Create a new scheduled routine and provide an instruction that targets customers whose credit cards are expiring within your chosen timeframe (for example, within the next 30 days).
Set the schedule (for example, weekly) so the routine runs automatically and reaches affected customers on an ongoing basis.
Review and confirm the routine. Alti will execute it on each scheduled run and send the relevant customers a notification.
Note: This workaround requires Alti to be enabled for your account. Contact the Alternative Payments team via the chat icon in your dashboard if you need access.
What's Coming
The long-term approach for credit card expiry notifications is two-pronged:
Platform-level expiry emails — a native platform feature that will automatically send scheduled reminder emails to customers when their credit card is approaching its expiration date.
Alti configurability — partners who want custom control over the timing, frequency, or messaging of expiry notifications will continue to be able to configure this through Alti scheduled routines.
Once the native feature ships, you will be able to track all outgoing expiry notification emails from the Email Activity tab in your Partner Dashboard — the same place you monitor invoice reminders and other automated emails today.
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