Autopay charges what falls due, on its due date, from a payment method the renter saved - a card, or, once your Stripe payout account can take bank debits, an Australian bank account by BECS direct debit. It needs the Online Payments module and a saved method. Whether renters can flip the switch themselves is your call, under Settings → Money → Autopay.
How it starts
- The renter saves a card or bank account in their portal's Autopay panel. The consent beside the form states the exact deal - for a bank account it is the full Direct Debit Request.
- Autopay is switched on per contract - from the contract's Payments tab, or by the renter where you allow it.
- Due payments then charge themselves. The record goes paid only when Stripe confirms, and the renter gets the receipt.
When a charge fails
Fleetola walks a retry schedule rather than giving up or piling on - four attempts in all. The renter is emailed each time with the next retry date, and no late fee builds while the retries run. If all four fail, the contract drops back to manual and you are emailed that autopay stopped. The retry days are forgiven: any late fee counts from the day the walk ended, never from the original due date. And if Stripe pauses card payments on your account, autopay renters get no overdue notices and no late fee until it resumes - their card would have been charged. You can stop a walk yourself any time - flip the contract to manual, or mark the payment paid.
Bank debits are different
A bank debit takes days to clear, and Fleetola says paid only when it has: while it processes the row reads processing and no late fee builds. If the renter's bank later pulls the money back - a dishonour - the payment flips back to unpaid, the contract drops to manual and both of you are told. That is also why Pay now and signing take cards only: where money must clear on the spot, a bank debit cannot.
Tip: Payment-reminder emails already know: with autopay on they tell the renter the charge happens by itself - nothing to do.
Your controls mid-walk
A walk is watchable, not just waited out. The payment sits in Payments as an overdue row captioned Card declined, and the contract's Payments tab says exactly where things stand - Attempt 2 of 4 failed - card declined.
- Retry charge, on the declined row, runs the next attempt now instead of waiting for the schedule. It goes through the same engine as the automatic retries and uses up one of the four attempts. It charges a real card, so it takes an owner login - staff can watch a walk but not run it.
- Mark paid manually, in the row's menu, is for money that arrives outside the walk - the renter hands you cash, say. It settles the record and stops the walk, and it charges no late fee, because fees stay paused while the retries run.
The same tab owns the switch, and the switch is not allowed to lie: if autopay is on but a charge cannot run - the saved card is gone, or your payout setup isn't finished - an amber line reads Autopay is on but can't run, names the reason, and payments stay manual until it is fixed.
Mark paid checks the card first. Before it records cash, Fleetola asks Stripe about any card money on that payment. A charge that already went through is recorded as paid by card instead, and nothing else is written. While a charge is still being made, or a bank debit is still clearing, Mark paid is refused - recording cash then is how a renter ends up paying twice. A debit the bank has refused is settled first, and then the cash is recorded.
On a row whose bank debit is still clearing, Retry charge is refused too, because a second submission would debit the account twice.
What the renter can do
The renter has their own Autopay panel in the portal. They can replace the saved card or bank account, and they can remove it - which switches every one of their rentals back to manual payments and stops any retry walk mid-flight. The portal warns them before they confirm, but no email tells you - the contract's Payments tab simply reads Manual again. If a rent you expected to charge itself did not, look there first.
During a walk the renter's portal states the same facts you see: what failed, which attempt of the four, and the next retry date. Pay now stays open between attempts - it only gives way while a bank debit is still clearing - and paying the amount themselves settles the record and stops the walk. When the failure is their bank asking for extra confirmation, paying from the portal is exactly what clears it.