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Instalment plans Growth+
Instalment plans split the balance left after a deposit into equal scheduled payments. Travellers can commit to an expensive trip without paying one large balance, and you get paid on a predictable schedule. Reminders, pay links and automatic card charges are handled for you.
At a glance
- Plan: Growth and Scale
- Category: Payments
- Where: Console › Plugins › Instalment plans, and Bookings › Balances
- Requires: Deposits & balance payments
How it works
At checkout, when the traveller chooses Pay a deposit now, the booking form tells them they can spread the rest over up to your maximum number of payments before they travel, with a secure link emailed before each one.
After booking, when a booking with a deposit paid is confirmed, Tourtify splits the balance into a payment schedule using your settings. Each instalment has its own due date and amount.
- With automatic charges on and a card on file, each instalment is charged on its due date. The traveller gets a heads-up email before each charge, and reminders only if a charge fails.
- Otherwise the traveller gets reminders with a secure pay link before and on each due date.
Your team sees each payment plan on Bookings › Balances, with the next payment and anything overdue.
Turn it on
- Make sure Deposits & balance payments is on.
- Go to Console › Plugins.
- Find Instalment plans and flip its switch on.
- Select Configure to set the schedule and reminders, then Save.
If Deposits is off, you see "Enable Deposits & balance payments first."
Settings
Schedule
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Number of instalments, at most | The balance after the deposit is split into this many equal payments. Fewer are used when the trip is close. 2–12. | 3 |
| Payment dates | Spread evenly from the booking date to the final due date, or Counted back from the final due date, one every gap below. Counting back gives everyone on a trip the same dates. | Spread evenly |
| Days between payments | Spread evenly: payments are never closer together than this. Counted back: the exact gap. 7–90. | 21 |
| Final payment due (days before departure) | 0 = each tour's own balance due date. A number can only bring the final date earlier, never later. | 0 |
| Late bookers catch up on missed payments | When dates are counted back and some have already passed, they're combined into a first payment due right away. Off: the balance is spread over the remaining dates. | On |
Reminders
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Remind the traveller | Any of: 7 days before, 3 days before, on the due date, 2 days after (overdue). Each reminder has a secure pay link. | All four |
| Alert my team when a payment is late by (days) | Emails owners and admins once per instalment. 0 = no alert. 0–60. | 3 |
What happens after the grace period (flag or cancel) is set in Deposits & balance payments.
Example
A traveller books a 4,000 trek on 1 March with a 20% deposit (800). The tour's balance is due 30 days before the 1 September departure, so the final due date is 2 August. With the defaults (at most 3 instalments, spread evenly, at least 21 days apart), the remaining 3,200 is split into three equal payments between the booking date and 2 August.
Good to know
- Schedules are created once, when the booking is confirmed with a deposit paid.
- Turning the plugin off means travellers can no longer get an instalment plan. Schedules already agreed are kept.
- Instalment reminders also go out on WhatsApp when WhatsApp notifications has the balance reminder switched on.
Same dates for a group
If a whole group books the same departure at different times, choose Counted back from the final due date. Everyone then pays on the same dates, which makes follow-up easier.