Automatically Recurring Memberships (with automated billing)

[Donald Lobo]

in paypal isn;t the recurring subscription and first payment processed at the same time? i.e. it ether fails or the recurring subscr is created along with the payment. i think thats the behavior with paypal standard

lobo

[jrosen]

So, in PayPal Pro, when a Recurring Billing Profile is created, the first payment is not processed immediately: 

• PayPal sends an IPN to notify CiviCRM if the Recurring Billing Profile was successfully created or not
• If the profile is created successfully, the first payment is processed by PayPal within the first 24 hours, and then an IPN is sent to CiviCRM
• The Credit Card info is not validated until the first payment goes through.

I hate how PayPal does this... There are 2 options to improve this flow with PayPal Pro:

• There is an option in the Recurring Billing Profile API that allows for an initial payment to be processed at the time the Profile is created and the Credit Card is validated at that time.  PayPal intends for this Initial Payment to be used for initiation/sign-up/setup fees for the subscription.  In that assumption, PayPal does not include the Initial Payment amount in its accounting of the subscription payments in your PayPal History.
• PayPal's Payment Authorization API can be used before the Recurring Billing Profile is created to validate the Credit Card for the first payment amount and if the payment is Authorized, the payment can then be voided immediately.

Right now I am leaning toward Option 1 using the Initial Payment in the Recurring Billing Profile - I have not yet added that part in to test it in my new Auto-Recurring Memberships enhancements.

I will look into it and let you know what I find.

[SarahG (FountainTribe)]

I am willing to help sponsor this feature.

Please contact me at sarah at gladstone.info

[ositoblanco]

Any progress on this? ... As dlobo today toled me in IRC, membership renewal with recurring payment this still needs work.

@jrosen Did you open an issue on http://issues.civicrm.org?

[ds505]

Hi All,

We are also willing to help sponsor this feature for Authorize.net too.

We have actual $$$'s allocated for this if anyone willing to help take this on.

We also be willing to test and document if needed.

Send PM to get details and connect.

Thanks,

Brett

[SarahG (FountainTribe)]

Can this feature, recurring payments for membership, be added to the "Civi-Make-it-happen" initiative?

[xavier]

Sarah,

Suppose you saw it already, but this is one of the projects that need some financial love

http://civicrm.org/contribute

[SarahG (FountainTribe)]

I have seen that project/initiative. There has been some discussion about specific use-cases related to membership payments at: http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,15916.0.html   These related requirements ( now summarized at: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC32/Partial+Payments+for+Membership,+Events  ) will be launched as a new "Civi-Make-It-Happen" initiative after Oct. 15

[Eileen]

Hi Sarah,

You should spend some time looking @ this page & thinking about how it fits - there are a bunch of subpages

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/Finance+and+Accounting

If you search for RNAO - that is a current / new project under the auspices of Joe Murray - it's probably worth ensuring he is involved in scoping what goes on Make-it-Happen

Eileen

[SarahG (FountainTribe)]

Thanks for pointing this out. I will work with Joe to consolidate the 2 documents.

[Dave Greenberg]

For any following / finding this thread ... the Make it Happen campaign for this feature was successful! The specifications have been detailed out here:
http://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-7137

This is scheduled to be part of the 3.3.1 release.