Paymenter Billing Agreements: How Automatic Charges Work

Paymenter introduced billing agreements in v1.4 so a customer can save a payment method for later automatic charges. The official release notes name Stripe and PayPal as supported gateways. This is useful for recurring hosting invoices, but it deserves a real payment-flow test before you offer it to customers.

What a billing agreement changes

Without a saved payment method, a customer opens each invoice and pays it manually. A billing agreement allows Paymenter to attempt payment using a method the customer has authorized for future charges. The gateway still processes the payment; Paymenter records and reacts to the result. Availability and user experience depend on the gateway integration and your Paymenter version.

Do not describe automatic charge attempts as guaranteed payment. Cards can expire, banks can decline a charge and customers can revoke authorization. Your customer-facing invoice and renewal flow should explain what happens when a charge fails.

Before enabling it

1. Update Paymenter and your Stripe or PayPal integration to versions that support billing agreements.
2. Check the gateway's webhook configuration and test both successful and failed payments.
3. Test how a customer saves a method, sees an upcoming invoice and removes the agreement.
4. Check the invoice status, service renewal and customer notifications after each test result.
5. Make sure your terms and privacy information describe saved payment methods and automatic charges accurately.

Paymenter v1.4 also added invoice-paid and invoice-payment-failed notification templates. Confirm that those messages reach a test account and that a failed payment does not leave a service marked paid. The Paymenter update checklist helps keep the entire checkout and renewal path working when you upgrade.