Subscriptions
Subscription billing on card, Direct Debit and SEPA.
One subscriptions engine for memberships, plans and retainers. It collects on the rail that suits each customer, retries what fails, and can try another rail the customer has set up, so the payment is collected.
Recurring revenue only works if it actually recurs.
Every month you re-collect money you were always going to receive, and every month a few of those collections fall over: a limit, a fraud flag, a card replaced after a move, a bank account closed. Nobody notices until the member has drifted off, and then someone on your team is chasing people who never meant to leave.
What matters is that the payment is collected, not which rail it travels on. Synapto keeps card details current when a card is reissued, retries what fails, and when a collection fails on one rail it can try another the customer has set up. Anything that still needs a person is flagged to you with the reason, before it becomes lost revenue.
How it works
Plans, billing cycles and changes
Define the plan and the cycle once. Customers subscribe by card or by signing a Direct Debit mandate, and every charge after that runs on its own, on the day you choose, with the money paid out to your bank account.
- Plans, billing cycles and trials
- Upgrades, downgrades and cancellations handled
- Memberships, subscriptions and retainers on one engine
- Recurring and one-off billing in one place
Payment rails
One engine across card, Direct Debit and SEPA
Each rail has a job. Direct Debit is dependable and low friction for a fixed amount that repeats: the payer signs a mandate once and each collection draws on their bank account, though the money takes longer to arrive. Card is faster to cash and more flexible, suits amounts that change and customers who prefer to pay that way, and card details are kept current when a card is reissued. SEPA Direct Debit covers customers paying from euro accounts. Open Banking is coming.
You choose which rails to offer. The plans, retries and reporting work the same way on all of them.
- Card on file, updated when a card is reissued
- Direct Debit on Bacs for UK bank accounts
- SEPA Direct Debit for euro accounts
- Open Banking, coming
Failed payments
Retries and fallback to another rail
A failed collection is retried on a schedule that gives the customer time to put it right. Where the customer has set up more than one way to pay, a collection that fails on one rail can be tried on another, so a closed card or a cancelled mandate does not end the subscription on its own.
What still fails is flagged to you with the reason, so your team chases the few that need a person rather than every member who missed a month.
- Failed payments retried automatically
- Fallback to another rail the customer has set up
- Every failure reported with its reason
- One view of who is paid up and who is not
From plan to paid, every month
Set up the plan
Price, cycle and trial if you want one. Map it to how you already bill.
Customers subscribe once
A simple sign-up, by card or by Direct Debit mandate, or both.
It bills automatically
Every cycle, on schedule. Failures are retried, on another rail where the customer has one, and flagged with the reason.
A person watches it with you
A named contact who knows your billing cycle, not a ticket queue.
Subscription billing questions
Either, or both. They do different jobs. Direct Debit is dependable and low friction for a fixed amount that repeats, but slower to reach your account. Card is faster to cash and more flexible when amounts change. Offer both and let each customer pick; the engine runs them the same way.
Card, Direct Debit on Bacs and SEPA Direct Debit. Open Banking is coming. Plans, retries and reporting are the same whichever rail a payment takes. See Direct Debit for mandates and the Direct Debit Guarantee.
It is retried automatically on a schedule that gives the customer time to fix it. If the customer has set up another way to pay, the collection can be tried on that rail instead. If it still fails, you are told, with the reason, rather than losing the member silently.
In most cases yes, without your customers signing up again. Tell us who you bill with today and we will confirm what the transfer looks like before you commit.
Yes. Recurring and one-off billing live together in one place. See invoicing for the one-off side.
Recurring billing you can rely on
Tell us how your subscriptions and memberships are collected today and we'll show you how they run on Synapto, rail by rail.