Installment payment plans
When a customer can’t settle at once, their overdue balance is split into monthly installments paid from the same link.
What it is
An installment plan replaces the outstanding balance of an overdue quote with 2 to 6 monthly installments that add up to exactly that balance. Each installment is a separate charge: your customer pays it from the same quote link, with the methods you have active, and the quote is paid once the last one is covered.
Today installment plans are proposed by the AI collections agent and only exist if your customer accepts them: there’s no button to create a plan by hand from the quote. If you want to split a charge from the start, use upfront and balance or a credit term.
Requirements
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Plan | Pro, Scale, or Developer (the plans that include AI collections). |
| Permission | Collections, to approve the email that proposes the plan (approval mode). |
| Setup | Collections agent turned on, with Maximum instalments and Propose a plan after configured. |
| Document | An approved quote with an overdue balance. On invoices, the customer can pay part of the balance from the invoice link, but the agent doesn’t build an installment plan on them. |
| Online payments | Optional. Without Cord Payments or Mercado Pago, the customer sees the installments and due dates, and you record each payment by hand. |
How a plan is created
- The account reaches the threshold. The agent can propose installments only when the quote is at least as many days overdue as your Propose a plan after setting (15 by default) and has no proposed or active plan.
- Cord validates the numbers. Cord checks that the number of installments is between 2 and your configured maximum, and that the proposal covers the full balance, with no discount on the principal. Cord calculates each installment amount, not the agent.
- The proposal goes out. In approval mode, the email sits in the Approval inbox labeled “Proposes N instalments of [amount] · your customer decides whether to accept it” and goes out when you click Approve and send; in automatic mode, it goes out during the run. Sending the proposal doesn’t change the quote’s charges.
- Your customer decides. The email carries a link where your customer sees each installment, its amount, and its date, and clicks Accept plan if it works for them. Neither you nor the agent can accept it for them.
- The plan activates. Only when your customer accepts do its installments replace the quote’s pending charges, and you get a notice. Your customer pays each installment from the same quote link.
If your customer doesn’t accept within 14 days, the proposal expires and the quote’s charges stay as they were.
Discarding a draft cancels its plan
If you discard or regenerate a draft that proposed a plan, the proposed plan is deleted. Since it was never activated, there are no charges to undo.
How the balance is split
- The balance is divided into equal parts and the last installment absorbs any rounding difference, so the total is exact to the cent.
- The dates are set when the proposal goes out: the first installment is due on the last day to accept it, 14 days after it’s sent; each one after that, one month after the previous one.
- Installments are in the quote’s currency.
For example, a balance of $10,000.00 MXN in 3 installments becomes two installments of $3,333.33 MXN and one of $3,333.34 MXN, due 14 days after the proposal is sent, one month later, and two months later.
What your customer sees
The quote link lists each installment with its number, amount, and status. The payment button charges the next installment that’s already due, never the full balance or a future installment. When nothing is due today, the link explains when the next one is due instead of showing the button.
Each installment is paid with your account’s active methods: card, SPEI (quotes in MXN), bank transfer with a reference (quotes in EUR, GBP, or USD with a linked client, a new feature), or Mercado Pago. If your client pays by transfer, each installment has its own instructions: with SPEI, its own CLABE; with bank transfer with a reference, the client’s same account and a reference of its own.
Fees
Each installment is a separate transaction for fee purposes: on payments in Mexican pesos (MXN), Cord Payments applies its fee to each installment separately; in other currencies there’s no platform fee today. See Cord Payments fees.
Tracking
- Collections agent › Payment plans shows each plan with its progress (“2 of 3 instalments paid”) and the next installment’s date.
- Collections agent › Active payment plans adds up what’s committed in installments.
- While the customer is on track (no overdue unpaid installment), the agent doesn’t email them: in Up next they show as “Plan on track”. If an installment falls due unpaid, the account returns to collections and the email points to that installment, not the full balance.
- When your customer accepts, the quote timeline records it and Cord creates a high-priority task to let you know.
Limits
- 2 to 6 monthly installments; you set the maximum between those values (3 by default).
- Monthly installments only.
- One proposed or active plan per quote.
- Only your customer can accept the plan; the proposal expires after 14 days.
- No discounts on the principal and no added interest.
- Quotes only, not invoices.
- Not created from the quote editor.
Common problems
The agent doesn’t propose installments. Check that the account reached the Propose a plan after days, that it doesn’t already have a proposed or active plan, and that your customer hasn’t opted out of collection emails.
I approved the email and the plan isn’t active. Approving sends the proposal; the plan activates when your customer clicks Accept plan. If they don’t within 14 days, the proposal expires.
A customer with a plan stopped getting emails from the agent. They’re on track: no installment is overdue. They return to collections if an installment falls due unpaid.
The customer paid the old balance after the plan activated. If a transfer that was already on its way arrives later, Cord still records it, because the money did arrive. Review the quote’s charges and, if there’s an overpayment, arrange the refund with your customer.