A plan builder on your website lets the customer choose the deposit, the number of payments and how often to pay, inside limits you set. Set those limits first: a minimum deposit, a maximum number of payments or a latest end date, the frequencies you allow and how soon the first payment must start. Then make sure every completed plan lands in HubSpot as a contact and a deal with the plan's terms on it, so sales and finance see the same thing.
Why let customers build their own plan?
Because the conversation about money is where many sales stall. A customer who can see that $9,600 becomes a $1,200 deposit and twelve payments of $700 can decide on the spot, at night, without waiting for a rep to send terms.
It also saves your team the back and forth. The customer picks what works, and the plan arrives already inside your rules.
What rules should the builder enforce?
Decide these before you build anything:
- Minimum deposit, as an amount or a percentage of the price.
- Number of payments, or a latest date the plan must finish by.
- Frequencies you allow: weekly, every two weeks, monthly.
- First payment window: how soon after signing the first payment must fall.
- Which products or programs can be paid over time, and whether the rules differ for each.
- Card fees, if you add a surcharge where your state allows one, shown before the customer confirms.
Keep the choices few. Three frequencies and a slider for the number of payments are usually enough.
What should land in HubSpot?
Every completed plan should leave the same trail a rep would have created by hand:
| Record | What it should carry |
|---|---|
| Contact | Name, email, phone, who is paying |
| Deal | Amount, stage, location or program, close date |
| Deal properties | Deposit, number of payments, frequency, first payment date |
| Payments | Each payment's status as it happens, and the remaining balance |
With that in place, the rep who follows up can see exactly what the customer chose, and reports by location or program work the same way for website plans as for plans a rep set up.
What can HubSpot do on its own?
A HubSpot form creates or updates a contact when it's submitted. Turning a submission into a deal usually takes a workflow with a "create record" action, which needs a Professional or Enterprise subscription (HubSpot: create records with workflows).
HubSpot's own payments can take a one-time payment or a subscription, but a form doesn't let the customer choose between plan options within your limits. That's the part a plan builder adds.
How do you connect the two?
Three common ways:
- A payment tool with its own HubSpot integration and a checkout you embed on your site. The integration writes the plan and its payments back to HubSpot.
- Your own form and an API. Your site sends the customer's choices to a payment tool's API, and an integration or a workflow updates HubSpot.
- A plugin, if your site runs on a platform like WordPress and your payment tool offers one.
Whichever you choose, the plan terms should come from one place, so the schedule the customer saw is the schedule they're charged on.
What should you test before launch?
- A plan at the minimum deposit and the maximum number of payments.
- A customer who already exists in HubSpot, so you don't create a duplicate.
- A declined card on the first payment.
- What the customer receives by email, and when.
- That the deal shows up in the right pipeline, with the right location, for every product you sell.
Payment plans built from the deal in HubSpot or Pipedrive, with each location paid into its own account and books.
Paycove lets customers build their own plan on your website inside your rules, minimum down, number of payments and fees, through its checkout, its API or its WordPress plugin.
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