QuickBooks Online has no single payment plan feature, but four tools get close. A recurring invoice with autopay charges the customer's card or bank account a fixed amount on a schedule, for invoices of $5,000 or less. Recurring payments charge a saved payment method daily, weekly, monthly or yearly until an end date, with an optional one-time fee on the first charge. A customer can pay part of an invoice online. And Affirm, on payment-enabled invoices, pays you up front for invoices of $50 to $20,000 while the customer repays Affirm.
Checked against Intuit's QuickBooks help articles and product pages on 26 October 2026. Intuit changes these tools; the changelog at the end records each update.
Can you set up a payment plan in QuickBooks Online?
Not as one feature. Intuit's help articles describe no screen where you enter a total, a deposit and a number of payments. Four tools come closest:
- Recurring invoices with autopay: QuickBooks sends an invoice on a schedule, and a customer who enrolls in autopay is charged for each one.
- Recurring payments: QuickBooks charges the customer on a schedule without sending invoices first.
- Partial payments: the customer pays part of one invoice online, whenever they choose.
- Affirm buy now, pay later: Affirm pays you up front and the customer repays Affirm.
The first three keep the plan yours, and you carry the risk that a payment doesn't arrive. With the fourth, the plan is between your customer and Affirm. All four need QuickBooks Payments, Intuit's own payment processing.
How do recurring invoices with autopay work as a plan?
You create an invoice, select Make recurring, choose the interval and the start and end dates, and save it as a template. QuickBooks then creates the invoice on that schedule. (QuickBooks: create recurring transactions)
Autopay is what turns the invoices into charges. The customer opens the invoice and enrolls, and QuickBooks charges their card or bank account for each new invoice. Intuit's autopay article sets the limits: (QuickBooks: set up autopay for recurring invoices)
- $5,000 or less per invoice. Autopay is available only for invoices that total $5,000 and below.
- Not daily. Recurring invoices with a daily interval can't use autopay.
- The full amount only. If the customer edits the amount, the autopay option disappears.
- The customer needs an Intuit account to enroll.
- Charged three days before the due date, or right away when the due date is closer than that or the invoice is due on receipt.
- Changes cancel it. Changing the total, the frequency, the terms, the payment options, the email address or the customer's name cancels autopay, and the customer gets a cancellation email.
When an autopay payment is declined, the customer is emailed. Once they update their payment details, the payment is taken and they can enroll again.
What does a real plan look like as recurring invoices?
Take a $14,800 program with a $1,500 deposit and twelve monthly payments of about $1,108. Twelve into $13,300 is $1,108.333…, so the plan is eleven payments of $1,108.33 and a last payment of $1,108.37.
- The deposit is its own invoice. A recurring template repeats one invoice, so the $1,500 is billed separately, before the schedule starts.
- The last payment breaks the pattern. The template bills $1,108.33 every month. Editing it to $1,108.37 for the final invoice changes the total, which cancels autopay, so the customer has to enroll again for one payment. The alternative is billing the four cents some other way.
- Each payment fits under the cap. At $1,108.33, every invoice is well under $5,000.
A bigger program shows the cap. A $30,000 program billed in four quarterly payments of $7,500 can still go out as recurring invoices, but autopay isn't available on them, so the customer pays each one by hand.
What are QuickBooks recurring payments?
Recurring payments charge the customer on your schedule, without sending an invoice for them to pay first. (QuickBooks: recurring payments overview)
- Daily, weekly, monthly or annually, every so many of them: Intuit's example of a quarterly schedule is monthly, every three months.
- An end date, or never. Set the date the payments stop, or let them repeat without end. Intuit's article describes an end date, not a number of payments.
- A one-time fee on the first charge. Recurring invoices can't do this. On a plan, that's where a deposit can go, charged together with the first payment.
- Card or bank account, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay on mobile devices. PayPal and Venmo aren't supported.
- The customer must consent within 30 days, or the recurring payment expires.
- Either side can cancel it. You and your customer can both cancel a recurring payment.
Failed payments are handled differently from autopay. QuickBooks still creates the invoice but doesn't mark it paid, and you and the customer are both emailed. If the customer doesn't update their payment method by the next charge date, the recurring payment is cancelled automatically. On a long plan, someone has to watch for that email, because one missed update ends the whole schedule.
Can a customer pay a QuickBooks invoice in parts?
Yes. On an invoice that accepts online payments, the customer selects Review and pay, edits the payment amount and pays what they choose. (QuickBooks: make a partial payment on an invoice) Once the payment is recorded, the customer's outstanding balance goes down by that amount. (QuickBooks: record invoice payments)
That's an open balance, not a plan. Nothing sets the amounts or the dates, and nothing is charged unless the customer comes back. A QuickBooks team member, answering a client who wanted four equal payments, pointed to a related option: the customer can open the invoice, select Set a date and schedule a payment for any day up to the due date. (QuickBooks Community) That schedules one payment, not a series.
What about Affirm in QuickBooks?
Intuit offers Affirm's buy now, pay later on payment-enabled invoices. (QuickBooks: buy now, pay later with Affirm)
- Invoices of $50 to $20,000.
- Plans typically run 3 to 36 months.
- You're paid up front, minus the transaction fee, and Affirm takes on the repayment risk.
- It costs the same as a standard card transaction, with no setup cost.
- The customer repays Affirm, at rates Intuit's page gives as 0% to 36% APR, depending on their credit.
- US only. Not available in US territories or outside the US.
The terms are Affirm's, and so is the relationship once the customer starts repaying. A 0% plan or a lender loan? works through what that difference costs the customer and the business, and Buy now, pay later for business covers the other providers.
What does each option cost?
Every option except Affirm is charged at QuickBooks Payments' standard rates, one fee per payment, by card or by bank transfer. Affirm costs the same as a standard card transaction. QuickBooks Payments fees has Intuit's current rates, worked through this same $14,800 plan.
What should you decide before running plans in QuickBooks?
- Where the plan starts. Someone creates each template or recurring payment by hand. If your sales close on a deal in a CRM, decide how the deal's terms become the schedule. The HubSpot QuickBooks integration and the Pipedrive QuickBooks integration cover what each CRM's own app sends across.
- What happens when the amount changes. Changing a recurring invoice's total cancels autopay, so the customer has to enroll again after every change. Changing a payment plan after it starts covers what customers must be told when an amount changes.
- Who watches for failed payments. A declined recurring payment that isn't fixed by the next charge date cancels the schedule.
- Which company file gets paid. If your locations are separate companies in QuickBooks, each schedule has to live in the company that's owed. QuickBooks Online with multiple companies covers the setup.
Which QuickBooks option fits?
- Fixed payments under $5,000, billed as invoices: recurring invoices with autopay, with the deposit and any odd last payment billed separately.
- Charges without an invoice each time, with a deposit on the first charge: recurring payments, with someone watching for failed ones.
- A customer who'll pay down a balance in their own time: partial payments on one invoice.
- You'd rather be paid in full and let a lender carry the plan: Affirm, for invoices of $50 to $20,000.
For the same question about the processor underneath, see Stripe payment plans.
Changelog
- 26 October 2026: first published.
Payment plans built from the deal in HubSpot or Pipedrive, with each location paid into its own account and books.
Paycove builds the plan from the deal in your CRM, charges it on the dates you set and records every payment against the invoice in that location's QuickBooks Online file.
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