Recurring Payment Dates

Hi, currently getting my head around S2Member and am very impressed (even though I’m very much not a developer). I do however have a problem which I’m not sure is fixable.

Is it possible for S2Member to create payment buttons or forms for recurring payments that are set to come out on a specific date of the month? I’m not too bothered about the first payment (that can come out straight away) but it would be great if subsequeunt payments could come out on a specific date (eg. 1st). Is this something that is possible at all?

Many thanks for any help.

Hello Andrew, thanks for your inquiry.

If I understood correctly, you mean that the button or pro-form only comes out in a certain date? Before that it’s not accessible? So you can control in which dates certain products are available for example?

Please correct me if I’m wrong. :)

Sorry, I confused the issue by talking about forms and buttons.

What I mean is, is there anyway that S2Member can specify what date the monies should be transferred out of an account and into the merchant account.

i.e. can a seller set s2member only to recurring bill on the 1st of the month for subscribers, even if they sign up on the 15th?

Thanks.

Hi Andrew,

That’s not currently a configurable option within s2Member, however you could create a customization that dynamically generates the PayPal Pro-Form with a free trial period for the remainder of the month.

So for example, if today was the 15th, you’d use some PHP code to figure out that there are 15 days remaining this month and then display a Pro-Form that has a 15-day free trial period. Then, the customer’s account would automatically be billed on the 1st of each month.

The following thread from the old forum explains how to do dynamic shortcodes:
http://www.primothemes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1604

Sorry for the slow reply. Thanks very much for the information, much appreciated.

You’re most welcome, Andrew! Glad to help. :)

Hi, I notice that in Paypal they use a;

PROFILESTARTDATE
RecurringPaymentsProfileDetails.
BillingStartDate

As you already have an initial payment start, is there anyway of customising the profilestartdate of the recurring payment through S2Member?

Thanks.

Andrew, I emailed Jason asking him about it. I’ll let you know when I hear back from him. :)

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

The fields mentioned in this thread, such as PROFILESTARTDATE, are handled internally by s2Member. If you need to adjust the PROFILESTARTDATE, you would simply change the initial/trial period in your Shortcode, and s2Member does the rest.

So for example, if I wanted to sell a membership that starts billing two months after the initial signup, I would create a Pro Form Shortcode with a 2 month initial/trial period. Specifically, take a look at the Shortcode Attributes documentation for Pro Form Shortcodes. The tp="" and tt="" attributes are what control the underlying PROFILESTARTDATE.

See: Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Shortcode Attributes (Explained)

Thanks!

Not trying to prolong this for you guys(!) but is there anyway to specify PROFILESTARTDATE for a Pro Form? That would help immensely as would mean we could manually create a new button each month while we sort an automated solution.

Thanks again.

Those shortcode attributes, [hilite mono]tp[/hilite] and [hilite mono]tt[/hilite], are available for the pro-form too. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Shortcode Attributes (Explained)[/hilite]

Am I right in thinking though this will only set a time from now, rather than being able to enter a specific date for a recurring billing to start?

Hi Andrew,

That is correct. If you want the PROFILESTARTDATE to occur on the 1st of the month, you’ll need to calculate the number of days between today (now) and the end of the month and then use that number in the tp= attribute (make sure that tt=”D” for ‘Days’).

For example, if today was the 20th, you’d calculate that there are 10 days remaining in the month and then set tp=”10″ tt=”D” and that will cause s2Member to set the PROFILESTARTDATE to 10 days from today (i.e., the 1st of the next month).

You’ll need to make use of PHP to do these calculations.

Hi, I very much appreciate the help here.

Being no developer and having no experience of PHP, it was, surprisingly, not too bad to do this! All seems good with the paypal sandbox account giving me the right amount initially and the correct profile start date. Miracles do happen! So much appreciate your support here.

I have noticed one issue with the email that S2Member generates when someone signs up. It seems to have a mix of currencies, in that I’m using GBP which seems to work for recurring, but charges today is in dollars (though paypal is using GBP). Any ideas?

Charges today: $19.99
Recurring charges: £19.99 / monthly

Happy to create a new thread for this if it helps?

Thanks.

Thanks for the kudos, Andrew. :)

I have noticed one issue with the email that S2Member generates when someone signs up. It seems to have a mix of currencies, in that I’m using GBP which seems to work for recurring, but charges today is in dollars (though paypal is using GBP). Any ideas?

Is that the confirmation email? What template do you have in your settings for it? [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Signup Confirmation Email[/hilite]

What’s the shortcode you’re using for the purchase?

Ah…. All this coding has removed any common sense I had left. Had the $ sign in the template, thanks again!!!

Have a good weekend.

You too! I’m gald you could sort it out. Thanks for the update. :)