Recurring payments
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1. Introduction
Definition
Recurring payments are a Leeloo.AI platform tool that automatically charges customers for an offer at a defined time interval. It is a subscription-based selling mode: the customer places an order once, and the system regularly charges the specified amount after that — without re-entering card details. This is the core mechanism of the Retain stage of the customer lifecycle, and at the same time an extension of the Convert stage over a long time horizon.
Recurring payments are configured inside an Offer and work together with the connected payment systems. Charge statuses (successful, failed, completed, paused) flow into the Orders and Sales section under the "Recurring Orders" tab, and messages to the customer are configured in AI Support → Order Automation Messages or in the Personalized Status Messages of a specific offer.
The B2B operator (Leeloo.AI account owner/manager) activates the recurring mode in the offer settings: defines the amount, currency, first-payment delay, periodicity, and number of charges. They also wire up actions (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to tunnel, create SMS/Email/WhatsApp channel) that fire on every successful charge.
The B2C customer sees a recurring payment as a regular purchase: pays for the offer once, the card is bound, after which the system automatically charges subsequent payments. The customer receives charge-status notifications in their messenger (if messages are configured), can check active subscriptions with the /my_info command, and can unlink the card from their personal cabinet if desired.
The Client's Card records: each charge as a separate order in the purchase history, the current subscription status (active / paused / completed), bound cards (separately for each payment system), and all tunnel actions tied to recurring offer statuses. This data is available for filtering in Audience, CRM, and Sales Tunnels segmentation.
After reading this, you will understand:
what recurring payments are and how they differ from a one-time offer payment;
which payment systems support recurring, and which do not;
how to set the amount, currency, first-payment delay, periodicity, and number of charges;
how to add status messages to the customer — globally and for a specific offer;
where to manage active subscriptions: pause, resume, complete ahead of schedule;
the limitations imposed by Apple Pay / Google Pay and how to avoid them.
Purpose
Recurring payments are an LTV-growth tool: they turn a one-time purchase into a regular cash flow without customer effort and without losses on manual invoicing.
Retain is the key stage for recurring payments. Each successful charge keeps the customer inside an active subscription and extends their lifecycle. Charge-status messages and tunnel actions (subscribe to an "active subscriber" branch, create an SMS/Email channel) strengthen the relationship and help react to failed charges in time. The job — turn a one-time purchase into long-term cash flow.
Convert — the first payment of a recurring offer is still a standard conversion transaction. At this stage the customer picks the tier, enters payment details, and binds the card; after that they move into the auto-charge mode. The job — walk the customer through the first payment and lock in the card binding.
2. Recurring offer overview
Recurring mode is enabled inside an offer: open the offer in Sales Funnels → Offers, expand the "Recurring Offer Settings" block, and fill in the parameters.
2.1. Recurring payment settings
Recurring payment amount — the amount charged for each payment.
Currency — the currency of the recurring charges (must be supported by the selected payment system).
First payment delay — time between the initial offer payment and the start of recurring charges. Minimum — 1 hour.
Payment frequency — interval between recurring charges. Minimum — 1 hour.
Infinite payment — enable this option to keep charging indefinitely until the subscription is stopped manually or the customer unlinks the card.
Amount of payments — finite number of recurring charges (the initial offer payment is not counted as recurring).
Warning: Settings changes do not affect existing subscribers. If you change the amount, frequency, or other parameters — new subscribers join under the new terms, while customers currently being charged continue under the terms they subscribed to. Even deleting the offer does not cancel active subscriptions.
Important: Yandex Money, PayPal, and Manual payments do not support recurring payments. When a recurring payment is processed, the card is not linked to the customer's account. If a recurring charge fails, the system will retry up to 3 more times at the interval specified in "Payment frequency". For payments made via Apple Pay / Google Pay, recurring will not start — the card cannot be saved. Recurring offers require physical card-number entry.
2.2. Messages about recurring payment status
Customer-facing messages for each recurring charge stage are configured in two places. Globally — in AI Support → Order Automation Messages:
Or individually per offer — in Personalized Status Messages inside that offer's settings.
If you enable "Personalized Status Messages" — for this offer the global order-status messages stop applying. If you only added personalized messages for selected statuses (for example, "Start of Recurring Payments", "Recurring Payment Processing"), then for other statuses ("End of Recurring Payments", "Recurring Payment Error") the customer will not receive a message. We recommend configuring messages for every status of the recurring order.
2.3. Managing recurring payments
All recurring orders are displayed in the Recurring Orders tab of Orders and Sales. The same interface lets you pause, resume, and complete active subscriptions ahead of schedule:
For more details, see the separate instruction.
Note: If the recurring offer's "Actions" are configured with tunnel-block subscribe/unsubscribe or SMS/Email account creation, those actions fire on every successful charge (not only the first one). Keep this in mind when assembling tunnels.
In the first screenshot, "Payment frequency" shows the interval at which the action shown in the second screenshot will be executed:
Note: For recurring offers, payments via Apple Pay / Google Pay cannot be charged automatically — that payment method does not generate the special payment key required for subsequent automated charges. Recurring offers require physical card-number entry.
Note: If you pause a recurring payment and then resume it, the next charge will occur within 5 minutes, provided the payment date set in the recurring offer settings has been reached.
Related instructions
Instruction | Purpose |
|---|---|
Offer as an entity: settings, actions, checkout, payment, import/export. Recurring is enabled inside an offer. | |
Where recurring-offer actions are wired (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to tunnel) and where the customer receives status messages. | |
Alternative installment mode where a single order is paid in multiple transactions (vs. recurring, where each charge is its own subscription order). | |
Mode where the manager confirms payment manually. Not used for recurring. | |
Per-offer texts overriding global messages for a specific recurring offer. | |
Configures alerts about failed charges. | |
Global texts delivered to the customer on any recurring order status change. | |
Where to read metrics on recurring orders: LTV, churn, active subscriptions. |
Key terms
Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
Recurring payment | Regular automated charge for an offer at a fixed interval. Also called "subscription payment". |
Offer | Purchasing primitive in Leeloo.AI: container for price, currency, payment systems, and actions. Recurring is enabled inside an offer. |
First payment delay | Time between the customer's first offer payment and the start of recurring charges. Minimum — 1 hour. |
Payment frequency | Interval between recurring charges (hours / days / weeks / months). Minimum — 1 hour. |
Infinite payment | Mode where charges continue without a numerical cap until manual cancellation. |
Recurring order | Record under "Orders and Sales → Recurring" representing a customer's active subscription. Status: active / paused / completed. |
Order automation messages | Global customer message texts triggered by any order status change, configured in AI Support. |
Personalized status messages | Messages configured individually for a specific offer. Override global ones. |
LTV (Customer Lifetime Value) | Total revenue from a single customer over their lifetime. Recurring is the primary LTV-growth lever in Leeloo.AI. |
Retain stage | Customer lifecycle stage where recurring payments operate as the primary retention mechanism. |