Recurring Giving

Recurring giving allows donors to set up automatic, ongoing donations that are charged on a regular schedule. TimelyChurch supports recurring donations through two mechanisms: online recurring subscriptions via Stripe and manually recorded recurring entries.

Plan note: Online giving and the Giving module are part of the Pro plan. If your church is on the Starter or Growth plan, you'll be prompted to upgrade before you can use these features.

Online Recurring Donations (via Stripe)

How Members Set Up Recurring Gifts

Members set up recurring donations through your church's public giving page:

1. Visit your church's giving page.
2. Select a frequency: Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.
3. Enter the donation amount.
4. Select a fund (if multiple are available).
5. Provide their name and email (email is required for recurring gifts).
6. Enter payment details and submit.

The first payment is processed immediately. Subsequent payments are charged automatically by Stripe on the same schedule.

How Stripe Recurring Works

When a donor sets up a recurring gift, TimelyChurch creates the following in Stripe on your connected account:

1. Customer -- A Stripe customer record tied to the donor's email address. If the donor has given before, the existing customer record is reused.
2. Product -- A "Recurring Donation" product for your church.
3. Price -- A price object with the donation amount and billing interval (week, month, or year).
4. Subscription -- A Stripe subscription that manages the recurring charges.

The subscription starts with "incomplete" status. Once the donor completes the initial payment, it becomes active and Stripe handles all future billing automatically.

Frequency Options

Cancelling a Recurring Donation

A church administrator can cancel a donor's recurring gift directly inside TimelyChurch -- no need to log in to Stripe. You can do this from two places:

From the Giving page:

1. Go to Finances > Giving.
2. Find the donor's recurring donation in the list. (Use the frequency filter and choose Recurring to narrow the list.)
3. Open the row's action menu and click Cancel Recurring.
4. In the Cancel Recurring Donation confirmation, review the amount and donor, then click Yes, Cancel Subscription.

From the donor's profile:

1. Open the person's profile and go to the Giving tab.
2. Locate the recurring donation and click Cancel Recurring.
3. Confirm in the Cancel Recurring Donation dialog.

The Cancel Recurring action only appears on donations that are part of an active Stripe subscription. Cancelling stops all future charges immediately; the donor will not be billed again, and their past gifts are unaffected.

If you'd rather manage the subscription in Stripe (for example, to view payout history or handle a dispute), you can still do that:

1. Go to Finances > Online Giving Setup.
2. Click Stripe Dashboard.
3. Locate the subscription and cancel it.

A cancellation made directly in Stripe will reflect in TimelyChurch the next time Stripe webhooks sync the subscription status (typically within seconds).

What Happens When a Recurring Payment Fails

If a donor's card is declined on a future recurring charge, TimelyChurch automatically emails the donor to let them know. The email reassures them that Stripe will retry the charge over the following days and includes an Update Payment Method button that takes them to your church's member portal, where they can sign in to update their card or manage their recurring giving. You don't need to take any action for this notification to be sent.

Manually Recorded Recurring Donations

For donations that recur outside of Stripe (e.g., recurring bank transfers, standing orders, or regular in-person gifts), you can record them as recurring by setting the Frequency field to "Recurring" when creating the donation record.

This is a label-only designation -- it does not set up automatic billing. It helps you:

• Track which donations are part of an ongoing pattern.
• Filter and report on recurring vs. one-time giving.
• See recurring donation totals on the Giving dashboard.

Recurring Transactions in Accounting

The Recurring Transactions feature in the Accounting module is a separate, broader tool for scheduling any kind of recurring income or expense (not just donations). It is useful for:

• Expected recurring tithes or offerings.
• Monthly rent or utility payments.
• Quarterly insurance premiums.
• Annual subscriptions.

Creating a Recurring Transaction

1. Go to Finances > Accounting > Recurring Transactions.
2. Click Create Recurring Transaction.
3. Fill in:

1. Click Save.

Managing Recurring Transactions

From the Recurring Transactions page, you can:

• Post Now -- Immediately create a transaction and advance the next occurrence date.
• Skip -- Skip the current occurrence and advance to the next date.
• Pause/Resume -- Temporarily deactivate or reactivate a recurring transaction.
• Edit -- Update the amount, frequency, accounts, or other details.
• Delete -- Permanently remove the recurring transaction.

The page shows a count of active recurring transactions and how many are due this week.

How Next Occurrence Advances

When a recurring transaction is posted (manually or automatically), the next occurrence advances based on the frequency:

For monthly transactions with a specific day_of_month, the system respects month length. For example, a transaction set for the 31st will post on the 28th/29th in February.

If the next occurrence passes the end date, the recurring transaction is automatically deactivated.

Viewing Recurring Giving on the Dashboard

The Giving dashboard includes a Recurring stat card that shows the total amount of donations marked with "recurring" frequency for the selected date range. This includes both online recurring donations and manually recorded recurring entries.

You can filter the donation list by frequency to see only recurring donations by selecting "Recurring" in the frequency filter.