Recurring payment notifications are automated emails that infoodle sends to your donors when a recurring payment changes status. Donors are emailed when a payment succeeds, when a payment fails, and (for slower payment methods such as ACH and bank debit) when a payment is being processed and awaiting confirmation. You can edit the subject and body of each email so the wording matches your organisation.
Before you start
Role Permissions
To enable notifications on a payment method and to customise the email templates you need:
- Update System information
For an explanation of what each role permission does, see People role permissions.
Other prerequisites
- You will need a Stripe payment method already configured in infoodle, with the Receive updates from Stripe toggle Enabled. Stripe sends infoodle an update each time a payment status changes, and this runs the matching notification. See Add online payments for setup.
- You will need the email address field included on the form that takes the recurring payment, so infoodle knows where to send the notification. The notification goes to the address the donor entered when they set up the recurring payment. The form's email field must be the one flagged to receive form email responses. If no email field on the form is flagged for email responses, infoodle has no recipient to send to and the notification is not sent.
What triggers a notification
There are three notification events. Each one runs automatically when Stripe tells infoodle the matching payment status has changed.
| Event | What it means | When the donor is emailed |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Confirmed | The payment was captured successfully. | Sent on the first successful payment for a form entry. For a recurring plan that means the first instalment only, not every subsequent instalment. For a one-off payment it is sent every time. |
| Payment Failed | The payment was declined or could not be taken (for example, insufficient funds, expired card, incorrect details). | Sent every time a payment fails, including on a recurring plan where a later instalment has been declined. |
| Payment Processing | The payment has been started but is waiting for the bank to clear it. This applies to slower payment methods such as ACH, BECS or other Direct Debit methods routed through Stripe. | Sent when the first payment moves into a processing state. |
Notifications only run when infoodle receives payment-status updates from Stripe. If updates from Stripe have been turned off on the payment method, no notifications will be sent. You can check this on the payment method itself, where the Receive updates from Stripe badge shows Enabled or Disabled.
How notifications are configured
Notifications are turned on per payment method, and the email templates are set once for the whole site.
Step 1: Turn notifications on for a payment method
Click the administration cog in the top right hand corner, then go to Administration → Payment Methods.
- Open the Stripe payment method you want to send notifications from. If you have not added one yet, click Add and choose Integrate a payment gateway, then Stripe.
- Tick Enable this payment method to email updates to donors. When this is on, infoodle will send the Payment Confirmed, Payment Failed and Payment Processing emails as the underlying payments move through Stripe.
- Click Save.
The Receive updates from Stripe option on the same screen must also be enabled for notifications to work. Without it, infoodle does not know when a payment has succeeded or failed and has nothing to send a notification for.
Step 2: Customise the email templates
The email templates are shared across all your Stripe payment methods. You edit them once.
- From Administration → Payment Methods, click Customise Stripe Email Notifications in the top right of the payment methods table.
- The screen has three tabs: Payment Failed, Payment Processing and Payment Confirmed. Open the tab for the email you want to edit.
- To change the subject line, click Click to Edit next to the subject and type your replacement. Click Save.
- To change the body, click anywhere in the dashed-bordered email preview where it says Click to edit. A rich-text editor opens. Make your changes and click Save Changes.
- Switch tabs to edit the Payment Processing and Payment Confirmed templates the same way.
## What is in the notification email
What is in the notification email
Each email uses the same layout: your site logo, a coloured status panel (red for failed, yellow for processing, green for confirmed), a personalised greeting, the amount, the payment date, and the body text you set in the template.
The three tags shown in light blue in the preview are placeholders that infoodle fills in for each donor:
- name: the donor's first name from the form entry.
- amount: the payment amount from the form entry.
- payment_date: the date the payment was attempted, in your site's local time.
The email is sent from the address configured for the form's email responses, or from your site's default From address if the form does not have one set.
Failed payments and retries
When a recurring payment fails, the donor receives the Payment Failed email and the failure is recorded against the recurring plan in infoodle.
Whether the same payment is automatically retried depends on Stripe, not infoodle. Stripe has its own retry settings (commonly called Smart Retries) that you configure in the Stripe dashboard. infoodle will receive a fresh notification from Stripe each time a retry succeeds or fails, and the matching email will be sent.
If you want to take the payment manually, you can do so from Finance → Recurring Income.
- Click or hover on Finance on the main menu bar on the left, then click Recurring Income.
- Find the donor's pledge and click it to open its instalment history.
- Click Take payment now on the row for the instalment you want to charge.
Taking a payment manually from Recurring Income requires the Manage, Read and report on transactions role permission, in addition to the Update System information permission listed at the top of this article.
Talk to the donor before retrying a failed payment so they know to expect the charge and have a chance to update their card details first if needed. For instructions, see Update Stripe payment information.
Other gateways
The notification system described above is for Stripe. Other gateways infoodle integrates with handle status updates differently:
- GoCardless: mandate status changes (cancelled, suspended, scheme change) generate a plain-text notification to the admin email address recorded on the payment method, not to the donor. The donor-facing template editor does not apply to GoCardless.
- Ezidebit: the recurring schedule and dishonour handling are managed in Ezidebit. Notifications back to your team flow through the payment method's admin email address.
- Other gateways (Flo2Cash, Windcave, eWay, Braintree, POLi): one-off card payments only or as configured. They do not use the donor-facing template editor.
For each of those gateways, the email address recorded on the payment method is where the admin notifications go. You can edit it by opening the payment method and updating the Email address to send notifications field.
Common questions
Why did the donor not get a Payment Confirmed email for their second instalment?
The Payment Confirmed email is only sent on the first successful payment of a recurring plan. Subsequent instalments do not generate a confirmed email, to avoid filling the donor's inbox with monthly receipts. Payment Failed emails still send every time a payment fails.
The donor did not receive an email at all. What should I check?
Check three things in this order. First, confirm Enable this payment method to email updates to donors is ticked on the Stripe payment method. Second, confirm Receive updates from Stripe is Enabled on the same screen. Third, check that the form used to take the payment has an email field, since the email is sent to the address the donor entered there.
Can I disable just one of the three notifications?
The on or off switch is per payment method and applies to all three notifications together. The templates can each be edited independently, but they cannot be switched off individually.
How can I test the email templates without making a real payment?
The template editor shows a live preview of each email as you edit it, with the placeholders filled in by sample data, so you can check the wording and layout there. If you want an end-to-end test of the delivery itself, take a small live payment through a Stripe payment method that is configured in test mode, or coordinate with infoodle Support.
Where can I see a history of notifications that were sent?
Each notification is logged in infoodle's internal records and against the form entry it relates to. If you need to confirm whether a specific email went out, contact infoodle Support with the donor's name and the payment date.
Next steps
Once the notifications are working, you can keep an eye on the underlying recurring payments from Finance → Recurring Income, and tune the wording of the three templates as you see how donors respond to them.