Overview
The Payment Schedule feature in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance enables businesses to define when, how, and in what structure payments are expected for a given sales or purchase transaction. It helps establish clear and enforceable payment expectations between merchants and customers.
How Payment Schedules Work
A Payment Schedule breaks down a total invoice amount into instalments based on predefined rules such as:
- Number of payments
- Time intervals between payments
- Fixed or percentage-based allocation
This structure can be used to facilitate flexible payment terms, especially in scenarios where full payment upfront is not feasible.
Bluefort TAPP Finance integrates with the Payment Schedule functionality to enhance payment flexibility in response to GoCardless Direct Debit failures.
- When a GoCardless Direct Debit payment fails up to 4 times (initial + 3 retries), or is cancelled by the customer:
- The system triggers a prompt or alert to the merchant.
- The merchant can then offer the customer the ability to split the remaining balance of the invoice into a custom Payment Schedule.
Functional Flow
- Initial Payment Attempt – The customer’s invoice is processed via GoCardless Direct Debit.
- Retries (if needed) – If the initial attempt fails, GoCardless retries the transaction up to 3 more times.
- Failure Handling Triggered – If the final retry fails or the payment is cancelled, the system enables installment scheduling.
- Customer Pays in Instalments
- The customer makes payment as per the new schedule.
- Each instalment is tracked and reconciled within Dynamics 365 Finance.
Benefits
- Improves customer retention by offering payment flexibility.
- Reduces time spent manually handling payment failures.
- Automates integration between Direct Debit logic and Accounts Receivable – Payment Schedules.
- Enhances cash flow predictability despite payment disruptions.