Autopay for balances
When your client pays their deposit, they can opt in to autopay. BookNox then saves their card with Stripe and charges each remaining payment in the agreement when it comes due, so the balance collects without anyone chasing it.
How clients opt in
The autopay checkbox appears beside the deposit button whenever a balance remains after the deposit and the proposal has a service date. The box is optional and unchecked by default, and it reads: If I pay by card, securely save it and automatically charge the remaining payments in my agreement when they come due. I can pay each one myself from this page instead if my card cannot be charged.
Autopay works with cards only. If the client ticks the box but pays the deposit by bank account, nothing is saved and the schedule uses payment links instead. Web design proposals never offer autopay, because their milestones are collected when you request them.
Sources, read October 22, 2026: Stripe: saving a card for later charges needs the customer's explicit consent.
When the card is charged
Each charge runs on the due date from the signed contract, for the exact amount the document states, during BookNox's daily collection run. Before that date the client still gets the usual reminder emails, which include a link to pay early if they prefer; a payment made early is simply not charged again. A payment that is still open on its due date is charged to the saved card.
What happens if a charge is declined?
BookNox makes at most two attempts per payment. If the card is declined on the due date, BookNox retries once three days later. If that fails too, your client automatically gets a secure link to pay that payment themselves and you get a notice, and then the normal reminders continue until it is paid.
An outage is never treated as a decline. If Stripe or the network fails before the card is even checked, the client is not told their card failed, no attempt is used up, and BookNox tries again on a later run.
Payments autopay covers
Autopay covers every remaining payment that has a due date: the balance on a standard booking, wedding milestones two through four, each installment in a plan, and each later month of a monthly engagement that has a service date. Whatever the schedule in the signed contract says is due, on the day it says, is what the saved card pays.
Does BookNox store the card?
No. The card is saved by Stripe on your connected Stripe account, and BookNox keeps only Stripe's reference to it, never the card number. Charges are made on your account, the same way the deposit was.
Sources, read October 22, 2026: Stripe: a direct charge appears on the connected account, not the platform.
No setup needed
There is nothing to switch on. The autopay box is offered automatically on every proposal that qualifies, and charges run as long as your subscription is active. The proposal page also keeps a Pay button for the next open payment, so a client on autopay can still pay ahead of schedule if they prefer.
Where the money goes
Autopay charges land in your own Stripe account and then your bank, exactly like the deposit. BookNox never holds the money and takes no cut. The client gets a receipt for every charge, you get an email when each payment clears, and paid payments show on your Bookings page. If QuickBooks is connected, each charge posts as its own sales receipt.
An example booking
Take a $3,820 photography booking with a 30% deposit. The client pays the $1,146 deposit by card and ticks the autopay box. Fourteen days before the balance is due, which is 7 days before the event, they get the usual payment link email for the $2,674 balance, then reminders 7 days and 1 day before. If they have not paid by the due date, the saved card is charged $2,674 that day and both of you get a receipt or notice.
Expired cards
An expired or cancelled card is declined like any other, so the usual path applies: one retry three days later, then a secure payment link to the client and a notice to you. The client pays that payment from the link with a new card, and reminders continue until it is paid.
Sources, read October 22, 2026: Stripe decline codes: an expired card is declined.
Double charges
BookNox guards against it. Before charging, BookNox checks whether the payment is already paid, settling, or in progress another way, and skips the charge if so. If a client does end up paying the same amount twice, for example by paying the link in the same moment the card is charged, BookNox refunds the extra automatically and tells you both.
Does autopay change my contract?
No. Autopay changes how a payment is collected, not what is owed or when. The amounts and due dates still come from the signed contract, and moving a due date later or waiving a payment from your Bookings page applies to autopay payments too. A waived payment is never charged.
When autopay stops
Autopay stops on its own when the schedule is paid. Charges also stop when a payment's collection window closes, the day after the event for a payment due on or before it, and they pause while your own subscription is inactive, resuming when you subscribe again.