Enrollsy supports multiple Payment Plan types that can be added to any Enrollment Period. Once a Payment Plan is created, any Program or Class within that Enrollment Period can use it. This article explains what Payment Plans are, the three types available, and how to add them to an Enrollment Period.
What is a Payment Plan?
A Payment Plan is a set of payment events — specific dates and times when a charge is triggered. When you create a Payment Plan, you define the name, payment dates, payment settings, and invoice notification preferences. Payment Plans themselves do not have a price; the price is set on the Program or Class.
When you assign a Payment Plan to a Program or Class, Enrollsy divides the total cost you've set across the payment dates defined in the plan.
When adding a Payment Plan directly to an individual account (rather than through a Program or Class), no price is automatically attached. Instead, the plan establishes the due dates, and you manually enter the amount owed for each date.
Enrollsy offers three Payment Plan types: Scheduled, Installment, and Subscription. Because Payment Plans are tied to specific dates and times, they are always created inside an Enrollment Period.
⚠️ Important Information about Payment Plans
Keep the following in mind before creating or modifying Payment Plans:
Re-enrolling into a new Program or Class invalidates the original Payment Plan. Payment Plans are attached to a specific Program or Class. If an Enrollee is moved to a different Program or Class, the original Payment Plan becomes invalid and must be recreated.
Deactivating an enrollment removes its Payment Plan. If an Enrollee is moved to another Program and their previous enrollment is deactivated, any Payment Plan tied to that enrollment will be removed.
Changing pricing type on a Program can cause enrollees to lose their Payment Plan. Be careful when switching a Program from program-level pricing to class-level pricing (or vice versa) — current enrollees may lose their existing Payment Plan.
Admins must manually add invoices and Payment Plans after moving an enrollee. After moving an enrollee to a new Program or Class, you will need to create an Invoice and/or add an individual Payment Plan to cover any outstanding fees.
Duplicating an Enrollment Period does not duplicate its Payment Plans. When you duplicate an Enrollment Period, the Payment Plans inside it are not copied and must be recreated.
One-time full charges may prevent the Payment Plan from applying. If a student has already been billed for the full cost of a class in a single transaction, the Payment Plan may not apply correctly.
Scheduled Payment Plan
A Scheduled Payment Plan is best for Programs or Classes where the total cost needs to be divided into payments on specific calendar dates. You choose both the amounts and the dates, making this plan highly flexible. If someone enrolls after a payment date has already passed, they will not be charged for that missed payment.
Scheduled Payment Plans support optional proration. If proration is enabled and a customer enrolls after the first payment date, Enrollsy will calculate the prorated amount owed between their start date and the next scheduled payment. Learn more about how Proration works.
You can create Scheduled Payment Plans with the following frequencies: Weekly, Weekly every 2–6 weeks, Monthly, Monthly every 2–6 months, or Annually.
You can also set different amounts for individual payment dates rather than splitting the total into equal payments — making this plan ideal for tuition billing.
Examples of a Scheduled Payment Plan
Examples of a Scheduled Payment Plan
Example 1: A school offers three tuition options for a Program: $1,900 paid in full (5% discount), $2,000 paid monthly, or $1,960 paid in two installments (2% discount). Since pay-in-full is the default, you would create two additional Scheduled Payment Plans:
Monthly Payment Plan — 10 equal monthly payments of $200 (August–May)
Semester Payment Plan — 2 payments of $980, one at the start of each semester
Example 2: A private tennis instructor charges per lesson and teaches Monday–Saturday. To bill by the number of Mondays in each month, create a Payment Plan called "Mondays – Private Lessons" and add 12 payment events (one per month), with amounts based on how many Mondays fall in each month.
TIP: Count the number of Mondays (or relevant weekdays) in each month before creating the plan, so you know the correct amounts to enter.
Installment Payment Plan
An Installment Payment Plan is best for Programs or Classes where the total cost needs to be paid in a set number of equal payments, starting from the date of enrollment. This plan is especially useful when enrollees sign up at different times throughout a session, since each person's payment schedule starts on their own enrollment date rather than a fixed calendar date.
There are two options when setting up an Installment Payment Plan:
Option 1: Starting From Enrollment A set number of payments are made at fixed intervals (weekly, monthly, etc.) starting from the enrollment date. For example, a $2,000 program could require 4 monthly payments of $500, beginning one month after enrollment.
Option 2: Until Fully Paid A dynamic number of payments are made at fixed intervals based on an end date. Payments continue until the balance is fully paid. For example, a $2,000 program with monthly payments due by July 1st would work as follows:
Enrolled on or before January 15th → 7 equal payments of $285.71
Enrolled after January 15th but before February 15th → 6 equal payments of $333.33
Enrolled after February 15th but before March 15th → 5 equal payments of $500.00
And so on...
How is "day one" calculated? "Day one" for installment payment intervals is the day after the enrollee's enrollment date. For example, if someone enrolls on March 5th, day one is March 6th, and the first monthly payment would fall on April 6th.
Subscription Payment Plan
A Subscription Payment Plan is best for Programs or Classes where the charge repeats on an ongoing basis from the enrollment date. Unlike Scheduled or Installment plans, this plan is open-ended — payments continue until the subscription is canceled.
If you choose Monthly or Weekly as the frequency, you can set when the first payment occurs:
Weekly: 1 week after enrollment, OR on a specific day of the week
Monthly: 1 month after enrollment, OR on a specific date of the month
How proration works on Subscription Plans: If you select the "on a specific day" option, Enrollsy will prorate the first payment to cover the period between the enrollment date and the first scheduled billing date.
NOTE: Within the Subscription model, Enrollees are not able to select their own start date. The program begins the payment cycle based on the settings you configure.
Example: If you use Enrollsy to manage software or service subscriptions, you can start billing one week after enrollment or on a specific day (e.g., the next Monday). Enrollsy will then charge the subscriber automatically on that recurring schedule.
Which Plan Type Should I Use?
Now that you've reviewed each plan type, use the table below to find the best fit for your situation.
| Scheduled | Installment | Subscription |
Best for | Programs/Classes with set tuition billing on fixed calendar dates | Programs/Classes where enrollees join at different times and need a personal payment schedule | Ongoing services or recurring memberships with no defined end date |
Payments start | On dates you choose | From each enrollee's enrollment date | From each enrollee's enrollment date |
Number of payments | Fixed — you define each date | Fixed (Starting From Enrollment) or Dynamic (Until Fully Paid) | Open-ended — repeats until canceled |
Payment amounts | You set each amount (can vary per date) | Equal payments auto-calculated from total price | Repeating flat amount |
Proration available? | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ✅ Yes (when billing on a specific day) |
Enrollee misses a past payment date? | They are not charged for it | N/A — schedule is based on their enrollment date | N/A — schedule is based on their enrollment date |
Pricing tied to | Program or Class total | Program or Class total | Program or Class flat recurring rate |
Common use cases | School tuition, semester fees, per-lesson billing | Camps, workshops, courses with rolling enrollment | Software subscriptions, memberships, ongoing services |
How to Add Payment Plans to an Enrollment Period
Once you've created your Payment Plans, follow these steps to add one or more to an Enrollment Period.
Step 1 - Open Payment Plan Manager
Go to either the Classes page or the Programs page. Expand the Enrollment Periods panel on the left side by clicking the down arrow. Click the gear icon (⚙) to open the Enrollment Period settings, then click the money/clipboard icon to open the Payment Plan Manager. Click +New to create a new Payment Plan.
Step 2 - Choose a Payment Plan Type
Select one of the following plan types:
Schedule — payments scheduled on specific calendar dates
Installments — a set or dynamic number of payments until the balance is paid in full
Subscription — recurring payments that repeat from the enrollment date
Step 3 - Attach the Payment Plan to Program(s)
After creating the plan, you must attach it to the Program(s) in the Enrollment Period. Follow these steps:
Click Add/Remove Payment Plan
Select the appropriate Payment Plan under the correct tab (Scheduled, Installments, or Subscription)
After adding the plan, verify that the amounts are correct.
