What recurring services are
Periodic billing contracts (security, membership, rent) that issue charges on their own, without being a loan.
A recurring service is a contract that charges a client the same amount every period, indefinitely: monthly security, a membership, a rental, a maintenance fee, a retainer. Prestafolio issues the charge for you every period and you simply record the payment when the client pays.
When to use a service and when a loan
They are not the same, and picking the wrong one complicates everything else.
| Recurring service | Loan |
|---|---|---|
What it is for | Billing something periodic with no defined end | Lending capital and recovering it |
Does it end? | No. It runs until you pause or cancel it | Yes: when it is paid off |
What it produces | One charge per period, always the same amount | A schedule of principal + interest instalments |
Interest | None | Yes |
Arrears | Yes, if you configure them (see Arrears on services) | Yes |
Does creating it move cash? | No. Issuing a charge is not money, only what the client owes you | Yes: the disbursement leaves the cash drawer |
Simple rule: if you are going to hand over money and want it back with interest, that is a loan. If you are going to provide a service and bill it month after month, that is a recurring service.
The three pieces
- The contract, the agreement: client, service name, amount, how often it is billed and how many grace days it has before arrears start running.
- The charge, what the contract issues every period. It is what the client owes you for that month (or that week). It is issued automatically.
- The collection, when the client pays. It is the only thing that moves money: it goes into the cash drawer and is recorded as income.
Charges are issued automatically
When you create the contract, charge #1 is issued immediately, due on the start date you chose. From then on, every time a period elapses the system issues the next charge automatically: it does so when you open the service list or detail, and also once a day on its own, even if nobody opens the app.
Available frequencies:
Frequency | How often a charge is issued |
|---|---|
Daily | Every day |
Weekly | Every 7 days |
Biweekly | Every 15 days |
Monthly | Every calendar month |
Unlike loans, a service does not skip weekends: if the charge falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it is issued all the same.
Contract statuses
Status | What it means |
|---|---|
Active | Issues charges and accrues arrears. This is the normal state |
Paused | Stops issuing new charges. The ones already issued stay alive and collectable. It can be resumed |
Canceled | Terminal: it issues nothing else and cannot be revived. Any charges still open are voided |
A service never "pays off" like a loan: it stays alive until you pause or cancel it. See Pausing, resuming and cancelling.
Charge statuses
Status | What it means |
|---|---|
Pending | Issued, with nothing collected yet |
Partial | The client paid something, but a balance remains |
Paid | The charge amount has been fully covered |
Void | Voided when the contract was cancelled. No longer collectable |
Who can do what
Services have their own permissions. The account owner can do everything; an agent must be granted each permission explicitly.
Permission | Allows |
|---|---|
| View services and their charges |
| Create and edit contracts |
| Record a collection and reverse it |
| Pause, resume and cancel |
| Waive arrears when collecting |
| Accept an incomplete payment |
A collection agent only sees the services assigned to them. And assigning an agent to a service is exclusive to the account owner.
What the system tells you on its own
Once a day, Prestafolio reviews your contracts and notifies you, without moving money:
- A reminder to the client by email, one day before the next charge (if the client has an email on file).
- An arrears notice when a charge has passed its grace period: the client gets an email and you see it in the app. At most one notice per contract per day, even if it has several overdue charges.
That process never collects or deducts anything: it only notifies. Money only moves when you record the collection.
Services are unlimited
All three plans (Basic, Gold and Premium) include the services module with unlimited contracts. See Plans and billing.