Auto-charge vs manual billing on a subscription
Each subscription bills one of three ways, chosen in the Payment section of its settings. Automatic charges a saved payment method on file every billing period - "Automatically charge a payment method on file" - so the customer doesn't have to do anything.
When you pick it, you select which of the customer's cards or bank accounts to charge, and you can add a new payment method right there. If the type is automatic but no payment method is selected, the subscription can't be saved.
Manual instead emails the invoice and a PDF copy to the customer each period for them to pay themselves, and lets you write a custom message that goes out with it. The automatic option is only offered when your business has a verified Stripe connection with a payment provider set up - auto-charging literally needs Stripe to move the money.
If your business doesn't have that (for example, in a region Stripe doesn't serve), the automatic choice isn't shown at all: you choose between emailing the invoice and printing and mailing it.
Print and mail the invoice
Some customers don't use email. Pick "Create task to print and mail invoice to customer" and Essential sends nothing. Each billing period it still creates the invoice as usual, and it adds a task to the Invoices › Print and Mail folder on the Tasks page so your team knows an invoice is waiting to be printed and posted. Open the task, use Open Invoice to Print to print or download the invoice from its page, put it in the mail, and mark the task complete.
To print several waiting invoices in one job, select them in Tasks → Invoices → Print and Mail and click Print selected (N). See Print several invoices together.
A print-and-mail subscription needs no email recipient, so the Contact section is hidden. The printed invoice still carries the online payment link, so the customer can pay online or by check as usual. Switching an existing subscription to print and mail stops future emails; invoices already emailed are unaffected.
So subscriptions work any of these ways, but unattended auto-charge specifically depends on a verified Stripe connection.
Where to find it: On the subscription page, open the settings panel below the invoice template and find the Payment section, where you choose between automatic charging, emailing the invoice to pay manually, and printing and mailing it.
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