What is Automated Recurring Billing (ARB)?

Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) is a feature that allows businesses to schedule recurring billing for their customers. This is particularly useful for transactions such as subscriptions or installment payments. By automating these processes, ARB removes the need for manual payment submission and reduces the risk of missed or late payments.

Creating a New ARB Subscription

Creating an Automated Recurring Billing subscription automatically creates a profile in Customer Information Manager as long as the feature is active. Subscriptions with a Start Date of either the 30th or 31st, and have a monthly subscription interval, will be processed on the last day of the month for those months with less than 30 or 31 days

There are four methods to create a new ARB subscription:

Using ARB in the Authorize.net Merchant Interface

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Be on or switched into the New Merchant Interface (2.0)
3. Click Payments in the left navigation.
4. Select Subscriptions.
5. Click Create a New ARB Subscription at the top right hand corner.
6. Fill in the subscription, payment and shipping information as needed.
7. Click Save to create the subscription.

Once a subscription is created, you cannot edit the subscription start, how often it repeats, or the trial period. Create a new subscription if you need to change the subscription start, trial period, and how often it repeats. 

Integrating and using the Recurring Billing API

For information on using ARB API, see: Developer Center - Recurring Billing API Guide.

What is the schedule for ARB Transactions?

Unlike standard transactions, Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) transactions are not authorized immediately. Once each scheduled transaction in a subscription has been submitted, which is usually at 08:30 GMT/12:30 AM PST for ARB transactions, the merchant will receive an email from the payment gateway indicating the transaction status. They will settle on the following transaction cut-off time set in the Merchant Interface. If the subscription start date is set to the current day, the first transaction in that subscription is processed the following day.

Understanding Trial Periods

A trial period is a specified time at the start of a subscription during which a customer is billed a special trial amount. After the trial period, the regular amount is billed for the remaining subscription occurrences. This amount is indicated in the Payment/Authorization Information section.

Setting Up Subscriptions with Trial Periods

For subscriptions that include trial periods, input the following:

• Trial Period Amount: The special billing amount for the trial period.
• Trial Period Cycles: The number of billing occurrences for which the trial amount should be billed. For instance, for a three-month trial period on a 12-month subscription billed monthly, enter "3". Include the number of trial period billing occurrences in the "Ends After" field.

Note: You can only edit trial period information if the subscription hasn't started or is still within the trial period.

Subscription Search and Transactions

The manage subscriptions page allows you to search the subscriptions and transactions within your account, along with creating subscriptions.

To search for subscriptions or transactions, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Be on or switched into the New Merchant Interface (2.0)
3. Click Payments in the left navigation.
4. Select Subscriptions.

Quick Search - Subscriptions

Filters

Quick Filters - Subscriptions

Available Search Filters

Viewing and Editing ARB Subscriptions

After creating an ARB subscription, you can view and edit the subscription properties. To edit an active subscription, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Be on or switched into the New Merchant Interface (2.0)
3. Click Payments in the left navigation.
4. Select Subscriptions.
5. On Customer subscriptions enter and apply the search criteria.
6. Click the Subscription ID in the far left column.
7. On the Subscription Detail page, click the Edit Subscription link.
   1. Fields that can be edited:
      1. Amount
      2. Subscription Name
      3. Subscription End and Occurrences
      4. Payment Method - Click the pencil icon to edit and a side window will open to edit.
         1. If you want to test the card to ensure that the card is valid, check Perform $0.00 credit card authorization upon saving customer.
      5. Shipping Address - Click the pencil icon to edit and a side window will open to edit.
8. Modify the appropriate fields. The Credit Card Number, Expiration Date, or ABA Routing Number, and Bank Account Number fields will be populated with masked numbers. When modifying these fields, enter the new number in full.
9. Click Save to complete any changes.

When you choose to edit an Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) subscription, not all fields can be modified. The following fields (by status) cannot be modified. However, all other fields can be modified in a Active subscription:

• Active
  • Payment Method (for example, Credit Card OR eCheck)*
  • Subscription Interval
  • Start Date
  • Trial Period (If the trial period has completed)
• Suspended
  • Payment Method (for example, Credit Card OR eCheck)*
  • Subscription Interval
  • Trial Period (If the trial period has completed)
• Cancelled
  • Nothing in this status can be modified
• Expired
  • Nothing in this status can be modified
• Terminated
  • Nothing in this status can be modified

* You may update payment information (for example, Credit Card Number, Expiration Date, etc.) within a specified payment method. If you need to change the payment method, cancel the current subscription and create a new one with the updated payment method.

How do I cancel an individual Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) subscription?

To cancel an active subscription, follow these steps:

WARNING: Once a subscription is canceled, it cannot be reactivated. Use this function only if you need to permanently cancel a subscription from processing on the gateway.

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Be on or switched into the New Merchant Interface (2.0)
3. Click Payments in the left navigation.
4. Select Subscriptions.
5. On Customer subscriptions enter and apply the search criteria.
6. Click the Subscription ID in the far left column.
7. From the Subscription page, click the Cancel link in the top right corner of the page. A confirmation dialogue box appears.
8. Click Cancel Subscription to continue the cancellation of the subscription, or click Nevermind if you want to cancel the action.

Note: ARB Subscriptions are archived after 2 years once cancelled.

Reactivate a Suspended Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) Subscription

To reactivate a suspended subscription, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Be on or switched into the New Merchant Interface (2.0)
3. Click Payments in the left navigation.
4. Select Subscriptions.
5. On Customer subscriptions enter and apply the search criteria.
6. Click the Subscription ID in the far left column.
7. On the Subscription Detail page, click the Edit Subscription link.
8. Enter any necessary modifications.
9. Click Reactivate Subscription at the bottom of the page.

Note: Subscriptions with a status of Canceled, Terminated or Expired cannot be reactivated.

Credit card subscriptions may be suspended due to authorization or processing errors, as well as rejections from the Address Verification Service (AVS) or Card Code Verification (CCV).

Transactions through eCheck are processed on a separate network from credit cards and are not authorized or declined in real time. Therefore, eCheck subscriptions are not typically suspended or terminated by the payment gateway. It is strongly recommended that you regularly monitor your eCheck subscriptions for returns or change notices to resolve any processing issues and maintain your eCheck subscriptions successfully.

Suspended subscriptions must be reactivated before the next scheduled transaction. If not, the subscription will be terminated unless you have the Automatic Retry feature enabled in your account. In this case, the subscription will stay suspended until it is reactivated. For more information, please see the Automatic Retry Recurring Billing Feature FAQ.

What are the possible subscription statuses?

A subscription status reveals the processing state of an ARB subscription. The possible statuses include:

• Active: The subscription is being processed successfully according to schedule.
• Suspended: An active subscription is often suspended if the first payment in the subscription is declined, rejected or receives an error. If a subscription is edited, for example, payment shipping information is changed, it will be suspended when the first transaction after the edit is declined, rejected, or receives an error response. Suspended subscriptions must be reactivated before the next scheduled payment, otherwise, the subscription will be terminated. If Automatic Retry is enabled, the subscription will be suspended for every decline or error received and is not terminated after a period of time. It will remain indefinitely suspended until the merchant manually reactivates or cancels the subscription.
• Terminated: Suspended subscriptions are terminated when no action is taken to reactivate the subscription. Terminated subscriptions cannot be reactivated.
• Canceled: Subscriptions that have been canceled through the Merchant Interface. Canceled subscriptions cannot be reactivated.
• Expired: The subscription was successfully completed according to schedule. Expired subscriptions cannot be reactivated.

Credit card subscriptions can be suspended due to authorization or processing errors, as well as rejections from the Address Verification Service (AVS) or Card Code Verification (CCV). If a subscription encounters internal errors, the recurring transactions will be retried until they are successfully processed.

Transactions through eCheck are processed on a separate network from credit cards and are not authorized or declined in real time. Therefore, eCheck subscriptions are not typically suspended or terminated. It is strongly recommended that you regularly monitor your eCheck subscriptions for returns or change notices to resolve any processing issues and maintain your eCheck subscriptions successfully.

CIM Profile Deletion Warning

Once a Profile (including Payment or Shipping profiles) is deleted the information it contained can no longer be retrieved. Please pay special attention to profiles marked as linked to a subscription or invoice as deleting these profiles will prevent further usage of them through Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) or Invoicing; deletion is permanent.

• For ARB this includes any further runs with the previous customer card data causing subscriptions to fail.
  • You can identify these profiles by the Description: Profile created by Subscription: [Subscription ID]
• For Invoicing this includes if any invoices have not been paid or fully paid, once the profile is delete it will prevent that invoice from being completed and a new one will need to be created for any remaining payment.
  • You can identify these profiles by the Description: ANET customer profile for Invoicing

Email Notifications

You can choose to receive Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) e-mail notifications in the Merchant Interface:

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Be on or switched into the New Merchant Interface (2.0)
3. Click on My Profile at the top right corner or under Account -> My Profile
4. Click on Notification Settings.
5. Check the boxes for the email notifications you wish to receive.
6. Click Save changes.

The emails available include:

• Daily Transaction Summary - A daily summary of transactions associated with your ARB subscriptions. This e-mail type includes a CSV file each for successful and failed transactions.
• Failed Transaction Notice - Notification of failed transactions for your ARB subscriptions.
• Subscription Due for Expiration - Notification of upcoming subscription expirations.
• Credit Card Expiration - Notification of upcoming credit card expirations for ARB subscriptions.
• Subscription Suspension - Notification of suspended subscriptions for reasons of transaction decline, rejection, or error.
• Subscription Expiration - Notification of subscriptions that have expired.
• Subscription Termination - Notification of subscriptions terminated by the payment gateway.

Discontinue Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) Service

Only an Account Owner can disable this feature. Once ARB is discontinued, all subscriptions in an Active and Suspended status are permanently placed in a Canceled status. The system will cease generating new transactions for all existing subscriptions. If you decide to re-enable the service in the future, you will have to create new subscriptions.

To discontinue ARB:

Only Account Owner users maybe cancel or disable this service, once the service is disabled billing will stop.

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Be on or switched into the New Merchant Interface (2.0)
3. Click Marketplace on the left navigation.
4. Click My Products.
5. Click Discontinue under Automated Recurring Billing (ARB). A confirmation dialogue box appears.
6. Click Discontinue to discontinue the service, or click Nevermind if you want to cancel the action.

To re-enable ARB:

Only Account Owner users maybe sign up for and enable this service.

1. Sign in to the Merchant Interface.
2. Be on or switched into the New Merchant Interface (2.0)
3. Click Marketplace on the left navigation.
4. Click Available Products.
5. Click Enable ARB.
6. Review and agree to terms and fees.

Developer and Integration Resources:

• Developer Documentation
• API Reference Guide

Using Recurring Billing FAQs

• How can I run a payment again under the same subscription?
  • If a Recurring Billing subscription is suspended past the next scheduled interval payment date and you want to charge for the missed payment during the suspension period, you have two options. You can edit the amount of the next scheduled subscription. Alternatively, if you have the Customer Information Manager (CIM) enabled, you can use the associated CIM payment profile to process the transaction. Please note that performing any of these actions will not change the total occurrences scheduled to run on the subscription. Therefore, you may need to edit the total number of scheduled occurrences if you process a one-time payment using CIM or if you edit the next scheduled payment amount.
• Can the schedule of a subscription be adjusted or changed?
  • The schedule and internal can be adjusted at the subscription creation or when if a subscription has been suspend because of an issue and reactivating the subscription you will have the option to edit additional information.
• Can a subscription be paused, place on hold or manually suspended?
  • Currently there is no option or way to pause or manually suspend a subscription. To stop the subscription it would have to be cancelled.
• How can I export subscription?
  • Please contact Authorize.net Client Services to go over information and options related to data export.