QuickBooks recurring payments are the ways QuickBooks Online collects money from the same customer again and again, not just bills them. Intuit's help pages describe four: a customer paying each recurring invoice online, Autopay on recurring invoices, recurring sales receipts that charge a stored card or bank account, and a feature named Recurring Payments.
Intuit ties all four to QuickBooks Payments, its processing service, and each handles permission, limits and failures differently. This guide describes them from Intuit's pages as opened in October 2026. It doesn't recommend one.
Quick answer: To collect repeatedly in QuickBooks Online you need QuickBooks Payments plus one of four set-ups: online payment on each recurring invoice, Autopay that the customer enrolls in, a recurring sales receipt backed by a signed authorization, or a Recurring Payments plan the customer accepts by email. Intuit's rates page lists 2.99% for cards on invoices and recurring payments and 1% for ACH (rates dated September 18, 2026).
Note: Billing Model is not affiliated with Intuit. Menus, limits and rates change, so confirm each one in Intuit's help and on its pricing page before relying on it.
How QuickBooks recurring payments differ from recurring invoices
A recurring invoice is a bill that repeats. It asks for money and waits. The guide to the QuickBooks recurring invoice covers the template that produces it.
A recurring payment moves money on a schedule, so it needs the customer's permission first. The table shows where that permission comes from in each method, as Intuit's pages describe them.
| Method | Who enters the payment details | How the customer agrees | Limit Intuit states |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online payment on each recurring invoice | Customer, every time | Pays each invoice | None stated |
| Autopay on a recurring invoice | Customer, once | Enrolls from the invoice email with an Intuit account | Invoices of $5,000 and below, not daily |
| Recurring sales receipt | You | Signs an authorization form you keep | None stated |
| Recurring Payments (limited availability) | Customer, once | Accepts a consent request by email | Consent expires if not accepted in time |
Autopay on recurring invoices
Autopay lets a customer agree once to have each new invoice from a recurring template paid automatically. Intuit's article on setting up Autopay for recurring invoices (updated August 3, 2026) sets these conditions:
- QuickBooks Payments is required, and the recurring invoice has to be pay-enabled.
- Autopay is available for invoices that total $5,000 and below.
- It isn't available for recurring invoices with a daily interval.
- It covers the full invoice amount only. If the customer edits the amount, the option disappears.
- The customer needs an Intuit account.
Your part is the template: create a recurring invoice, set how often it recurs, enter the start and end dates and save. The customer's part is in the invoice email. They open the invoice, select Set up autopay to enroll, sign in, confirm the Autopay checkbox, the frequency and the start date, and select Autopay to pay the current invoice. A confirmation email follows.
Later payments are taken 3 days before the invoice due date. If the due date is less than 3 days away, payment is immediate, and an invoice due on receipt is paid as soon as the template creates it.
Editing the template can undo the enrollment. Intuit lists six changes that cancel Autopay: the total, how often it recurs, the terms, the payment options, the email address and the customer's name. The customer then gets a cancellation email.
To stop it yourself, the article says to pause or delete the template under Settings, Lists, Recurring Transactions. The customer can select Manage payment in the confirmation email, sign in and select Cancel autopay. Individual payments can't be canceled.
Intuit's pages don't agree on your side of this. Its Recurring Payments overview, cited below, says the customer can cancel Autopay and you can't. Read together, the customer ends the enrollment, and pausing or deleting the template is the route the Autopay article gives you.
Recurring sales receipts and the authorization forms
A recurring sales receipt charges payment details that you enter and store, so the paperwork is yours. Intuit's article on setting up a recurring sales receipt (updated August 3, 2026) gives these steps:
- Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Recurring transactions, and select New.
- Choose Sales Receipt as the transaction type.
- Enter a template name and set the type to Scheduled.
- Select the customer and verify the email. Automatically send emails notifies the customer when a payment is processed.
- Set the interval, the start date and the end: None, By a date, or After a number of times.
- Select the payment method (a credit card type or check) and enter the details.
- Add the product or service and amount, then select Save template.
For cards, the article says Visa and Mastercard require a written authorization form from the customer. A link to download the form appears when you enter the card details. The customer fills it out, signs it and returns it before the first recurring charge, and Intuit advises keeping the signed form for 18 months after the final charge.
For bank payments, which the page calls E-check, you select the authorization link to send the Bank Transfer Authorization form to the customer, and check the box so the payment processes each time a receipt is created.
One timing detail: if you enter a number in the days in advance field, the charge processes on the date the transaction is created, not on the receipt date. Intuit's recurring credit card payment FAQs (updated August 5, 2026) add that recurring charges run once a day, a little after midnight Pacific time, so the earliest start is the day after set-up.
Those forms sit on top of general rules. In the United States, Regulation E says preauthorized transfers from a consumer's account may be authorized only by a writing signed or similarly authenticated by the consumer, who must be given a copy. Nacha's note on compliant ACH authorizations (November 2025) says the authorization gives the customer information on how to revoke it, and that the Nacha Rules don't prescribe a specific format. Visa's policy for subscription merchants, a June 2019 notice for its regions outside Europe, requires the cardholder's express consent at enrollment. The guide to setting up recurring payments covers these rules and those of other countries.
The Recurring Payments feature
Intuit's Recurring Payments overview (updated August 5, 2026) is labeled "Limited availability", so your account may not show it. It needs a QuickBooks Online subscription and an active merchant account. The page says there is no separate cost to set one up and that QuickBooks Payments rates apply to each payment.
You go to Sales (the page's video says Create), select Recurring Payment and create one: choose the customer and items, start immediately or on a future date, pick a frequency (daily, weekly, monthly or annually) and an end (never, or by a date), then Review and Send. The customer gets an email, enters payment details and selects Agree and pay.
Consent has a deadline. For an immediate start the customer has 30 days. For a future start they must agree by the start date. QuickBooks sends reminders 7, 3 and 1 day before the request expires. Accepted methods are credit card, Apple Pay and Google Pay on mobile devices, and ACH.
An existing recurring invoice can be converted. Intuit's conversion article (updated August 5, 2026) says that if the customer agrees, QuickBooks pauses the recurring invoice and the recurring payment takes over. If they don't agree in time, the invoice stays active.
What QuickBooks recurring payments cost, with a dated example
The QuickBooks Payments rates page on Intuit's US site says its rates are accurate as of September 18, 2026 and apply per transaction (checked October 2026).
| Row on Intuit's rates page | What the page says it covers | Rate | On a $480 payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACH bank payments | Invoices or quick requests paid by a transfer from the customer's bank account | 1% | $4.80 |
| Cards and digital wallets | Invoices, recurring payments or quick requests paid using Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Apple Pay, PayPal or Venmo | 2.99% | $14.35 |
| Keyed-in cards | Payments processed by manually entering a customer's card information | 3.5% | $16.80 |
The last column is this article's arithmetic: $480 × 1% = $4.80, $480 × 2.99% = $14.352, rounded to $14.35, and $480 × 3.5% = $16.80. That leaves $465.65 of a $480.00 invoice paid by card and $475.20 of one paid from a bank account. The rates page doesn't say which row applies to a card you type into a recurring sales receipt, and the Autopay article doesn't list the payment methods Autopay accepts, so ask Intuit before budgeting. The guide to payment processing fees explains what sits inside rates like these.
Here is a made-up Autopay set-up to show the dates.
Template: Scheduled invoice, monthly on day 1
Customer: Lakeside Property Management (example)
Amount: $480.00 (under the $5,000 Autopay limit)
Terms: Net 15
Start date: March 1, 2027 End: None
Customer action: enrolls in Autopay from the March invoice and pays it
| Invoice date | Due date (net 15) | Autopay runs | Amount | Card fee at 2.99% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 1, 2027 | March 16, 2027 | At enrollment | $480.00 | $14.35 |
| April 1, 2027 | April 16, 2027 | April 13, 2027 | $480.00 | $14.35 |
| May 1, 2027 | May 16, 2027 | May 13, 2027 | $480.00 | $14.35 |
Each later payment runs 3 days before the due date: April 16 minus 3 days is April 13. The fee column assumes the customer pays with a card the 2.99% row covers. Over the three payments the business bills 3 × $480.00 = $1,440.00, pays 3 × $14.35 = $43.05 in fees and keeps $1,396.95.
One Autopay cycle: the charge runs 3 days before the due date.
What to do when a recurring payment fails
Each method reacts differently, so the first step is knowing which one the customer is on.
| Method | What Intuit says happens | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Autopay | The customer is emailed when a payment is declined | Once payment information is updated, the payment is taken immediately |
| Recurring sales receipt | QuickBooks skips templates with an expired card when it prepares recurring transactions | You update the card as soon as you have the new details |
| Recurring Payments | The invoice is created but not marked paid, and both sides are emailed | The customer updates the method. If they don't by the next charge date, the plan is canceled automatically |
The sales receipt row comes from Intuit's page on fixing failed recurring transactions (updated August 5, 2026), which also tells you to check for cards that are expiring soon.
Card network and bank rules limit how often a declined charge may be retried, whatever software sends it. The guide to handling a failed payment covers those rules, with a 30-day schedule.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put a customer on Autopay myself?
Not on a recurring invoice. Intuit's Autopay article has the customer enroll from the invoice email with their own Intuit account. The method where you enter the payment details is the recurring sales receipt, and Intuit says that one needs a paper agreement from the customer that you request and store.
Is there a limit on QuickBooks recurring payments?
Intuit states one for Autopay: invoices that total $5,000 and below (article updated August 3, 2026). The pages opened for this guide state no amount limit for recurring sales receipts or the Recurring Payments feature. Your merchant account may have its own processing limits.
How does a customer cancel?
On Autopay, through Manage payment in the confirmation email, then Cancel autopay. On a Recurring Payments plan, Intuit says the customer can cancel on their end and you can cancel an active one with View/Edit, then Cancel. The pages opened for this guide describe no customer-side control for a recurring sales receipt, so the customer asks you and you stop the template.
How long should I keep a recurring payment authorization?
Intuit's sales receipt article advises 18 months after the final charge for the signed card form. Legal retention periods depend on the payment method and the country, so confirm yours with a lawyer or accountant.
